GIS4043 - Week 7-8 - Data Search

Leon County, FL Map 1 - Cities, Roads, Hydrography

Leon County, FL Map 2 - Public Lands,
Invasive Plants in Elinor Klapp Phipps Park

This mid-term lab required us to find and download nine data layers to create a map or maps of our assigned Florida County.   I was tasked with presenting Leon County, Florida home of the State Capital, Tallahassee.

Using vector data layers I created my first map depicting cities, roads, and major hydrography features of Leon County.  I chose to include an inset map of the State of Florida for reference purposes.  I changed the symbol for the City of Tallahassee to represent a Capital City.

Leon County, FL Map 3 - Elevation and
Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas

In my second map I chose to display the public lands located in Leon County and then focused in on a park located in Tallahassee, Elinor Klapp Phipps Park (EKP).  I used my aerial raster layer, downloaded from Labins.org, to show a closeup view of the EKP Park.  I then added one of my environmental layers (invasive plants) on top of the aerial layer to show the various invasive plants found in the EKP Park.

For my third, and final map I chose to create two data frames.  The left frame displays the elevation of Leon County by using the raster DEM layer from the USGS.  I chose a color scheme that would enable the map audience to easily recognize the differences in elevation.

The right data frame displays my second environmental layer of strategic habitat conservation areas.   This raster layer ranks areas by priority level.  Again, I chose a color scheme that enables easy visual interpretation of the priority levels.

This lab was definitely a challenge.  Finding all of the required layers took some time and patience.  It was also helpful to view the metadata on each download site prior to downloading.  I also added all the layers to one mxd just so I could view each one and see how their data was presented visually as well as in their respective attribute tables.

Once I had my data it was hard at first to come up with my map designs/layouts.   I began with the simplest first (Map 1).  Creating Map 1 was very similar to previous lab assignments.  I started on Map 2 and began to formulate my design after looking at all of the remaining layers.  I created the left data frame of Map 2 but was unsure how and which layers to present on the rest of the map page.  I took a mental break from Map 2 and started Map 3 by adding the DEM layer.  Since I did not have too much experience with DEM and raster data layers I chose to clip this layer to the Leon County frame and display it singly.  I was worried my remaining Map 2 design would look "too busy" so I decided to display the Strategic Habitat Conservation Area layer alongside the DEM layer.   Both layers were raster data and it helped make the map appear symmetric.  I returned to Map 2 and focused in on EKP Park.  My daughters have played in travel soccer tournaments at the nearby Meadows Soccer Complex so I thought, why not.  Of course, the first aerial layer I downloaded had not been located near the park, so selected another layer.  I was right next door, but needed to move one more quad left and select my final DOQQ of q5335se.sid.  I really liked using the aerial layer as it served as a "basemap" for my invasive plants layer.  I was amazed at how many invasive plants were spotted in such a small land area; really made me think!