Geography 2100: Principles of Cartography Course Work
Reflections for Selected Assignments
Map of Cellphone Subscriptions in Europe: 2006
This map is a Choropleth map displaying a ratio of cell phone subscription to population in Europe. This type of map could be used in Geology to display any number of things, but the first two ideas I had were regarding mapping water pollution or mineral ore density per area of land. This would help people analyzing a geologist's data to visualize areas that may need remediation or initial mining information for new or expanding mines. I'm sure companies that study water and mining companies have more comprehensive modeling they do, but this is a great way to easily and clearly show data to people that may be involved in decision making that may not be as familiar with more complicated models.
Map of 2005 Hurricanes
How do you change the background of your mapped area in the Data View.
Right click and select "Data Frame Properties" then click on the "Frame" tab. It's here you can change the background color of your mapped area while in Data View.
What tool do you use to convert a data table with latitude and longitude values to a shapefile?
I used "Display XY Data" from the "2005_hurricanes" table and made sure to set my Y-value to Lat and set the correct coordinate system.
Where can you refine your layer to display only records that meet criteria defined by you (for example, displaying only the cities of New York and Los Angeles)?
Right click on the layer you wish to display specific records for and select "Properties." Click on the "Definition Query" tab then click the "Query Builder" button. This window will help you build a definition in order for display criteria.
How can you manually change the upper limit of a class range?
Go to "Properties" of the data layer you wish to edit and go to the "Symbology" tab then click on the "Classify" button. In the "Break Values" box you can manually edit those values.
When creating classes, can you use labels in your layer’s legend that are different from the values that ArcMap automatically calculates? If so, how?
Yes, labels different than my layer's legend can be used. I simply click on the label I wish to edit (under Properties > Symbology) and type the new label I wish to use.
How do you insert a legend into your layout that displays only some of the map layers that are in the Table of Contents?
When you insert a legend (while in Layout view), you'll use the < or << arrows to remove any items from the "Legend Items" field that you wish to not have displayed. Conversely you can use the > or >> arrows to add items from the "Map Layers" field to the "Legend Items" field. The < or > buttons will move only the selected item(s) and << or >> will move all items in that field.
Map: US Cattle 2002
In this assignment I used 2002 USDA agricultural data provided to create a dot density map for number of cattle/calves in the contiguous United States. During the course of the assignment I compared the dot density of cattle at a state and at a county level. The county level dot density map proved more useful as I felt it more accurately represented where the cattle were located across the US. At the state level, the dots are placed randomly and may not accurately reflect WHERE in the state the cattle are located. However, at a county level, although the dots are still randomly placed, we're seeing the number reflected at a much smaller level. With the county level map I found that the density of cattle increased along the northwester and northern boarder of Texas and up northeast through the plains states, where at the state level it was more evenly spread out over each state.
Next I played around with my dot size and the number each dot would represent to get a good map. I found that dots 1 pt and larger made it appear the US is covered in cattle. So I had to chose something lower than 1 pt. I went with .75 for my size because it was big enough to be distinguishable, but small enough to not be deceiving. I then had to play around with the value of each dot. Given the data, it's clear there are a lot of cattle in the US and I wanted a number that would give my map good density coverage where applicable, but still be small enough to show individual dots in counties without many cattle. I settled on 5000 for my numerical representation of each dot. I feel my decision looks good and gives a fairly accurate representation of cattle without cluttering the map too much. Finally I decided to make my dots a brown color since many cows are brown, I felt it was one more type of symbology that made my map more clear to the reader.
I played around at the end with my scale to display the US large enough that it's easy to distinguish the states, counties, and dots, but not so large it left no room for other map elements. Overall, I feel I created a good map that is accurate in its representation of my subject.
Final Project: Heavy Metal Concentrations in Huntington Canyon, UT
For this project I wanted to take the first map I ever created for a research project and improve it. I had struggled making my first map look as good as I had wanted it to, so I attempted to improve upon it with this assignment. My goal was to create a hill shade / elevation base map similar to a previous assignment this semester. I liked the clean look of the two combined maps and how they clearly denoted change in terrain without the contour lines found in topographic maps and base maps. I then wanted to use pie charts for my data collection points so I could denote more heavy metals than I had been able to previously. Finally, I wanted to add some geology data like drawn rock layers. This last part I was unable to figure out and in trying different things I found it cluttered my map too much. I decided to scratch the geologic formation information and stick with my main idea of creating a cleaner looking map with more useful information than I had previously had with this data.
For the majority of this project the mapping was straight forward. I utilized Utah AGRC for all of my layers for my map except my personal data points. I began by combining my elevation and hill shade maps to get the look I wanted and added a streams and lakes hydrography dataset, then road data for the area. I then used an ESRI terrain basemap to create a new polygon layer for important features on the power plant property such as dry coal ash landfills, coal ash ponds, coal piles, and other important aspects of the plant.
Creating this new polygon layer was where I hit my first hiccup. I thought I could just use the drawing tool and draw those features. I didn’t even attempt to create a layer out of it. I got nearly all of the features drawn when I decided to verify with the tutor that I was doing it correctly. I wasn’t. He reminded of how to create a new feature class or shapefile. I then had to redraw all of the features in the correct tool. I could have still just drawn and manually labeled the features on the plant property, but that would have added more clutter to the map. By creating a new layer I was able to create different symbology for each feature that could be added to a legend instead of labeled on the map.
Remembering how to create a new layer came in handy as I was putting the finishing touches on the map. I decided I should try to find the plant property boundary online. I had tried previously to find any maps or data showing the boundary lines, but I decided to try one more time. I found a document that had a map of the boundary of the plant property. I then went to Utah AGRC and dug around in their boundary data and found this property boundary (as well as many others in the canyon). Because the private property in the dataset does not have ownership information I had to create another layer with just the property boundary using the Utah AGRC data and the map from Pacificorp that I found. This allowed me add more useful information to the map without adding too much clutter.
As I was nearing the completion of my map I noticed that some information I had put into my poster and a table I had included had information that I had removed from my samples layer. I decided to create a new Excel spreadsheet from my original data to make sure all the heavy metals I cared about were represented and I figured I’d quickly create a new layer from that spreadsheet as that would be quicker than editing out all the data I didn’t need from the original dataset within ArcMap. Once I had my spreadsheet edited down to the info needed I saved it and then tried, unsuccessfully to import the data and create a new feature class from it. After a number of attempts and making sure the Excel document was formatted correctly, I turned to the internet. It turns out I hadn’t saved the spreadsheet as a CVS or other accepted file. I saved the data as a CVS file and was then able to create, quite quickly a feature class. This new layer had a bit more information that I felt could be relevant to someone using the data and map.
The last step in creating my map was adding all relevant labels. This part took the longest because I didn’t set my extent first and create the labels to match the extent. This wasn’t a big deal for road and water labels. This became a problem when I labeled my individual data points and needed to move positioning around manually. I zoomed in, moved the points to prevent clutter, went to my layout and found that at my layout extent my labels were too close together and right on top of some points. I fixed the labeling, and realized I had more room of my map layout page to make my map itself larger, which changed the extent. I didn’t notice the label position because I was zoomed to the whole page. I added my writing and map elements and saved my map. When I reviewed the PDF of my project my labels were inches away from their respective points, and some were so far off their points they weren’t on the map at all. I had to go fix the labels again. This time I bookmarked the extent I was using, corrected the labels, then double checked that everything was correct before finishing.
Overall, I’m much more comfortable using ArcMap and ArcCatalog than I have been the past two years. When I make an error now I typically know where I went wrong or how to search for the answer using appropriate key words to find the right answer. I feel my mistakes caused me to take much longer on this project than I should have. Hopefully I learned from my mistakes so any of my future projects requiring ArcGIS will be more efficient and even better.
