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.