GIS 4043: Final Project

For the final project of this class, I reviewed the Bobwhite-Manatee Transmission Line Project and took into account the affects it may have on the surrounding community.  I provided an analysis of four criteria, which were required to be met for the selection of the transmission line.  The new transmission line will extend approximately 24 miles along a route crossing the Manatee to Sarasota County boundaries.  The line is needed to meet higher energy demands within Sarasota County.  I performed my analysis using GIS tools provided in ArcMap.  All raster and vector data was provided, with the exception of the Florida Schools and the Florida Daycare Facilities vectors, which were downloaded from the Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL).


Be sure to check out my PowerPoint Presentation and the Slide by Slide Commentary!


I really enjoyed learning as much as I did throughout the semester.  I very much enjoyed creating different types of maps and learning new words and tools.

GIS 3015 - Final Project

The cartographic map shown below illustrates 2014 State SAT scores and participation rates.  The test scores are the total of Reading, Math and Writing averages per each state.  In addition to portraying average test scores and participation rates, the map allows the viewer to analyze the correlation of the two datasets.  Two thematic datasets were displayed over one geographic region, specifically the United States.   

A choropleth map was created to show the average SAT scores per state.  This method was chosen because it’s useful when comparing data between states.  The average test scores were broken down into five different classes.  States with lower scores have a lighter color; whereas states with higher scores have a darker color.  For this map, the Natural Breaks data classification method was applied.  This method was chosen because it displays the data in clusters to facilitate identifying states with similar test scores.  In experimenting with different classification methods in ArcMap, Natural Breaks provided the best differentiation between states.      

The second thematic method chosen for this map is known as proportional symbols.  This method was used to show the percentage of high school graduates who took the SAT exam in 2014, per state.  The smaller circles represent a lower percentage of people who have taken the SAT; whereas, the larger circles show a higher percentage of people who have taken the test in their state.

Balance and contrast are a couple design techniques that have been incorporated in the map shown below.  Balance has been applied by using the appropriate map space to display the data.  The legends were placed adjacent to each other in the lower right hand corner, balanced with insets of Hawaii and Alaska in the lower left hand corner.  Vertical and horizontal alignment was appropriately applied for visual aesthetics.  The scale bars were included but deemphasized by its color and weight selection.  An inset of Washington D.C. was created for visual clarity.

I enjoyed this class more than I originally thought I would.  I absolutely loved seeing all of the possibilities and learning the different tools within ArcMap.  Every week, I looked forward to creating a new map.  I'm looking forward to seeing what GIS has in store for me in the future.   

GIS 3015: Google Earth

I somewhat enjoyed this assignment, although it wasn't one of my favorites.  I enjoyed zooming into the imagery using Google Earth and seeing all of the 3D effects. That was probably my favorite part throughout the whole assignment. Just like any other computer software, you need to learn new controls and where things are located.  I was able to pick up on that pretty fast, since it's similar to all the other softwares I've used. In the image below, you'll see what I've created showing South Florida located in Google Earth.  The image shows water surfaces and has a red dot for the population. One dot is equivalent to 10,000 people.

GIS 4043: Georeferencing

I absolutely hated this assignment.  I couldn't get anything to go right, no matter how hard I tried to finish.  Because of all of the technical difficulties and problems that kept occurring, I was unable to finish this assignment by the deadline.  I did finally manage to finish this assignment today.  I used the georeferencing tool for the first time during this assignment. I thought it would be super easy, since I find common points all the time at work.  However, that was my main setback.  I was seconds away from calling it quits on numerous occasions.  For this assignment, I found common points between the raster dataset (which include the unknown layers) and the buildings layer (which include the known layers).  Using the 1st Order Polynomial for the raster titled "uwf_n", I came up with an RMS error of 5.78724 after dropping numerous points. As for the southernmost raster, I dropped about eight points, which gave me an RMS error of 2.97949.  I used the 2nd Order Polynomial option for this raster.