Week 7 and 8: Data Soul Search

Hey look at me, got another lab done on time. This lab was fun, very fun but time consuming. I spent a total of 18 hours searching for data, editing and making maps. Those numbers are probably overkill but I spent every free time I had on campus (also skipped class yesterday and today to make sure I got done but that is ok because I have the notes) to make sure these maps are as good as I could get them.
I am very proud in how they look and came together. There were hours of editing and decision making to decide the best way to put them together and make them look. (I also started downloading the data for a different county for the first hour and a half.) A lot of things were tweaked, removed and added. I honestly cannot remember each step so this is going to be to the best of my ability to convey my steps. Also when I say map frame followed by a number, it is most likely not done in that exact numerical order as I added and deleted a lot of map frames. I took a great deal of time to re-remember and look up how to do much of these steps from previous labs as well as research in ArcGIS help. I bugged poor miss Diedra at least 5 times. These steps are also simplified as each day that I worked I changed my mind a lot on the layouts of things as well as text styles. I think I saved over the layout of the overview map at least 10 times. Not only that a few times ArcGIS crashed and I learned to save OFTEN.
(Yes this is taken from my process summary because it is the best I could explain the process of how I made these maps to others.)

1.) Downloading:

1.   Following the steps outlined in week 5’s lab I found and downloaded the north east DOQQ of quad 5241.
2. To get the rest of the vectors I used FGDL to search, download and extract the data needed for the maps.

2.) Overview map:

1. 1.      To map 1: I made a layer of Calhoun County using the skills learned in step 4 of own your own map, then removed the layer of the Florida counties
2.  Then I added cities and towns, major roads, public lands and hydrology filed to the map, then editing each layer to be to the shape and extent of the county boundary
3. I went into the attribute table of major roads and selected the state roads and made a separate layer so that I could distinguish the difference between the major state roads and the other major roads, edited the layer in the symbology to be different and tweaked the labeling to make it how it looks
4. I took time to edit the cities and towns as well as public land symbology to look like it does
5.  In map 2: I added the Florida boundaries then copied the layer of Calhoun county to the map and changed the color, this map was used as the insert map to show the location of Calhoun county in Florida for the rest of the layout maps
6. In a third map I added the DOQQ, then copied the cities and town layer I edited as well as major roads, highways and public lands layers to the map, this was used as the insert of the aerial to the overview map
7. I inserted a new layout and added these three map frames to the layout. Briefly I added the DOQQ aerial to the map in order to draw a rectangle to show its position before removing the areal.
8. To this layout map I added the legends, north arrow, title, scale, lines to connect to the aerial, map information such as my name, borders, shadows, and backgrounds and tweaked the fonts and sizes until I was satisfied.
9. This layout map is in Albers Conical Equal Area because as the lab instructions suggested, that is what the data decided. I figured that if all of the data is in the same projection and coordinate system that it is the best to map the area and distances with the least exaggeration. 

3.) Elevation Map:

1. To a new map frame 5: Following the steps for the DEM for USGS, I found and downloaded USGS_NED_1_n31w085_ArcGrid and USGS_NED_1_n31w086, re-projected them to be in the Albers conical equal area projection system to fit the rest of the data, mosaicked them together using the mosaic raster tool (and the help of Deidra)
2. Once the raster was re-projected and mosaicked I copied the layer of Calhoun county from map frame 1 and pasted to use in the next step
3. With the help of the wonderful Deidra, then used the Clip (data management) tool to clip the raster to the shape (or as close as I could get it) of Calhoun county.
4. I copied the labeled and symbolized cities, major roads, and highways to the map frame 5 in order to give references to location. I thought a map with just elevation of the county didn’t offer as much as one with landmarks such as roads and towns.
5. I symbolized the elevation colors to one that is understandable and decent looking, unlike the grey scale it came in.
6. Then I added map frame to a new layout, as well as map 2 to be the insert map
7. To this layout map I added the legends, north arrow, title, scale, map information such as my name, borders, shadows, backgrounds and tweaked the fonts and sizes until I was satisfied.
8. The scale bar is smaller here because it was hard to read if it clipped into the elevation map that I was unable to cleanly clip to the shape of the county
9. This layout map was also in Albers Conical Equal Area for the same reason as above.

4.) Land Cover and Invasive Plants Map:

1. In map frame 6: I added the same Calhoun county from map frame 1
2. I went into the invasive plants attribute table and selected the plants that appear in Calhoun county and made their own layer
3. To the same map frame I then added the Land Cover data.
4.  In the symbology I deleted the background information because it caused the data to not stay within Calhoun county and rather made a square around it, gave each type of category a unique color that could stand out and not be lost in the mess while also trying my best to keep to the suggested colors in Own Your Own Map
5.  I then went into the label of the categories and simplified them while keeping their same data, for example Agriculture/Pasture/Groves became Pasture and Groves Agriculture.
6. Now that I had the colors for the land use set I then went into the symbology of the Invasive Plants layer and assigned each type of plants their own symbol and color rather than a dot and name. These symbols are not usually typical for plants but I saw that they stuck out while not obscuring the map.
7.  I added map frame 6 to a new layout, as well as map 2 to be the insert map
8. To this layout map I added the legends, north arrow, title, scale, map information such as my name, borders, shadows, backgrounds and tweaked the fonts and sizes until I was satisfied.
9. Literal last minute before I had to leave lab to go home (I had lost track of time and my father messaged to say if I didn’t show up he was going to leave me) I was checking the properties of each data set to make sure that everything was in the same projected system, only to find that Land Cover was in NAD 1983 HARN Albers rather than Albers Conical Equal Area. I quickly made note of this and typed the map projection into the text box where I had the other projection systems. I tried to load the ArcGIS file in the online argo app but it did not register my flashdrive or let me access my personal computer files. I understand if this causes me to have points deducted but I at least cited that it did in fact have a different PCS.

5.) My babies:

 

(Looking at this last one I think I made two of the land cover colors the same but it was hard to keep track)