GIS4043 Lab 3; Cartography

The first map I created shows Mexico’s population per state. To make this map we created a new layer by singling out the Mexican States. The color scale I have chosen is a graduated scale of yellows browns and oranges which I think depict the population classes effectively. 

The second map is a Map of Mexico which focuses on its large cities, cities with over one million people, and the major transportation features around them. I enjoyed learning how to select only certain classes of features to be displayed on the map. I must have missed an essential step early on because this map gave me quite a bit of trouble.  

The last map for lab 3 depicts the topography of Mexico in meters. This map gave us our first opportunity to work with raster data in GIS4043. We were able to see how different the properties are.  

GIS 3015 Lab 2

This is a scatterplot graph of the population growth of 4 U.S. states. I created it by highlighting the selected states; California, Florida, New York, and Texas, along with the year row. Then, I selected the scatterplot chart. To add the trendline I simply right clicked on one point for each of the states and clicked again on “Format trendline”. I chose the linear trendline because I believe it best represents the trend of the state’s population growth. I really enjoyed this lab and found it to be a very helpful refresher to Excel.  

GIS4043 Lab 2 "Own Your Map"

In this lab we worked on the basics of map making. We created our own maps of UWF’s Campus Location within Escambia County. We implemented the key elements that a “good” map should have. This includes title, scale, legend, north arrow, border, data, data source, and a cartographers’ name. I felt a lot better navigating around ARCGIS this week, which is promising. I did get confused once I hit step 10, but that was more of a lack of understanding the instructions on my part.

GIS 3015 Lab 1

The example I am using for the “well-designed map” is one I selected off of the National Geographic website. Like the majority of their visual media, I find this map visual stimulating. But more than that, I believe it qualifies for Edward Tufte’s definition of “Graphical Excellence”. The map I have chosen is multivariate, it presents interesting data that is communicated efficiently, and isn’t filled with “chartjunk.” The color palate chosen is striking yet not overwhelming and the text and county borders are subtitle yet clear and legible.  It is lacking a title which I am assuming wasn’t the case in print from. I have noticed that many of the maps don’t keep the same format when transferred to their website and titles are lost.   

Here is the link 
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/map-interactive

 It is an interactive map with correlation between income and birthrate, C02 emissions, literacy rate, fertility rate..... Pretty interesting. 

Do you see pink in the key? One can only assume that the pink states should be the “one Democrat, one Republican” purple states that the key suggests. I guess that the map designer skipped the Tufteisms number 17 “ revise and edit.”  Besides that very large mistake, it isn’t a very interesting map, but ‘tis the nature of the political map.