GIS 4006 - Final Project - Lithography and Rivers in Escambia County, Fl

For the Final Project in Introduction to Cartography we were tasked with creating a bivariate map that displays two thematic datasets over one geographic region. I chose to create a map of Escambia County, Florida that compares lithography areas for Escambia County and major river lengths for Florida. The main purpose of this map is to assess for any correlations that may arise between the two thematic datasets when compared visually. The secondary purpose of this map was to uniquely identify and symbolize lithography types for the entirety of the state of Florida. Through the combination of two thematic mapping techniques, chloropleth mapping and graduate symbol mapping, a bivariate map was created.

A chloropleth mapping technique was used to cartographically represent the lengths of major rivers that flow through the state of Florida as a color gradient with indigo colored segments representing a low length in meters and violet colored segments representing a high length in meters. This data was classified into six classes utilizing the natural breaks (jenk) method as this gave the best and most even distribution of data.  This thematic method can be seen applied throughout the entirety of the state of Florida, and across all of Florida’s rivers. A graduated symbol mapping technique was used to cartographically represent the areas of lithographic rock located beneath the topsoil of Escambia County, Florida. This data was classified into 4 classes utilizing the natural breaks (jenk) method as this gave the best and most even distribution of data. This thematic method was restricted to Escambia County only because the size of the graduated circle symbols would have overcrowded the portion of the map showing the entirety of Florida State.

Correlations between Escambia County lithography data and Florida major river data were mapped, assessed, and discussed over the course of this project. Lithography percentages were derived from attribute table data supplied by the USGS and Major River data lengths were derived from attribute table data supplied by UWF. By adhering to Gestalt’s principles of design and ensuring all essential map elements are present and accounted for this bivariate map was created that shows Escambia County lithographic areas represented as graduated symbols and Florida major river lengths represented as a chloropleth color gradient. 

GIS 4006 - Module 12 - Neocartography & Google Earth

For this weeks module 12 we were tasked with utilizing our map deliverable created in module 10, the population dot density map of South Florida, and uploading it into Google Earth. This module was completed using ArcGIS Pro and Google Earth Pro. Layers were converted in arcgis pro using the layer to KML tool. I was able to convert my dot density layer after converting it to to a a single point layer by regenerating a new set of random points based on a newly calculated population field of one dot representing 20,000 individuals. Legend elements and extent frame were sniped using windows sniping tool and uploaded into Google Earth Pro as image overlay elements. A tour was created that visits the following place markers in South Florida with the 3D buildings feature enabled: Miami Metropolitan, Miami Downtown, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Saint Petersberg, and Tampa Downtown.

A discussion post was made by me in regards to the future of GIS and volunteered graphic information.
GIS as a science is continuously evolving as more and more users become active participants in GIS data gathering techniques. One of such techniques is volunteered graphic information, VGI. This geospatial data is being uploaded by an enormous amount of people via the internet at an ever increasing rate. I personally am a fan of VGI and any improvements in general to GIS sciences and applications but it must be noted that VGI comes with some drawbacks, such as data integrity. Some work arounds to inaccurate public data could involve an administrative review or peer review process. I could see a system that implemented a ranking system based on data quality being a good source of VGI content.

GIS 4006 - Module 11 - 3D Mapping

This weeks module 11 had us mastering the art of 3 dimension feature creation utilizing Arcgis Pro and then transferring data into Google Earth Pro.
The first part of this module involved completing a 3d Visualization Using ArcGIS Pro course on ESRI's website. This training course gave a great overview of 3d mapping basics and walked me through three exercises involving: Craterlake, Oregon , Downtown San Diego with extrusions rendered as non realistic and realistic from different view points.

A Boston buildings feature file was then extruded to have elevation values. This was achieved by generating random points within the building shapefile (34,300 points), adding surface (elevation) information to those points, and summarizing per building (100 points per
building, 343 buildings). This generated a 3d feautre scene of the cityscape of Boston that was saved as a KMZ file and uploaded into Google Earth Pro.

Importing 3d layers into Google Earth has many useful applications but two that come to mind would be construction projects and delivery routes for businesses. Utilizing Arcgis pro to convert 3d scene features to KMZ files and uploading them into Google Earth would be an easy way to get information out to potential clients or customers that do not have access to gis specific software, such as arcgis pro. Google earth is accessible by anyone for free and has a much simpler user interface learning curve when compared to arcgis applications.

Finally a comparison of Charles Joseph Minard's map-graph was conducted on the original and a 3d representation of Napoleon's march to Moscow. The original shows the decreasing size of the Grande Armée as it marches to Moscow using a clever use of mapping techniques to not only show a geographic representation of where Napoleons army marched to, from Kowno to Moscow, but it also shows a symbolic representation of the size of the army through the use of diminishing weight. When viewed in 2d and 3d these elements are apparent, but 3d presents this information in a more dramatic way. Giving the army route a Z value allows a user to view the decline of Napoleon’s army in weight thickness and in depth, all from a birds eye view. The 3d map definitely pulls off an effective theme but it should be noted that the 2d map presents a far more legible account with more details, such as river names, city names, and temperature all being visible at a glance. I personally prefer the original 2d map by Minard.