Lab 3 Elevation and Hillshade

 

This weeks lab had an emphasis on hillshading and visualize 3d elements of maps. In the first part of this lab we learned how to use a visualize contour lines in a mountain range. We smoothed out the more jagged contour lines using the geoprocessing tool "Focal Statistics" to make the contours easier to interpret. 

In the second and third part of this lab I learned how to hillshade and what hillshading means. I learned the importance of azimuth and how different parts of the day can cause your hillshading to be different. 

In the final part of this lab I had a short look at local scenes in ArcPro. I used tin data to visualize a 3d scene of a valley.

Lab 2 Coordinate Systems

 This week the lab was focused on coordinate systems. I really enjoyed this lab because projections have always left me a little confused. I feel like this lab gave me much more  clarity on appropriate projections for study areas. 

the map I created was a accurately projected map of Massachusetts

I chose Massachusetts for my area of interest because this is where I grew up. When looking between UTM_Zones and the state_plane_zones, the clear answer was state plane. UTM zones cut Massachusetts in half so any zone would not fit all of Massachusetts perfectly. State plane has all of mainland Massachusetts in one area. This allows all of Massachusetts to be projected accurately in the projection. I chose NAD 1983 (2011) State Plane Massachusetts FIPS 2001 (Meters).

Lab 1 Communicating GIS

 This week I learned the a lot about the 5 basic map design principles:

▪ Visual contrast

▪ Legibility

▪ Figure-ground organization

▪ Hierarchical organization

▪ Balance

I created 5 maps looking into different symbology and labeling features.

This map highlight different areas in San Francisco. In the map I kept all my text font to be Calibi to have the map remain consistent. For water I made my font Italic and chose a dark blue to contrast against the lighter blue water. For parks I chose a dark green with a white halo around it to increase visibility against the green symbology of the park. When labeling the general areas I chose a black with a white halo to improve visibility and contrast. With the smaller islands I used a line callout to avoid having the font very small causing it to be illegible. With the neighborhoods I used a black font with a balloon callout because these are very small areas and I wanted the neighborhoods to stand out and not look like the general areas. For the twin peaks and hills I created curved labels with a light gray font since these are geographic landmarks.