Week 6 Georeferencing

This exercise involved georeferencing 2 aerials to projected shapefiles. The north aerial was relatively easy and involved little manipulation. The south aerial was "warped" more and required alot of additional links to get it to line up with the shapefiles. I ended up using way more links as I would find an area that I didn't like the results of and in my attempt to correct that area - distorted others. The only structure I really didn't like the alignment on was the watertower. I would imagine that since we are lining up on rooftops as this was the only good visual line and not footprints - the heights of the buildings played a role - assuming the terrain is relatively flat. I also looked at the line where the 2 aerials met and for the most part liked how they lined up but again - in trying to fix the parking lot on the east side - I made it worse - so I quit. This is a useful tool and needed alot especially when dealing with historic aerials.

Week 5 GIS Data Search

Week 5's assignment involved finding data on the internet, downloading the data, manipulating the data for display purposes, and if necessary define and/or reproject the data. All of the data I found at FGDL (Florida GIS Data Library), FNAI (Florida Natural Areas Inventory), and LABINS (Florida Land Boundary Systems) sites as listed in our lab papers. The roads and stream layers presented a problem as they had much more data than I needed and wanted to show. The streams had shorelines, underground streams, etc. The roads had everything. I tried to show all roads with the minor ones being very thin and gray but they still were way to many. Both layers - I used the definition query to extract just the streams, ditches, canals, and major roadways. I did this so I could then easily set my symbology as one feature. Perhaps not all counties have a solid amount of roads as Okaloosa had but if I had shown all - that is all you would see on the jpg. I did try to download tiger data but it wasn't in shapefile format so I nixed that idea. I did make 3 separate maps as my Wetlands and Strategic Habitat were in raster format. I could have converted them to vector but I chose to show them as raster.

Another Haiti map

I also liked this map although I forgot to get the location and could not find it so I thought I would post it as my runner-up. This map is useful for anyone that wants an idea of where Haiti is, where the damage took place, and how much damage in some of the areas. This is a good "open your eyes" map.

Participation Post - Haiti and the Earthquake

This map shows a quick view of where the most damage in terms of structures occurred. This should help in isolating the locations to get to quicker. The areas with the most damage would probably need help the soonest in terms of first aid and trapped people. It would also indicate where access to areas is most likely difficult. This map is good for a quick visual of the area and the damages involved.

Location:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/site_images/normal_9870.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm%3Fid%3D2820%26dt_code%3DHLN%26obj_id%3D437%26lang%3Den&usg=__uQRQPievtm_dJbd-GrT6sfpJpuI=&h=719&w=1022&sz=309&hl=en&start=172&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=JJnfsSToS4qVSM:&tbnh=106&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmaps%2Bhaiti%2Bearthquake%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADBR_en%26sa%3DN%26start%3D160%26um%3D1

Week 4 Deliverables

This map shows Florida in three different projections. We also were to show the slight variations on square mileage calculations in regard to those different projections. There are shifts in size and locations when you compare the three to each other. Depending upon your scale (area of interest), one projection may be chosen over another. In today's software environment, projection decisions are easier but you still need to know what projection all files you are working with are in, the standard projection for the map user, as well as the background of the projection and how they are derived.

Week 3 Deliverables

Map 3 is showing elevations for Mexico with a stretched raster.

Week 3 Deliverables

Map 2 is a zoomed in view of central Mexico showing urban areas. We added some additional shapefiles of rivers and roads, labels, and map inserts.

Week 3 - Deliverables

Map 1 is of Mexico and populations by state. We were asked to add some labeling as well as some map inserts such as the north arrow, legend, etc.