Thursday, March 30, 2017

Week 12 - Geocoding, Network Analysis, and Model Builder

Week 12 - Geocoding, Network Analysis, and Model Builder

 This weeks lab was a bit treacherous and time consuming, though very informative. Gecoding is a pretty cool feature of ArcGIS and it was fun to navigate around the map and snap addresses that the address locator couldn't place. I'm still not completely comfortable with the concepts of the Model Builder, but hopefully a bit more practice and I'll understand it better. This lab took me well over 8 hours, possibly as much as 16. The geocoding and network analysis took some time, but creating the map on top of learning how the tools worked almost doubled my time investment. Then adding the Model Builder on top of it just made it a very rough week.

Regardless, it is now complete, and I think my map looks decent. In hindsight, I should have picked stations closer together before establishing my route, though I suppose the purpose was more about how to establish the optimal route. My large make of all of Lake County shows all the EMS stations and their addresses, as well as the optimal route from stations 141 to 171 to 311. I made sure to put a scale in for each map since the scale is different for each. I used red crosses to symbolize the stations because they are health related. Lastly, I used my customary north arrow and my staple font of Baskerville Old Face. I would do some things differently if I was to do this lab again, but all in all, I think my map displays the information well and has character.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Vector Analysis 2

Vector Analysis 2

This week we worked with the Buffer and Overlay tools in ArcGIS, as well as issuing multiple commands through ArcPy. The map above displays the possible camping locations in De Soto National Forest in Mississippi. The camping locations were derived by creating buffers of various distances around water sources and roads, and then exempting any of the remaining data that overlapped with conservation areas. I used a National Geographic basemap, which I thought looked quite nice.

All in all, I learned a lot this week, though Buffer and Overlay analysis can be a bit complicated. Made a useful map, and the tools I worked with have much practical utility for my future map making.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Data Search Lab - Midterm

Data Search Lab - Midterm and Lessons on Proper Data Management Practices


Needless to say, this has been a challenging lab for me, but also one filled with lessons on data saving practices and just how quirky ArcGIS can be. I also learned some new tricks just from exploring all the software has to offer when making an attractive map.

The above map displays the State Parks, Ecological Resource Conservation Areas, and Land Cover within Alachua County, Florida. I chose to use the Land Cover as the main background, then overlaid the State Parks and Ecological Resource Conservation Areas as crosshatched, but transparent. This allowed for seeing some overlap, particularly with the main bodies of Surface Water located within the county. I also displayed the Southwest quad of the DOQQ which incorporates a portion of Gainesville, with a zoomed in view. This map demonstrates that there is some overlap between State Parks and Ecological Resource Conservation Areas, though much remains in private hands. There are clearly a lot of Ecological Resources within the county that should be or are being preserved.



This lab was important because we spent a lot of time locating and sorting through data that can be found online, so navigating these websites was a key component of the lab. We also had to become very comfortable with projecting data into a uniform projection. Additionally, blending the different data layers into attractive and informative maps was important. My second map demonstrated how elevation, using a DEM, and invasive plants correlated to certain areas, such as high population regions, elevation, surface water bodies, and often transportation routes. This, I hypothesize, is either related to individual data collection practices of the invasive plant species, or the invasive species truly correlate to where people are most often located.

So it was after much work and interpretation of my first map that disaster struck. Somehow, my data and even the first map I completed and exported to a JPEG became corrupt and could not be viewed or opened in ArcGIS. All my work was lost. I had to start over, sorting through the data I had and obtaining uncorrupted data from the original sources, in order to complete the assignment. That said, the lesson in all of this is not to save your data to thumb drives, or any "external" drive for that matter, at least not before zipping them up. Apparently, ArcGIS does not like moving data from one place to another. I will, therefore, be using my H and I drives for my GIS data and working mxds. Lesson learned. I've also become somewhat convinced that the program really doesn't like me much. However, I will persist, and hopefully, persevere. It is an excellent tool, I enjoy learning how to use it, and clearly see its many utilities for archaeology as well as many other professions.