Lab 1

LAB 1:
Andrew Evenson
Geog335 GIS1
University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire.

Goals: The of this lab were to organize a collection of maps, as well as defining coordinate systems for shapefiles in different geodatabases to match each other so the maps will be proper and with minimal distortion. Finally to also learn some basic essentials of the data management tools in ArcMap.

 Figure 1: A map of West Central Wisconsin with counties and major rivers in the area.

Methods: I Obtained this map by first downloading the data from D2L (1). Then once downloaded I extracted and added the data into ArcMap (2) into a data frame. I connected two shapefiles from the Central Wisconsin geodatabase that was downloaded on D2L (1) and added them to the layer on ArcMap. However the shapefiles that were added (rivers and county lines) were not projected the same, or had the same GCS, so I then opened up the data management tools in ArcMap and formatted them all into the same GCS (NAD_1983) and same PCS (North American Equidistant Conic). I chose those coordinate systems because of the location for the GCS, and since some of the counties go farther out east and west I chose a conic projection. Then once everything was formatted properly I changed the view from data to layout view and inserted text boxes for the counties and legend, a scale bar in miles, and as well as a North arrow (ESRI North Arrow 3) into the top right corner for reference. Finally I chose colors for the different layers that would make the map easy to read.

Figure 2: Maps of the World's countries, the USA, and Wisconsin in different projections.

Methods: This map was made by first downloading the data from D2L (1). The world maps were made all in different data frames, the Geographic projection was made by connected the country shapfile from the downloaded data and the geogrid shapefile. The Mollyweide Projection map was obtained like the Geographic, but the projection was then changed for the data frame to 'Mollyweide'. The Mercator Projection was also started like the Geographic in a different data frame, then the projection for the data frame was changed to Mercator (World). The Sinusoidal was again started off like the other world maps, but the projection was changed to Sinusoidal (World). The final world map's (Equidistant Conic Projection) data frame was changed to Equidistant Conic. The 'States' map shapefiles came from a different folder (states.shp and a roads shapefile). The road shapefile was though not in the same coordinate system. I then used the project tool to change the projection to North American Equidistant Conic; the road shapefile then was in its proper location. Finally I changed the color of the reformatted roads layer to green to stand out more. The Wisconsin UTM map was obtained by repeating the first part in the 'States' map, then using the select attribute tool I chose Wisconsin and added it to its on layer, then turning off the states layer leaving Wisconsin. I then changed the projection to North American UTM Zone 16N.
Finally for both the separate maps I exported the map files as a .jpg onto the Q-drive.

Final products were also under the guidance of Mastering ArcGIS textbook (3)

Citations

 

 

1. ArcGIS 10.2.2 for Desktop, Version: 10.2.2.3552, 1999, ESRI Inc.

 

 

2. Wilson Cyril, in class materials at University Of Wisconsin- Eau Claire (2/15/2015), retrieved by instructor's permission.

 

 

3. Price Maribeth, (2014), Mastering ArcGIS sixth edition.