Map of The Week 4-26-2010

This is a map Clark map of the West after his expedition to the West. I chose this map as map of the week because it reminds us that there were not always computers to aid in map making and good maps can be made without there aid.

Proportional Symbol Mixed With Chloropleth Mapping

In this map I used proportional symbol mapping to show the number of people age 18-21 and chloropleth mapping to show the proportion of white persons out of the total population. In the proportional mapping section I used a minimum value of 1.40. I also put a black mask around the circles to help them stand out better. The directions told me to use the ‘proportional symbols’ symbology (and I did use this), but next time I think I would prefer to use the ‘graduated symbols symbology. This is because you can control the minimum and the maximum dot size. In my map I would only control the minimum size and the maximum size followed it. In my map I think that the minimum dot size is too small and the maximum dot size is about right, but I cannot control both. Aside from this issue I chose to use a horizontal legend format because it fit better in the available space than a vertical format. I chose the grey colors for the chloropleth mapping because they contrasted well with the green circles used in the proportional symbol mapping.

Proportional Symbol Map

In this map I used the proportional symbol mapping technique to represent the populations of different capital cities throughout the world. I chose a dot minimum size of 10 and a maximum size of 35 because this way the reader could see the smallest dot clearly and the dots started to coalesce as well. I also chose to use Flannery’s compression to help avoid the tendency of people to underestimate the size of larger objects. I used a vertical legend format because it best filled the available space.

Dot Map

In this map I chose to use a dot map to show the location of citizens age 65 and older. I used a mask to exclude dots from being inside national forest lands to make the location of the dots more accurate. I adjusted the size and value of each dot so that they coalesced slightly and were big enough to see when they were by themselves. I chose each dot to equal 75 persons because that is an easy number for people to work with that was close to the dot density I wanted for my map.

Map of the week 4-12-10

This map is an isarithmic map that estimates the storm surge that was produced by huricane Katrina. I chose this map because of what our lab was on this week and to show a very practical application of this kind of mapping.

Krging map: Rainfall in Idaho

This map shows the rainfall amounts for the state of Idaho. I was created in ArcMap using true point data and the Kriging interpolation method.

IDW map: Rainfall in Idaho

This map also shows the average rainfall for Idaho. This Isarithmic map was created using true point data and the Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation method.