Natural Amenities

        On the first graph a symbol map was used to see Maryland’s county-level amenities. The variables used were County and Natural Amenity Scale. On the map every county was outlined by color so you visually could see the rankings of each county in the state based on its natural amenity score. The county was represented how each person in the state of Maryland lived differently based on their natural benefits or faults. This study works with data from the USDA’s Economic Research Serviceas they have created a natural amenities scale. The USDA believes that people are drawn to reside in a county that has desirable topography. Specifically the six characteristics that people are attracted to are high temperature winter, level of high sun in the winter, mild summer temperature, low summer humidity, topographic variation, and area of water. In our study Allegany county is the darkest shade of blue because it is the highest on the natural amenities scale in the state. Although it has cold winters it has mild summer temperatures and humidity with a score of 1.260, meaning it doesn’t have high amenities nationally but does have some desirable components. Caroline county is the darkest shade of green because it is the lowest on the natural amenities scale in the state. Although they have mild summer temperatures it has a score of -1.680 because of very low topography, percent water area, and summer humidity. 

        On the second graph a scatter plot map was used to see a relationship between the variable amenity score and the macroeconomic variable county household income. People who have a higher income tend to live in more desirable places, which typically have to do with natural amenity scores but that is not the case with our results. On the scatter plot Allegany county has an income of $42,564 and the median household income in Maryland is $72,784. On the tooltip it shows that Allegany scores a 3 in ruralness and 31,984 in labor force, which means it isn't super rural but is a small town. This county had the highest natural amenity score but had very low income. In Caroline county their median household income is $56,338, which is also below the median household income in Maryland. Their ruralness score is a 6 and their labor force is 18,028. Comparing these two counties with the rest of the data it seems that the natural amenity scale wasn’t a huge factor in the average household income but rather the score of ruralness. Every country above Maryland's median household income had a rural score of 1 or less besides St. Mary’s county. The Washington Post wrote the article “Every County in America, ranked by scenery and climate,” stating that natural amenity scores were a huge driver where people lived but also the level of ruralness. "The USDA found that rural areas with a lot of natural amenities saw the greatest population change between 1970 and 1996. The relationship is quite strong, counties with extremely low scores on the scale tended to lose population over the 1970-96 period, while counties with extremely high scores tended to double their populations over the period”(Ingraham). On our scatterplot it shows a lot of the rural counties had the higher natural amenity scores. Even Allegany county, with the highest natural amenity score only has a ruralness of 3. A lot of Maryland urban areas have very scenic areas all around for people such as ponds and parks. The natural amenity score is constant at 0 to show the median score across the US. Maryland is pretty nice compared nationally because a little more than half of their counties surpass the 0 mark. 

        On the third graph a hex map was used with the variables state and average natural amenity score. All of the states are the same size, shaped as a hexagon, and are aligned in the form of the US. The variable state was chosen so you could see the difference among each one across the country and compared Maryland to each one. The color blue represents a high natural amenity score while green is on the lower end. A lot of the outer parts of the country are more blue as they are located by the ocean. Maryland is more on the lighter tone of green but it is not a super desirable place to live compared to all the other states. In another article by the Washington Post, they discuss how important it is to people where they decide to live based on the amount of sunlight that state gets. California has the highest average natural amenity score, which is 6.279. Unfortunately, though the level of sunlight is decreasing as pollution and radiation continues to increase. In class we constantly discuss global warming and how temperatures are rising at dangerous rates. Yes this is bad but when people hear that the temperature is warmer than usual most don’t complain and typically associate the sun with high temperatures. They might not consider that the earth is warming just from all of the pollution and that the air quality will start to be so bad that it will block the sun. Sunlight is a huge factor in people's natural amenities choice and we need to make sure we preserve it and not just strive for people to keep relocating to get it.