Week 10 - Using Raw Data

In this case we were tasked to work with raw data and tables to analyze property for a fictional developper.

It involved bringing in data and joining to our attribute table as a way of analysizing outside data within GIS. Then the four largest landowners in Gulf County, Florida needed to be located and symbolized. This was accomplished with data from the Florida Department of Revenue.

Here is where it got interesting to me.  In order to join tables with a shapefile - there needed to be a common field. The field names did need to be identical but they do need to hold the same data. After that it was quite straight forward.  It is a lab like this that reminds me how much I have learned this semester.

Bonus Exercise - Escambia County Black Population

           Before                and                    After

I chose Percentile map from week 3 because I wanted make a better map product. I also wanted to see how and if a different presentation would change the intended message. Remember that the data is exactly the same as before.

I had some friends over tonight and asked their impression of the two maps. half preferred the Proportional Dot map and half leaned toward the Equal Interval map. This was a fun exercise and sparked a lot of discussion about map content.

My very informal poll of my house guests tonight suggested that the primary improvement seemed to be map type followed my map design. And I agree. One person thought thought that the positioning of the graduated symbol in the center of the county districts could mislead someone to think that is the exact location of the black population.

The following was done to the map:
1: Switched from equal interval to Graduated Symbols
2: Switched from categories to dot symbols. Circles were chosen since literature indicated that people like that shape over all others
3: Changed the entire color scheme
4: Added Source
5: Added Map compiler information.
6: Expanded the neat line to create more useable area
7: Expanded a secondary title to better reflect the map message
8: Changed font schemes to better reflect the map message
9: Repositioned the Scale information and North Arrow
10: changed the title of in the table from "p_black" to "Percent Black Population"


This lab required us to do the following
1. Choose one of the laboratory maps that was created/altered this semester (or at least
was created using an Arc shapefile).
2. Visit the following website ESRI Mapping Center.

3. See the Map library that contains various cartographic effects that can be used in Arc.

4. Download and use as many effects necessary to help display the information effectively.
5. Post your final map to your personal blog.

Week 9 - Vector Analysis Lab II

I liked this lab.  I made me think about the logic of what was happening.  I also liked that there was more than one way to get to the same result

Quiz Questions

Q1: Which tool did you use? Was there any noticeable difference between its results and the results from the instructions?

A1. I used the intersect tool to join the "road" and "water" buffers and it yielded identical results as with the union tool.

Q2: Which tool did you use here? Why?
A1. I used the erase tool to remove the campsites that intersected the conservation areas. It excludes areas in the erase feature, that overlap the Water_Roads_Union layer.
Q3: How many features are in this layer? What is the area of the largest feature? What is the area of the smallest feature?
A3. I had 79 potential campsites. The largest was 7,765,034 square meters and the smallest was 748 square meters.

Lab 7 - Data Editing in ArcGIS

Topics covered: Editing feature classes and shapefiles, digitizing features, snapping & topology

Additional References: ArcGIS Help

Data Source: Download from ESRI & R: drive Week7.zip

Deliverables: 1 map (jpeg) 1 Exam