GIS Cartography Lab (GIS4043L)

This week's GIS lab focused on cartography.  While working in ArcMap refining skills already learned, three maps of Mexico were created focusing on population by states, transportation in Central Mexico, and topography of the country.  Additional experience with ArcCatalog was gained during this lab, so I am starting to feel more comfortable with the different ways to navigate to information for maps or for metadata.  Raster pyramids were introduced in preparation for generating the topography map, and creating subsets of data were explored using SQL queries.  I learned by error to keep my layers informed of any changes to filepaths.  It's no fun seeing that angry red exclamation point when a file is opened!  I spent a lot of time checking out other maps to help me decide appropriate color schemes that would clearly depict what I was trying to communicate with each map.  Through experimenting by adventurously clicking on buttons to see what would result (something I was formerly loathe to do), I have stumbled across many things such as masking, shadowing, etc. that I like to include in my maps for clarification purposes or aesthetics.  At times this has caused some disastrous results, so I save my work as soon as I get to the next satisfactory result in my progress.

Annotations and dynamic text are things that I need to work with more before I really have them down.  Adjusting information within a legend was a bit troublesome to me while trying to line up columns or adjust spacing and so on.  With additional labs I anticipate that this will become secondhand.  For each map I chose a title that would clearly identify my contract (populations, transportation, and topography of Mexico) with the end user.  Throughout the lab I sometimes stayed with recommendations of color, placement, etc., while other times I felt justified in straying from the path.  One example is the roads on the transportation map.  Resources recommend red for identifying roads, but the red seemed too overwhelming on the map even when I reduced the line width.  However, I was able to mute the red a bit in the color palette which had better results in my opinion.   Having an idea early on of what my map should look like, but not yet having the skills to execute it was a bit frustrating.  I know that it will come with time!  With each lab I feel more and more confident about the skills I am learning and the product which results from the hard work.  I found this lab to be especially enjoyable.

Map 1 depicts Mexico’s states, ranking them by population.

Map 2 depicts primary transportation routes (rail, highways, rivers)

 in central Mexico.

Map 3 depicts Mexico’s topography.

Introduction to Adobe Illustrator

This lab provided an introduction to Adobe Illustrator which can be used to enhance maps exported from ArcMap.  The tools were easy to use with seemingly endless creative possibilities.   Especially helpful while experimenting with AI was toggling visibility to find objects on the artboard and to confirm groupings in the Layers Panel.  Stressed during this lab was learning where and how to place the scale bar objects in the Layers Panel so that the scale bar would be linked to the geographical data.  This ensures proper adjustment with any size changes in the map, so that the scale bar will always correspond accurately to map distances. The map of Florida Cities shown here is the end result of working through this lab.

Florida Cities map created with ArcMap and Adobe Illustrator.

Own Your Map Lab

The purpose of the Own Your Map Lab was not only to practice finding and utilizing various tools in ArcGIS, but also to begin developing a personal map-making style. Aesthetics in presentation are as important as demonstrating proficiency with cartographic skills.

This lab was a bit time-consuming, much of it due to a significant amount of experimenting. The majority of my cartographic experience has been with manual drafting, but now my drafting board has been relegated to the role of laptop desk for those days when I want to be working while comfortably seated on the sofa.  It works.

Own Your Map ~ Final Product

Because this map may be viewed by someone unfamiliar with UWF, I decided to spell out the university's name in the title.  By doing this, there will be no doubt that "UWF" means the University of West Florida rather than, say, University of Warm Fuzzies or University of What Fun!  I stayed with a color scheme which matches UWF's official colors and opted to minimize the use of colors which might cause issues for people with color-blindness.  A color-blindness resource I found helpful was http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/colorblindness2.htm.

An issue I had was trying to balance the spaces on the map.  While this is easily done when drafting manually, I had a harder time with the data frame of Escambia County.  This was due to the nature of Santa Rosa Island extending so far past the boundary of the main part of the county.  I am hopeful that with more experience I will find ways to compensate for similar situations.  This was an excellent lab for trying out a variety of tools and techniques.

Map Critique

Two maps which I have used in the past for non-class purposes were selected for critique.

(Map source:  http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/maps/greenswamp-east_tract.pdf)

The above map was selected as a well-designed map for several reasons.  Following Edward Tufte’s Map Design Principles, the map is a “well-designed presentation of interesting data” whose ideas are “communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency” giving “the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space”.  This particular map includes quite a bit of information of value to hikers, hunters, bicyclists, and fishermen.  The use of different colors and line styles for trails, boundaries, and roads make the map easy to read.  Points of interest are clearly designated with distinct symbols.  The locator map puts the smaller map in perspective.  The north arrow and scale bar do not dominate the map but are easy to find and use.  The title of the map clearly identifies the map’s coverage.  This map meets Tufte’s Principles 1, 2, and 3 as well as Principle 7 (“clear, detailed, and thorough labeling”).  As a recreational user of the Green Swamp East tract, I personally found this map very useful because of the incorporation of these principles.

(Map source: http://web2.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/eskers.html)

This map of esker locations in Michigan has been included as an example of a poorly-designed map.  Its strong point is that it is very simple to read (the eskers clearly stand out), but this poorly-designed map neither has enough information nor communicates with clarity or precision.  There is no north arrow, no scale bar to reference distances, nor any county names to help the user determine specific locations of the eskers without referring to another source.  The addition of these items along with major highways and interstates would help the user determine the location of an esker more easily.  The map is entitled “Eskers in Michigan” and there is only one symbol used (denoting the eskers), but a legend still should have been included.  Edward Tufte’s Commandment 1 (Map Substantial Information ~ Principles 1, 2 and 3 specifically) and Commandment 3 (Effectively Label Maps ~ Principle 7 and 8) were not met.

ArcGIS Overview Map

Being unfamiliar with using ArcGIS, the hardest part for me was getting oriented.  Once I was able to access the tutorials (for some reason opening them in eDesktopGIS wasn’t working, but I could get complete video and audio by opening them in Chrome on my personal desktop), I felt much more comfortable cruising around the software. Making changes and adding information seemed straightforward in most cases, although using HELP will continue to be a frequent action on my part.  I experimented with several color ramps before settling on one that I thought really highlighted the differences in country populations.  Making the background color change per lab instructions created an issue with contrast, so I changed the color ramp yet again before settling on the final product.

The North Arrow was placed directly above the Scale Bar which is a preference I have developed while producing and referencing maps and survey plats.  This placement makes the information which is used jointly readily available.  I also tried to place map elements on the drawing so that they would be logically located and yet balance with the open spaces for visual aesthetics in addition to maximum information.  I’m looking forward to our next assignment!

Nervous anticipation is the emotion of the day. My journey into cartography started years ago  (post-Columbus, pre-AutoCAD), back in the days of drawing topo maps by hand. The prospect of collaborating with others, drawing on all of our strengths, experiences, creativity, and interests is very exciting.  I am looking forward to learning how to create contemporary maps which integrate so much data in an interactive format through this GIS certification program.