GIS Cartography

Hello!

In this lab we were required to make three maps. One to show the population levels of Mexican States, one to show the major water features, roads, railroads, and urban areas of Mexico, and one to show the topography of Mexico. The map I am showcasing today is the topography of Mexico.

Map Description:
This map shows the elevation in meters, with a color ramp of red, orange, green, yellow depicting the elevation. The warmer colors depict higher elevation, while the cooler colors depict lower elevation. The inset map helps the map-reader see on a global scale what area is zoomed in on. The title, inset map, legend, scale bar, and other map essentials are placed in what I felt was the most balanced location. The country of Mexico and its cities are labeled suitably, as well as neighboring countries. The surrounding countries were made a light, cool color of a different hue in order to not blend in with the data being presented.

Lab Learning Outcomes:
In this lab we learned how to:
- Connect to folders in the S:\ drive through ArcCatalog and display content and metadata from our saved data folder.
- Explore and change properties of data in ArcCatalog through the Fields tab under Properties.
- View ArcCatalog while in ArcMap by clicking on the tool bar for ArcCatalog.
- Add layers to our Table of Contents in ArcMap by dragging and dropping them from ArcCatalog.
- Create a shapefile of the Mexican States by first using the Select by Attributes option and Query Builder to define the Mexican States. Then, creating the shapefile by exporting the data from the Data tab, navigating it to the correct folder, and saving the file as .shp.
- Label features by going into the layer's properties, into Labels tab, checking the Label features box, and selecting the correct Label Field.
- Change color symbology of a layer by going into Properties, Symbologies tab, clicking Quantities, and choosing a color ramp option. We also learned we could flip colors by clicking on the Symbol column and choosing Flip Symbols.
- Use Dynamic Text to add Essential Map Elements quicker. We did this by going into File, Map Document Properties, and filling out the dialog box that appears.
- Convert labels into Annotation in order to select and drag them in data view. We did this by right clicking on the layer and selecting Convert Labels to Annotation. In the pop up box we select In the Map when it asks where we want to store our annotations.
- Create an inset map by inserting a new Data Frame in the TOC, dragging it to the bottom of the TOC, dragging our world country layer into the new data frame, and then going into Properties, clicking Extent Indicators, and moving Layers into the right box.

My Experience:
I enjoyed creating a variety of new map types in this lab. I had the most fun rearranging my map elements and getting my map to be focused on the correct location. I did a lot of swapping between data and layout view in order to balance it just right.