Lab #3 Blog

Lab #3

Goals: The goals of this lab were for the use of obtaining GIS data and standalone tables from other mediums (US Census Bureau) than the mgisdata already downloaded from ArcGIS. Then with that data being able to join them with other tables, and being able to manipulate data, excel sheets, to make them joinable and readable by the software. Specifically the goal was to find the total population by county in Wisconsin, then to find a variable of our own choosing to map as well (Total households per county).

Methods:To start this lab I had to obtain census data from 2010 specifically in Wisconsin, so to do that I had to do an advanced search through the American Factfinder website that the US Census Bureau operates. Starting with topics and choosing the year, then to geographies to pick specifically counties, then Wisconsin and finally I downloaded the zipfile. After which I opened the shapefile of Wisconsin and its' counties, but the county population data was not joined yet from the excel sheet. So I had to manipulate the data sheet so ArcGIS would read it as a number file not a string file, so it could be joined to the shapefile and mapped onto the layer. Once properly formatted and joined I opened up the data's properties/symbology to map the total population per county, then I classified the breaks by quantiles. After that I copied the Wisconsin county map to a new data frame to map the other variable (Total households per county). To get that data I had to again go to the American Factfinder website that the US Census Bureau and repeat the process except I downloaded the total household file. Again I had to reformat the excel sheets so they could be read as number files and able to be joined and mapped on ArcGIS. I then repeated the process in the symbology tab to map the total household data by quantities per county in Wisconsin, again by quantile breaks again. I then formatted the maps in the layout view to exported.


Results: 


Figure 1: Maps showing the total number of households per county in Wisconsin, and the total population per county in Wisconsin.

 

The results show that some counties in Wisconsin that are in the highest quantile for total population are not in the highest quantile for total number of households per county, which might suggest that some counties may have larger families.

 

Sources:

 

 

1. Price, Maribeth (2014). Mastering ArcGIS 6th ed. Retrieved 3/11/15.

2. US Census Bureau (2010). 2010 SF1 100% Data.                                                                                                                                                http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml. Retrieved on 3/11/15

3. US Census Bureau (2010). 2010 SF1 100% Data Households and Families: 2010,                                                    http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml.                                                                                   Retrieved on 3/12/15

 

 

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.