In this tutorial, we discuss the need for mapping density and use a Spatial Join and attribute calculations to normalize raw data by county. This is useful if data are skewed by population, area or some other attribute that may yield misleading information about the data. In this example, we normalize more than 9,400 hail events by area at the county level. We also calculate cancer death rates by county. However, that leads to other issues that need to be addressed such as agegrading or ageadjusting. In this process, we weight raw death rates for age cohorts since we know that older people will have much higher death rates than other age cohorts. Buescher has a great primer on this for the state of North Carolina at: https://schs.dph.ncdhhs.gov/schs/pdf/...

These videos have been created in support of teaching and research in the field of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for the Department of Environmental, Earth and Geospatial Sciences at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Established in 1910, NCCU is located in Durham, North Carolina, and serves about 8,500 students. The mission of our department is to promote intellectual, professional, and personal excellence through the highest quality instruction, research, and service in the environmental, earth and geospatial sciences. Its vision is to be recognized as a regional, statewide, and national resource for students and society as well as professionals who work in the many fields that are encompassed by the environmental, earth, and geospatial sciences. Students in our programs currently focus their studies in the fields of seismology, natural hazards, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and Remote Sensing applications, environmental health & impacts and remediation technology among others. Our courses are designed to provide students with the analytical and methodological skills necessary to understand or derive explanations for individual occurrences, for recurring processes, and for invariable as well as statistical regularities in the earth’s lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The department prides itself in former students who fostered these skills and have gone onto successful careers in the field at places such as the North Carolina Department of Transportation, City of Durham, Environmental Protection Agency, Lowe’s Corporation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Forest Service, Army Corps of Engineers, real estate firms and private contractors or students who have gone onto Ph.D. programs at places such as North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.