M6: Isarithmic Mapping
Confounded by all the rain and it's only my first day in town.
Isarithmic Mapping
Washington State's Annual Rainfall |
I used ArcPro 3.2.2. The geoprocessing tools I used were Contour List and Int.
Confounded by all the rain and it's only my first day in town.
Washington State's Annual Rainfall |
European Wine Indulgence |
Module 4 was about data classification.
Our objectives in the lab were to classify census data of Senior Citizens in Miami-Dade County into 4 of the data classifications- Equal Interval, Quantile, Standard Deviation and Natural Break. As someone who has always battled with math- I could struggle to explain these classifications on a higher/scholarly level, but, since most of my current job and most of my future role will be explaining things that anyone can understand, I did my best to explain it that way.
Equal IntervalThe Equal Interval classification is determined by the range divided by the number of classes selected. It can cause an unequal distribution due to classes having no values, classes with lots of values, and/or classes with only a few values.For this lab I wanted try out a different style so I inverted my usual style. Dark vs Light. Dark Page, White Text, Dark colors for Low numbers and Light colors for High numbers.
Senior Population of Miami-Dade County |
In this module we also experimented with normalizing our data by Square Miles. Which is better for representing the overall distribution of the Senior Citizens in Miami-Dade County.
With Normalization |
Without Normalization |
Senior Population of Miami-Dade County by Square Miles |
Module 3 had us exploring Cartographic Design through Gestalt's Principles.
The labs objective was to create a map of the schools in Ward 7 of Washington D.C that included boundary, transportation and environment layers, and 7 of the neighborhoods in the Ward using Gestalt's Principles.
Washington D.C. Ward 7 Schools |
Keeping the thematic of "Schools" in mind I choose a font for the Title and Subtitles that was fun but not Comic Sans and I used Lego studs of different sizes and three primary colors to label the schools.
I had multiple reasons for choosing the three colors:
I took a page from John Innes – I changed the view of the map from absolute north to north east. I centered the middle of the river on the page. I used a dark outline on the Ward for weight and so it would stand out.
I placed the 3 other “heavy” elements on the left side of the map. To avoid top-heaviness the simple Legend was placed at the top and the school table was centered just below it to give it a drop down feel. The inset map was placed at the bottom left corner opposite of the major cluster of schools in the top right for balance.
In the Inset Map I rotated the map back to north and highlighted the Ward 7 in a light purple and then made the indicator a dashed purple. For location orientation I place a small north arrow in the inset map and put a White House icon where the White House and a majority of other National attractions are. I labeled where Virginia and Maryland are and then placed another label for Maryland in the right border of the main map for extra location clarification. I left the major roads in gray on the inset map because without them Washington DC was feeling like a rural area- which it is not by any stretch of the imagination.
I used ArcPro 3.2.2. The geoprocessing tools I used were Clip, Dissolve, Select and Spatial Join for the roads, and Create Feature Class for the White House.
I know you're shocked it wasn't The West Wing cause of D.C. |
Well-Designed Map |
Poorly-Designed Map |
Okay, Whats Next?
I celebrated 11 years as a 911 dispatcher in February 2024. Since the beginning of my career I had not only been an end user for GIS products but also unknowingly dabbling in GIS skills.
Before the Pandemic I finally learned a bit more about GIS. I knew they were the people who kept our maps at work updated but I never gave a thought to how. The more I learned the more I felt I had found a new path but I wanted to finish my Masters in Instructional Design & Technology Leadership as well. At that time I was able to use the GIS Certificate program to fulfill the Technology electives that were required.
Unfortunately the Pandemic hit and I put my educational goals on hold. During that time I updated a Google Map for our county that I created some years ago with our emergency service related districts and landmarks and I also was creating data visualizations (maps, graphs, etc) for some of our larger data sets.
By the time I decided to come back to school - My Masters program had changed and I was no longer able to use the GIS Certificate to fulfill the requirements. After some reflection - I choose to pursue just the Undergraduate Certificate in GIS.
When I complete the Certification Program I plan to take the exam portion of the GISP and start working on the FEMA GISS Task Book so I can deploy as a GIS Specialist when needed.
My ultimate goal is to be a 911 GIS/IT Administrator. This role combines all my passions - Emergency Services, GIS, IT, and Program Development/Instructional Design.
My StoryMap is a brief highlight reel of my Career and Education.
Quote Reference:
Bartlet, Josiah. The West Wing.