Gasoline & Greenery
“The distance equals 2*R*arcsin(sqrt((sin (ΔLatitude/2))2+((cos(Lat1)cos(Lat2)(sin (ΔLongitude/2))2))), where R is the radius of the Earth. Using this formula, the distance between each weed and its closest gas station were found.
Project by Abner Kahan, Michelle Slezinger, Albert Saad, Dodie Weinberg.
Using iNaturalist data, group members created maps of all the gas stations and the observed members of the most common weed families in Brooklyn. The distance between each weed and the closest gas station was calculated. The results of these calculations were graphed to create different distance distributions for each weed species. Aside from these graphs being compared for their differences, one can observe that there does not seem to be a clear relationship between distance from a gas station and plant frequency, at distances over 0.1km. However, there is an absence of weeds within 0.1km of gas stations signaling possible leakage from underground storage tanks.
