Cartography

Figure 3: Boundaries of the Mexican States

Figure 4. Map of Mexico

Figure 5. Map of Mexico

Hey there amigos,

Last week in my GIS class I learnt about cartography - which is the study and practice of making maps. In this exercise I learnt how to manipulate the way datasets are displayed and touched on some techniques used to create clear and effective maps. In addition to using ArcMap to create these maps, I also learnt how to use a second component of ArcGIS which is ArcCatalog. ArcCatalog helps GIS users by providing an integrated and unified view of all data files, databases and ArcGIS documents available to ArcGIS users. ArcCatalog is the program you use to organize and manage these various datasets and documents in both file-based workspaces and in geodatabases. This program allows you to connect to your data source locations; browse through your workspaces; examine or explore the data; manage data, tables and metadata; and search for data and maps.

Figure 3, Map 1. Is a map which displays the boundaries of Mexican States. In order to create this map, we used two layers from ArcCatalog which is Mex_boundaries and Americas_Admin. However, since the Americas_Admin layer did not focus specifically on Mexico, I had to create a new shapefile containing only a subset of features which in this case only those within Mexico. I did this by selecting the features that are states of Mexico and exporting them to a new layer containing only these features. I "selected by attributes" to select all the Mexican States. In other words, this was done by creating a SQL query to select features based on the contents of the attribute table. This new layer was then created by exporting it. After the Mexican States were clearly defined, I then applied labels to the map by using the 'Labeling Feature' icon. The last thing done to this map was changing the color scheme, adding title, scale, scale bar and legend which I learnt how to do in previous classes.

Figure 4, Map 2. Is a map displaying Mexican urban areas, rivers, railroads and roads. The focus of this map is learning how to organize many layers. More layers were added from ArcCatalog which are mex_rails, mex_rivers, mex_roads, and mex_urban which are all different features of Mexico. The map produced after adding these many layers was a bit cluttered, however, I simplified it by selecting the necessary elements and deselecting unnecessary elements for this exercise. After I created the desired map I changed the color scheme, added labeling and  I even added an inset map which shows where the location of this map is in a broader geographic context.

Figure 4, Map 3. Is a map displaying the elevation for all of Mexico using a stretched symbology.


References:

Cano, A. (2015, September 14). Lecture