Data Collection

Data Sources:

 The primary data source of our project is the Dissemination Area (DA) taken from the DMTI that shows the high population density in labour force and average household income, the locations of other competitions and the landuse in Kelowna. These data are used to help make decisions about where to locate the new MEC store. The secondary data source will be the preference of those local customers. All primary and secondary data have three modes, which are temporal, thematic and spatial. In this project, each of these mode is identified.

2001 census Tract Data Documentation is a suitable source for data acquisition as it has some element of spatial referencing. It provides the distribution, size, structure and character of the people of Kelowna. Dissemination Area (DA) is useful for the analysis as I focus on one of the region in the Okangan. Basically, Enumeration Area (EA) is replaced by the DA, which is small, relatively stable, geographic unit, composed of one or more blocks for disseminating the census results in 2001 census data.  

In addition, a hard-copy map is the traditional method for storing, analyzing and presenting spatial data. Thus, the hard-copy map is the fundamental in GIS as a source of data sources. Maps for competitions in Kelowna are of fundamental importance in digitizing and locating the competitions in map.  

I had contacted Graeme, correspondence desk at MEC in the Vancouver that I wanted they could provide me information about the locations of new MEC store in British Columbia.  Unfortunately, they did not have any plan to open a new retail store in British Columbia. However, Peter Robinson, the CEO of MEC, announced that they will open a new store in Quebec City in 2004. Moreover, it is possible they may open another store in Canada next year as well but no decision has been made at this time.
 

 Metadata Information:

    Metadata is a supplementary text that are added to a map to provide information about the use of data and the mapping methods. It shows the data sources, types of data, projection system, reference system, copyright and other issues. In our data, the Geographic coordinate projection system is GCS North American 1983. The types of data are Vector digital data and tabular digital data. The purpose of the metadata information is to guide users to use the product appropriately.

Data Input:

    I download the data from DMTI, which has the pdf files for census, street maps, topographic maps, . Due to a consortium of universities across Canada entered into an agreement with DMTI, I can download it to my own server and clip it according to geographical areas for project-use only. I then put the data into the H. drive.