GIS3015 Final Project: 2013 ACT® Average Composite Scores and Percent of Graduates Tested

The final project of GIS3015 involved creating a map of 2013 ACT® average composite scores and percents of graduates tested, using data from ACT's website. Project guidelines required that the map be completed as if by an employee of the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics for the Washington Post's use in an article on high school seniors and college entrance scores. Completing the map required utilizing knowledge, skills, and resources accumulated throughout the semester. Some of these skills were separating out data to create different data frames, changing projections of data frames, selecting classification methods, adding data to an Excel spreadsheet to convert to a .csv file, using Joins and Relates to add data to a layer's attribute table, and using proportional symbols.

2013 ACT® Average Composite Scores and Percent of Graduates Tested

Most of the map was completed in ArcMap with adjustments and finishing touches done in Adobe Illustrator. Having two sets of testing data on one map helps potential relationships in the data stand out. Both of these particular sets of data showed regional patterns when viewed on a choropleth map with proportional symbols. The final project was a realistic representation of what to expect in the working world of GIS.

GIS3015 Module 12 Lab: Google Earth

Utilizing Google Earth's mapping capabilities was the focus of this lab exercise. Users of Google Earth can take advantage of the vast amount of information available online or from other users to combine with their own layers. Maps created in Google Earth can be saved and shared with others easily. For this module a Florida counties shape file and a dot density map of south Florida county populations were converted to KMZ files, and then the files were opened in Google Earth. Adjustments were made to the transparency and altitude of the layers to ensure visibility of necessary information after which a Google Earth map was saved in KMZ format. From that point a tour of south Florida was created using placemarks for major cities. The ease of zooming and panning in GE to view areas in 3D was fascinating, even though it did indicate that a new mouse is in order for some of the finer movements. The ability to record a tour was new to me and resulted in a lot of experimenting. A lesson learned by repetition during this module was that only the layer currently selected in Google Earth is saved to My Places. Included below is one view of downtown Miami. If you look closely, you might see Don Johnson in the speedboat.

Screenshot of Downtown Miami in Google Earth

GIS4043 Week 13: Georeferencing, Editing & ArcScene

Georeferencing, editing and ArcScene were the areas of emphasis while creating two maps of University of West Florida campus. The location of a bald eagle nest on the eastern side of the campus was included in one map. For the first map, aerial photos were brought into a spatial relationship with known points through the use of carefully selected control points. After associating ten points (unknown raster image locations) with the corresponding known building points, the Links Table was reviewed for the total RMS Error. Control points were deleted and additional ones were linked as needed to meet RMS Error criteria along with attaining an accurate appearance. The RMS Error and transformation were recorded before updating the georeferencing which resulted in the image coordinates being converted to real world coordinates. (The recording of the information happened on the second go-around for me, since I forgot to do it the first time.) The new gym and Campus Lane were digitized and added to the pertinent attribute tables through the use of Editor. The important aspect of editing (which I learned in a less convenient way in an earlier lab in which I had experimented with Editor) is that edits must be saved or they will be lost when ArcMap is closed. 

University of West Florida Campus Buildings, Roads

 and Bald Eagle Nest: Georeferencing Aerial Images

and Editing Procedures

A bald eagle nest near the trails on the east side of the campus was included in the map along with two buffer zones, the larger of which is a 660 foot radius. Given that Florida Fish and Wildlife Commisssion acknowledges that their coordinates are accurate to 0.10 mile (528 feet), the buffer zones seem a bit on the low side in my opinion. A hyperlink to a photograph of the nest was included in the map as well.

The ArcScene portion of the lab provided an opportunity to experiment with three-dimensional display of data. After draping the roads, buildings, and image layers over a DEM layer, the buildings were extruded and their heights exaggerated. Playing around with ArcScene was nauseatingly fun. Eventually an image was exported and then used in ArcMap to create a second map of UWF campus. Everything seemed rather straightforward and fun to use for this lab, but an issue that consumed quite a bit of time to resolve was eventually determined to be a relatively easy fix. The exported image resulted in a very pixellated ArcMap document. After a lot of re-checking and re-doing of maps, it was found that the image quality setting had been reduced. Once that was fixed, the image and map were much better. This was also an opportunity to try ArcGIS for Desktop a second time. In an earlier lab there were too many issues to make it worthwhile, but this lab was easy to complete and much more quickly done on personal desktop rather than in eDesktop.

3D View of University of West Florida Campus

The georeferencing and digitizing were especially fun to do, and more is anticipated. As a side note, some of my young charges and I were able to witness one of the resident ospreys shooing a juvenile bald eagle away from the osprey nest on our own school's campus today. The size difference between the birds was impressive!

GIS4043 Week 12: Geocoding, Network Analysis and Model Builder

Week 12 incorporated geocoding, network analysis and ModelBuilder. Geocoding was used to associate street addresses of emergency management service sites with geographic locations. The process involved importing a feature class and table into the provided geodatabase and then setting up an address locator.  The address locator was used to automatically match the addresses to geographic locations. Any resulting unmatched addresses were manually matched utilizing likely candidates returned by the address locator, reference maps such as GoogleMaps with street view and other sources including the Lake County EMS website. The latter was used to verify the correct EMS station addresses in the data. Some sites were especially difficult to match even after consulting several resources, so the "real" answers and how they were determined would be welcome information. Field inspection of such sites would probably be a good idea as well. After the address matching, the attribute table was edited to include missing city names.

EMS Stations and Sample Optimal Route
Lake County, Florida

Building on the information obtained from the geocoding process, a network analysis was performed to determine the optimal route between three points.  A map incorporating two data frames containing the above information was created.

The final part of the lab was an exercise to introduce the ModelBuilder for the purpose of creating and managing models. The use of models enables analysts to put together strings of geoprocessing tools such as selecting, buffering, intersecting, and dissolving, to apply to data in one workflow resulting in one final output. Obviously the success of the model is dependent on the successful completion of each tool in order.

Although this was a lot of information to assimilate in one lab exercise, the practical application and value of each section is readily apparent.

GIS3015 Module 11 Lab: Dot Density Mapping

Module 11 introduced the practice of dot density mapping with ArcMap. During this lab exercise Conversion Tools as well as Join and Relates were utilized to join information between files. Methods for adjusting dot size and dot placement were practiced which enabled a more realistic placement of dots to represent actual concentrations of populations. The exercise was also an opportunity to experience ArcMap at its most finicky level yet. Resuming the use of masking after finishing the map layout created numerous obstacles to a timely completion of this map. 

Population Density of South Florida (2000)