Cartographic Fundamentals

INTRODUCTION

The goal of this lab was to learn the fundamentals of properly displaying data. This includes attaching the proper information to the data for it to have context and be useful. The sandbox data from the previous labs will be revisited and displayed in a more useful way. Following that, several maps were created of Hadleyville Cemetary in Eleva, Wisconsin to display several different variables.


METHODS

Arcmap was used to create all maps in this lab. The sandbox map had some supplemental work done in Adobe Illustrator to put in the scale bar and the origin points. For the cemetery maps, symbology tools were used to display the various features.


RESULTS

Displayed below (Figure 1) is the revised sandbox map. This was created using the spline method from the previous lab. Added to this map was a title, location map, north arrow, scale bar, and map information. These additions add context to the map to make interpreting it easier. On the right side of the map, four different three-dimensional views. The origin point on the 3D views allows the viewer to more easily see where the orientation is being viewed from.

Figure 1: Map of sandbox data created using the spline method

Next are the maps of Hadleyville Cemetery. These also have the same necessary cartographic features added. First (Figure 2) is a map showing year of deaths (YOD) in the cemetery. This method of displaying the year of each grave is good for checking individual dates with good accuracy, but it is difficult to see general trends.

Figure 2: YOD displayed individually

The next map (Figure 3) shows the same information, YOD, displayed in a different way. This map displays the information as graduated circles, with larger circles representing later years, as it shows on the legend. This method of display more easily shows general trends in the data, but if you wanted to know the exact year of a grave, this map would not be suitable. As you can see from the map, newer graves tend to be grouped together and closer to the outside of the cemetery.

Figure 3: YOD displayed by graduated symbols

The next map (Figure 4) shows last names on graves in the cemetery. This is displayed similar to Figure 2, in that each grave has its information individually displayed with no need for a legend. Unlike Figure 2, the information provided in this map is not numeric so the option so symbolize the data using other methods is not viable. There is too much of a variety of last names at the cemetery for them to be cleanly symbolized by type.

Figure 4: Last names displayed indivudually

Lastly, Figure 5 shows a map showing the condition of each grave. Since there are only three options: standing, not standing, or unknown, this is easily symbolized by different color symbols. Notice there are only a few graves that are not standing. There are also many graves that had null values in grave condition, so they are represented as having an unknown condition.

Figure 5: Grave conditions

CONCLUSION

Without metadata, most maps are rendered useless. This data provides context for the viewer to interpret the map, such as location, orientation, what the map is showing, and where the data is from. These map elements will be used in all subsequent labs.