GIS and Python

I recently received a copy of Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python by Joel Lawhead. I had wondered if the book was for me since the book is intended for people with strong Python skills who would like to understand digital mapping. I have a Masters in GIS and a number of years experience as a GIS Analyst and have a decent grasp of Python.

This book ended up being very useful for me as I try to get away from only being able to use esri's products for all my GIS needs. Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python did cover a lot of basics about GIS but there is also a lot of good information on how to manipulate and analyze spatial data, mostly using pure Python but also only a very few additional libraries.

I now have confidence in moving towards using more open source software for my GIS analysis knowing that it's fairly easy to fall back to pure Python to fill in any automation or analysis gaps. The examples in the book have also given me an idea on how to fix elevation data and add weather data to my GPS tracks with a simple script.

Don Iveson's results

I finally got around to making my map of Don Iveson's results in the 2013 Edmonton mayoral election. I was a bit surprised that he won every single polling station across the city. In his worst polling station, he still captured nearly 47% of the vote. His main contenders, Karen Leibovici and Kerry Diotte, MAXED OUT at 37% and 38% respectively.

While there are definite patterns in Iveson's results, I'm not sure if there's a relation to his policies. One of his worst areas was Kerry Diotte's old riding. While this might seem like Kerry Diotte was liked in his old riding, he still lost all those polling stations to Don Iveson. As I said about Andrew Knack's results, the polling stations are too big to notice if there was more support for Don Iveson close to proposed LRT lines. He did have strong support downtown and across the river around the university. Perhaps this shows support for his rezoning policies to create mixed-use, walkable communities through in-fill housing and densification.

In the end, I was very happy to see Don Iveson easily win the election. I agree with many of his policies and hope he will be able to carry out his vision for Edmonton. Plus, it was a lot better than Kerry Diotte sending us back to the 60s.

Ward One

The second race I was interested in was the one for my own Counsellor. I had met Andrew Knack through my community league and knew how badly he wanted the seat on counsel. A race against the incumbent would have been very interesting but was not to be when Linda Sloan decided to retire. Only one other candidate had declared before Sloan dropped out but four more would announce their intentions before nomination day. Since Knack started early in his quest to dethrone Sloan, all predictions were that he had too much of a head start. He certainly had his picture up on bus benches, billboards, and lawn signs well ahead of anyone else.

Fortunately for him, Knack swept to power with nearly 45% of the vote and more votes than the next two challengers combined. Knack captured over 60% of the vote in Meadowlark, where he is (was?) community league president, and in Lewis Estates. He only lost one polling station, the mostly industrial area in the northwest part of his ward. In my conversations with Knack, I found him to be a big supporter of the proposed Southeast to West LRT line. With the ward broken into just 17 polling stations, the results are too course to tell if there's any relation between Knack's support and the proposed LRT route. I don't know what explains his popularity in Lewis Estates but that would be the location of the LRT terminus.

Ward D

Last week, municipal elections took place across Alberta. I was involved in one campaign and was very interested in two others. Late last week, the official results were released so, of course, I had to map the results to see how my three candidates did. In this post, I'll look at the race in which I was involved: the race for EPSB councillor for Ward D.

When I say I was involved in this campaign, I should say I only provided some suggestions for where to campaign. I don't actually live in Ward D and I was dealing with the declining health of my dad so didn't have time to actually be out on the campaign trail. I also prefer being hidden away running numbers than actually dealing with people.

This campaign was interesting in that my candidate initially saw herself as the progressive choice and wanted to target voters likely to vote NDP. Then, her competition was announced and it was the former leader of the Alberta NDP. Still, I made recommendations of where to campaign based on voter turnout and the number of possible votes in an area. I also had suggestions about where to remind people that the competition was a former NDP leader. On election night, the results were disappointing.

Officially, my candidate captured 39% of the vote. The map above shows that my candidate lost in every polling station except two and one of those was one vote to none. I had been hopeful of a win since my candidate says she had the large majority of signs on private property and her competition just seemed to be resting on his laurels. It appears my suggestions about where to canvass didn't have much impact as my candidate lost the polling stations around her home where she's active in her children's schools and in the community. I'm not sure where the competition lives but, if you cannot win your own neighbourhood, there doesn't seem to be much hope. I had hoped there would be a competition for signs on private property and I could analyze those data to update my suggestions on where to canvass but with the two candidates running different strategies about placing signs on private property, the analysis seemed useless.

I am only consoled but the turnout results from the mayoral race which I use as an approximation to the turnout for this race. It's difficult to compare the municipal, provincial, and federal election results due to the different boundaries but the turnout is roughly the same for the latest election at all three levels. The consistent turnout means I gave my candidate some good advice about where to canvass. My advice about where to canvass based the federal NDP numbers and my candidate's previous run for an elected Senate nomination didn't seem to help as there doesn't appear to be any relationship between those results and the municipal election results.

My next post will look at the race for city councillor in my own Ward.

Big Bang Beginner Biathlon Blast

A friend in my cycling club organized a biathlon race today. He and another friend I ride with both race biathlon in the winter and smaller sports like to put on events like this to try and attract members. I know I did a few similar events when I used to speed skate. I've always wanted to try biathlon so, even though I hadn't been on my skate skis in a few years and my only experience shooting a gun was hunting juice boxes with a shotgun up north, I was keen to enter. Despite the cold and the mid-March blizzard, it was fun to give biathlon a try.

After some gun safety, a few practice shots, and an explanation of the rules of biathlon, I was in the second heat of 5 km races using the .22 rifles. The biathlon club has one very nice left-handed rifle which I got to use since I'm left-eyed. It was nice to always have the same rifle but it meant a little delay when another left-handed person was in the range when I arrived. Luckily for me, I beat the other racer the first two times but her better shooting put her in front of me on the third time through the range. I really started to fade before the last time through the range so she had left by the time I showed up.

Each lap was about 1 km but the punishment for each missed shot was a lap around the 100 m penalty loop. I thought I hit a lot more targets than I got credit for and I ended up extending my race by 13 penalty loops. My GPS actually recorded that I did 6.5 km for my 5 km race.

I should have asked one of my friends to try my skis today as I've always been convinced they are slow. Maybe the skis are slow or else I have poor skate-skiing or waxing technique. The course was also a little slow due to all the new snow but it was the same for everyone and I wasn't catching or passing anyone.

In the end, I had a lot of fun and I'd be willing to get out and do it again. I think I'll need to figure out how to be a better skier before I become an actual member of the club and race all winter though.

Going the distance

I logged quite a bit of distance on my GPS in 2012. I had good intentions of doing a lot more riding with my club but family commitments and general laziness limited those rides. I started off well with a group ride on 31 March but I didn't keep it going. I finished with just one group ride over 100 km but also had one of 96 km and 99.94 km. I wish I had had a lot more that long or longer. In 2013, I really want to do a few Grand Fondos with Rich.

Commuting was my main mode of riding this year. There was little snow early in 2012 so I was able to cover over 500 km in the first two months. That's not bad for a commute of just 8 km each way. I was able to stay ahead of last year's pace for commuting and even kept things going during the very snowy November and December. I don't care about the cold but it's the snow and ice and really slow me down.

I wonder how many extra km I could have had since I don't wait around to get satellites at the start of a commute and I turn my GPS off a certain distance from home. I roughly estimate I have around 400 commute files so I'm 40 km short for every 100 m I didn't record on each commute. My total commuting distance was 3045 km, up about 250 km from 2011. I only had 646 km of training on my bike, up 370 km from 2011. My racing distance was almost exactly the same: 98 km in 2012 and 97 km in 2011. There was a huge difference in how I did that distance as I did fewer cyclocross races this year but one was an endurance event. A normal cyclocross race is a little over 10 km for me but I did 37 km at the endurance event. I also did some recreational riding which means pulling my girls around in the bike trailer.

In the end, I recorded 3855 km on my GPS. I classified 3836 km as cycling, 10 km as cross country skiing, 8 km as hiking, and 1 km as skating. I spent over 177 hours riding my bike. I could match my 2012 cycling distance by jumping on my bike and going to San Diego.

My goals for 2013 are to do a little more of everything. 3000 km of commuting is pretty good but exceeding 1000 km of riding with my club should easily be doable. Grand Fondos average around 150 km so a few of those would help and they'd break my current single ride maximum of 130 km. I'm considering doing the 31 km Birkie if I get a lot more skiing in and, if I can make my speed skates more comfortable, I should be able to beat the single kilometre I did in 2012. I also hope to motivate my friends to do a backpacking trip or two so I could even have a better year hiking.

Puncheur Cross

The Puncheur Cross took place on Sunday and was my worst outing of the season so far. The course was a long one taking place in the mountain bike skills park in Devon. I liked the section on the river bank and the run up the stairs but it was not your typical cyclocross course. There were some short, steep, awkward climbs and quite a bit of bumpy, wood chip trails. I ended up crashing in the sand pit early on my first lap. My rear shifter got clogged with sand and I wasn't able to get out of my lowest gear. Racing on a course I didn't enjoy and stuck in my lowest gear meant I dropped out after just one lap.

I covered 2.6 km in 11:34 with an average speed of 13.5 km/h and a maximum of 24.6 km/h. My average heart rate was 147 bpm with a maximum of 158 bpm. I crashed before my heart rate had really ramped up and I coasted from there.

In even worse news, I lost my head-to-head season series to Rich, 2-0. I think I could have beaten him at this race, especially since he fell, was run over by the race leader and had his rear wheel knocked loose. That's definitely what I call getting lapped in dramatic fashion.