Published Maps in Cartography
World/National Maps
My published and created maps in cartography
Maps Produced at the Local Scale
Proportional Symbol Map:
I chose to use the Robinson (world) projection because this held a better world view on where the countries are located. This also gives a strong distribution of nationalities that visit Iceland. Using red circles to symbolize national countries also emphasize the distribution of the data. I chose to use a red hue because I believed this color would stand out more and used a 50% transparency to be able to see the country behind it. Next time, I think I would want to add a symbol to represent the country of Iceland so people will understand where it is located on a global map. I can use my skills learned from making this proportional symbol map and apply it to other data that I can collect for future projects.
Choropleth Map Multi-Race:
I decided to map out the number of households that identify with more than one race. I chose this set because I was interested in how the map would lay out at the end, and where the largest number of households identify with a multi-race. I used the natural breaks method because it provided a more accurate representation on my map. The use of the orange-red color scheme I implemented into my map, was used because I was trying to represent the number of households with warm colors to indicate more populated areas with multi-race densities. While creating my map, I didn’t really encounter any major issues, but I can say that I was contemplating on a few color schemes in the beginning because I wanted a scheme that would represent my data better. The write up was not difficult as well, but I had to think deeply on how I would want to analyze my map. Overall, I thought this was a fun map to produce and I hope I can use these skills again in the future.
South America Reference Map:
I feel like the challenges I encountered were choosing specific fonts for cities, capitals, and mountain ranges. The visual hierarchy was easier to accomplish after I made the base map much more transparent so it was easier to label places on the continent. Trying to find a typeface for the smaller font sizes was a little difficult too because it was harder to read, but the transparency of the base map definitely helped at the end. For future projects, this will help me balance map labels and typefaces to clean up my maps better and more proficiently.
My final project consisted of developing a heat map of Chicago. The specific data labeled is the total amount of crimes committed in August 2017. The patterns distributed throughout this map show a spatial representation of where the highest and lowest amounts of crime were committed. The largest amounts of crime committed, which is labeled with yellow-red hues, shows the greatest values in the heart of downtown Chicago, while much of the greater Chicago area is visualized with cool-colored hues. The lesser areas are not considered suburban but are located towards the northwestern and southwestern regions that are near the ends of the Chicago border labeled on the map. Due to spatial trends, the locations of the highest amount of crime indicate that these areas show significant patterns of population. Since there is a lot of spatial data being presented on this map, these areas still indicate crime, but the amount is very small compared to larger locations of crime. This also indicates that the largest concentrations of crime are centered with lower-income neighborhoods compared to higher-income neighborhoods, with the exception of downtown Chicago where there are many factors contributing towards the different types of crime. Changing the radius to six on the map allowed for an easier representation of how the data is distributed, instead of having various clusters of data that are not appealing or easy to look at for the viewer. I chose to map this specific location because I wanted to analyze and visualize crime data that is not too far from home.
Heat Map
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Africa Reference Map:
Contour Lake Map:
Map Projections of Wisconsin:
GPS Data Map:
My first cartographic design in 2020 is shown where my first developments were taken as a visual representation of the skills I was able to learn in class. This class that I took was Geography 200 which helped us understand the foundations of geography. We were introduced to the philosophies of geography and how it developed throughout history, and took much of this information into the design of geography. The design aspect of this class was to introduce us in the creation and visualization of maps; to help us interpret and explain what a map means and represents.The tea production of Africa is represented in this map. The representation visualizes what countries in Africa produce the most amount of tea worldwide. This distribution shows countries that produce greater than 60% of tea production on the continent and continues down towards the lesser amounts. Most countries that are represented on this reference map are located near the southeastern region of the continent, while a few are distributed more towards the western region of Africa. The use of colors in this example are subtle and can represent a variation of tea.
The lake I chose is Lauderdale Lakes in Wisconsin, located in Walworth county. I chose this lake because this is where I have spent most of my childhood summers at my lake house and on the boat. I used the pen tool to trace all of the contour lines on the lake, using the WI DNR website. I then used the eyedropper tool to use colors that would represent the depth of the lake. I wanted to use google maps to use a satellite image of this lake because the topographic contours of this location aren’t very exciting (only because it is mostly farmland surrounding the lake). It was also not working well in the beginning because the satellite image and the lake were not lining up at first. So, to make it more interesting, I decided to use the photoshop effects to make my map more pleasing. I also used the photoshop effects on my digitized lake as well because it blended more with the background while I was able to lessen the transparency. This made the visual hierarchy of the map much more pleasing and much easier to look at.
The different map projections shown for the state of Wisconsin describe how different projections are able to change the spatial looks within a map or location. This project is emphasized to visually show different projections used for different spatial purposes, and to help educate what these different projections really mean. Something that was pointed out to me was that the projected lines could have been a little more bold, especially using lighter colors for certain projections while I was producing this map. For future projects, this map is very beneficial for me to look back to because it will help me learn and understand which types of map projections will be the most appropriate for me to use on my maps.
I chose this location because it is my everyday route to school from my house. In ArcGIS Pro, I inserted a few pictures and a scale/north arrow before I contributed the rest into Illustrator. After geoprocessing my map, I went into Illustrator and added shadows behind my pictures to make them stand out more. I was also able to design the title of my map and description. One challenge that I encountered was that the route in ArcGIS Pro was somewhat inaccurate in some areas because it went off the sidewalk or trail. So, I was able to fix this by smoothing out my route before I went into Illustrator. I think this map overall turned out good and I enjoyed collecting the data and making it into my own, unique map. This map will also help me for future projects because I was able to go out and experience collecting data that was implemented right into my map design.