Week 7/8 - GIS Data Search

This lab represents our mid-term exam! For this particular project we were each assigned a specific Florida county to map in order to highlight our map creating skills learned thus far. From internet sources we were to gather data for nine required layers:

•  5 vector files (county boundary, cities, public lands, roads, and surface water)
•  2 'environmental' files (choice of either invasive plants, Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas, land cover, or wetlands)
• 2 raster datasets (just one DOQQ, and a DEM file showing our entire county).

From this data we had the option to create up to three maps, as long as the data was displayed appropriately... and all of the data needed to be in the same coordinate system (our choice of UTM or Albers). I settled on two maps, shown below.

Overview of Okeechobee County, Florida.

Conservation efforts in Okeechobee County, Florida.

The process

For me, deciding how to depict the data was the hardest part. I needed a story to put these maps together, so I created one: the maps represent areas of environmental concern in Okeechobee County, particularly around the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. To keep the flow going between the two maps I used the same types of symbolization for layers that appear on both.

The first map is an overview of Okeechobee County - basically what the county looks like, where the cities and towns are, the major roads, the surface water, where the state park is, and where the county is within the state of Florida. The second map is more of a detailed environmental map, showing the overall location of Strategic Habitat areas, and where the invasive plants are in relation to the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park.

Both maps contain clipped vector data, which were clipped using the Clip (analysis) tool. I had to clip my raster files to the data frame itself (on the first map it was the DEM, and on the second map it was the Strategic Habitat areas)... I had tried to use the Clip (Data Management) tool, which says it's for raster graphic files, but ArcMap flipped out on me and I had to give it up. Oh well, maybe next time!

The labeling within the map frames are a combination of automated labels, labels converted to annotation, and labels I put on the map myself. There was no middle ground with the automatic label wizard, but not having to label everything individually was still nice. 

 My second map was the most complicated in terms of design, as it contains four data frames. In order to get items to stand out I made dropped backgrounds sort of a running theme. While creating the second map it occurred to me that maybe the first overview map was unnecessary... but trying to fit that roads layer somewhere on second map was a challenge I wasn't willing to take on.

So the big project is finished. This is the state of my map making capabilities thus far... I wonder what the final will bring!