Intro to GIS; GIS and Cartography

Good day GIS enthusiasts.
The following is in regard to my Intro to GIS class assignment GIS and Cartography. This lesson and subsequent lab builds further upon the foundation of Arc Map use while building three fundamentally different maps seen below while using sound cartographic principles.
Student Learning Outcomes include:

• Create and alter the symbology of maps created in ArcGIS
• Examine files from ArcCatalog and the ArcCatalog Window
• Review raster pyramids Compare and contrast raster and vector data files
• Identify and use all Table of Content (ToC) Views
• Utilize dynamic text in a map layout
• Create group layers
• Review how to save a map as a map package

 The maps created through this lab build the above skills with data provided by the school using various aspects of our neighbor to the south, Mexico, as the focus area. With three individual maps that all build upon each other we will start with a look at Mexican population by state. Then see an overview of central Mexico highlighting major urban areas, federal roadways, major and primary rivers, and railways. And end off with a cartographic overview of Mexico. Once all the maps were processed they're respective layouts were tailored to include a title, neatline, legend, north arrow, scale bar, and name/date/source data. These elements are the minimum requirements for a sound map in this class.

The key skills and focus areas that were introduced in this lab were as follows: Creating your own shapefile from a more expansive layer of information. This is essentially taking a broad overview of data and tailoring it to the specific information you need to be effective. As such, I took an overview of states of multiple countries and selected and exported those from Mexico only into a new file. Additionally, extensive Layer review was explored showing different ways to navigate and use the data you add to Arc Map. And possibly most importantly to this lab, different methods of displaying the symbology provided by the various types of data. We will see this more below.

Map 1.

This map shows the states of Mexico utilizing a graduated color scheme of light tans (lower population) to dark browns (highest population) while not being overshadowed by surrounding elements.

Map 2.

This map shows you some of Mexico's largest urban areas and the sprawl of railways, roadways, and river ways that crisscross Mexico's landscape. It also gives you an inset map highlighting where in North/Central America your focus lies. One of the neat features I learned about and utilized in this map is that only cities with a population above 1 million people are labeled. You can also see I maintained a similar color and largely similar layout for the map elements as the previous map.

Map 3.

This map shows you the elevation throughout Mexico utilizing a raster Digital Elevation Model (DEM). It uses a stretched continuous flow color scheme. This starts with light greens as the lows, moving to yellows, tans, and ending with reds highlighting the peaks in the country. This layout also maintains an inset map highlighting Mexico and the focus area again. The other elements mostly maintain the previous maps standard layout with minor changes to the compass rose and name/date/data source elements due to spacing.

Thank you again for your time and interest.

v/r

Brandon