For the two class map, I left the format of the title, leged, scale, and north arrow the same. I used a dark blue for my positive percentages and a light pink for my negative percentages. I like the contrast between the two colors. I wanted to use a light color and dark color for more contrast, instead of two light or two dark. When I do the GIF for the 2 class map, I will put it at the same speed as the graduated symbol and dot density animations, because putting them much faster than that, hurts my eyes.

I went back to do something creative with my GIF Animations but the Tranistion option said the image must be 10×10, so I went back to adobe and in image size change it, but the image became distorted, so I chose not to do a transition. The color animation messes up my maps and text as well as the cube effect and scrolling. I did try those things, but it simply did not work, so I will not be creative and keep it simple.

For my animation speeds, I chose different speeds for the chloropleth, the slow was at 250, the moderate 130 and the fast 75. The 2class animations have speeds of 60 for fast, 100 for moderate and 150 for slow. The dot density fast and moderate values remained the same as the 2class animations, but I sped up the slow some by changing to a 130. The graduated symbol animations has the same speed values as the dot density.

I think I may have the sad story beat for this semester. After I exported all of my maps, and then went back to do my 2class map, I didn’t realize that I would still need my original 6class maps in GIS, so I just replace each 6class map with a 2class map. When I went back to save my all 22 of my chloropleth maps, I only had the 11 2class maps left, so I had go back and figure out all my colors again, they did not end up identical to my previous maps, but are relatively close.

I changed the outlines of the counties from gray to white, and up to size 3 before Arc2Earth. I used the GIS properties, and changed the outline of each color individually by double-clicking on the box. I then imported one map into all of the other maps.

I had some issues getting my maps up on the instructor’s computer because I did not save each set of chloropleth maps into the same GIS folder, I made a different folder, and as a result my maps did not show up. I had to reload on to the disc after I saved them into the GIS folder, but then they didn’t work, because the second time I had forgot to go back to the document properties and change to the relative path. Once I got the maps to show up in the right spot, exporting the maps to google using Arc2Earth was not difficult, and did not take long at all. I am now finished with lab 9, I just have to change my web pages some and then upload them online and my project will be complete.

Once the maps are ready I saved each one into my gif-maps folder using export map. I kept the title the same for all the maps, and just changed the years. Each map is titled Missouri Population, and the year goes with it accordingly. I didn’t label the graduated symbol, proportional symbol or dot density as such, I figured it is obviously tell what kind of maps they are.

I had to export all of my maps for a second time because they all had legends in them and they weren’t supposed to. I also changed the proportional symbols map to unknown units, with three different circles, 1,000 10,000 and 100,000. I didn’t use a border around this legend because of the intensity, I had to move the legend so the circles were touching the page border and the legend border was off the screen. All the other legends kept a border of 0.5. I changed the title of the chloropleth to % Population Change, the Dot Density legend, just says Dot Density and the Graduated Symbols says Graduated Symbol. I changed the proportional symbol to just say Population, because Proportional Symbol would not fit once the cirlcles got the largest.

This lab is very time consuming, not necessarily difficult, but incredibly time consuming. You have to give yourself enough time to export, crop and of course for any mistakes that may be made. The project is almost complete, just the animations and loading on the web, I’m almost there!

With the 5 scale setup, for the above chlorpleth maps the differences are either very noticeable or not noticeable at all really. The way the percents are split are different for each map, making it hard to compare between the 11 maps. The one large thing I see when observing the maps is the trends in colors are noticeable, red and green especially are massed together into larger “groups”. I will not be able to tell if this is just for these maps, or if the classification scheme I choose will have any difference whatsoever. From looking at the color schemes, I think I would rather do a diverging map, where negatives are one color or similar colors and positives are another color or group of similar colors. I feel that these maps are easier to read when done that way. My middle range is going to be from -2 to 2, so this will be a neutral color since it has both negative and positive percents. I have an idea for what I want to do for my color scheme, I just hope it works.

2000-2006 Natural Jenks Map (6)

2000-2006 Quantile Map

2000-2006 Equal Interval Map

All three maps are very distinctive and have noticeable differences. The first natural jenks map looks like there was more of a population increase with a lot of counties bunched in the light brown color range. The quantile map looks like there is an even spread between positve and negative population changes and the equal interval map appears to have a larger decrease in population with a bunch of counties in the light green color range. All three maps show the same population changes, but the ranges are different and used to emphasize something different. For the final map project I will be creating my own natural jenks classification scheme, that I am sure will be very different from all three of the above maps.

The color scheme for the chloropleth maps was chosen to keep the map simple. I did not want to use a color scheme that was different hues of the same color cause I myself have trouble distinguishing the different hues. I would have prefferred to use a diverging map where one color is used for the negative percents and one is used for the positive percents, but I could not find a divergin color scheme that fit my information well, so I chose a greenish-blue sequential color scheme. I think it looks alright, as long as everyone who will be viewing my maps can see the differences, than that is all that matters.

The graduated symbols map, I used triangles, for a little bit of something different and then I chose a deep red for the color of the triangles with a light blue background, which makes the triangles noticeable. The size I ranged for the triangles was from 8-20 so they are big enough to see but not so big that impede onto other counties so much. I put the breaks at 9000, 15000, 24000, 36000 and 45000 with the highest population being at 1,016,467 and the lowest population being at 2186.

I am having trouble with the proportional symbol maps. The circles are either so tiny they can’t be seen or so large they cover the whole state. The one I have chosen now is decimeters, if I went a step up it would be to feet. I used circles instead of the squares because to be honest the squares were kind of scaring me, they just didn’t look right. For the color I chose an orangish-red. It’s dark, but not so dark that it is hard to see the outline for the circles that overlap. I am going to continue to fiddle with the program to see if I can find a happy medium in between feet and decimeters.

The dot density maps are complete and the color of the dots are a deep blue-green. The size of the dots are 3.5 because even 3 looked much smaller, almost to small. Right now I have a white background but I will probably change that before I am finished. The lowest population for all the years was 2186, so I set my lowest value for 2000 to be safe. The codes on my range was R116 G165 and B166. I chose a peach or really light tan color for the background, which makes the dots “pop”.

I just changed the color scheme for the chloropleth maps, once Annie showed me how I can create my own color scheme. I wanted to used a diverging color scheme before but couldn’t settle on one I liked. I kept a very similar color scheme to one already changed in GIS, I just changed a few colors, making the 2 shades of green for the negative, a light blue for my median color, it has both negative and positive values for it, and then shades of brown for the positives. I really like the way it turned out, the colors are distinguishable, not too alike and I don’t believe they clash.

All 40 some maps are complete, just some looking over to make sure all the details are okay, before the lab where we put them on the web.

Just finished calculatiing all the percentages. The only problem I had was once, my percentages were not taking any decimals, but it turns out I had not switched from short integer to float type. Any other problems had to do with not including the brackets when changing the years. Other than those small things, it was very smooth.

Definitions:

DBF4/Dbase4 file: a database file format that can use text setups in Excel to join in GIS and put onto a map.

Select By Attributes: A useful “tool” used to pull out specific information and make more noticeable on a map.

Query: written as a statement and used to select features from a database file.

Fields (in a table): the fields within a table can be a combination of other fields or just information about the particular layer, that will be put the resulting map. This lab we add the percentage change per decade, which are all fields in the attribute table. We will use these fields to make map about the percentage change over time and space.

records (in a table): used in relating tables when the value for the common item is the same between those tables.

Attributes: information about geographic features in GIS that are directly linked to the unique feature.

Relational Database: databases are related to eachother by shared fields.

Join Function: Joining information in one layer with the information of another by adding data to the attribute table of one and combining all the information from the two tables, can also include joining of an outside source, like we did in lab 5, joining GIS info with information in an Excel document.

Monitor Fire: according to everyone else, this is a joke, haha!!!

Calculate/Field Calculator: Used to create calculations for fields, very similar to using Excel tools. If you create an equation with the field calculator, for a particular field, then the equation will be used for the entire column, so that each one does not to be done individually.

well, Lab 5 is now complete, not too difficulte, ran pretty smoothly and now I’m out.

I made highway maps of both nevada and Georgia.  Completely different, considering Georgia has many highways and Nevada has few.  The differences between the two are neat.  Both I started out with block census groups, which I left alone on the Nevada map, just changing the color.  The Georgia map I changed to population changes within the BCGs.  To add some more to the Nevada map, I added rivers, but the Georgia map was too cluttered for other features. 

Perusing the select attributes feature, I had trouble with the “commands”.  I knew how to do the highway one, because of the example done by Krygier.  I tried typing a bunch of different things just to see how it worked, but alas no luck.  Maybe I can try finding out the different commands by searching online.  Good luck to me.

Definitons:

Map Document-A file containing a map and its layout plus the layers, tables, charts, reports associated with that particular map.

Table of Contents- A list of data frames and layers that show what symbolizes what on a particular map.

Data Frame- Contains the physical properties of the map.

Map Layer- Found within a data frame and contains a particular property of the map.

Attribute Table- A file in table/chart form that contains information on specific geographical features that can be displayed on a map.

One feature I found out was to change the plain old block groups into specific data for the groups.  After trying multiple times, I found a way to do a selection by location and zip codes containing block groups, but it may have undone or blended in with my road attributes.  It still looks cool, to do multiple attributes, I need to learn to change the color the attribute shows up.

ARCGIS was a little overwhelming at first.  There are so many different things to do and different ways to do them.  After spending some time working with it, I am a little more confident about creating maps using the program, but I should spend more time trying different things.  Overall the program is neat and once I really get a hold on how to use it, I’m sure it will be more fun.

The process took awhile, but not because it was difficult but simply long.  All the text is set up and saved, I just hope there are no problems converting to ARCGIS.  I was lucky that all my FIPS were right, although the last number/s alternated odds, like 29001 29003 29005 29007 29009 29011.  Its kind of strange they didn’t use even numbers.  I had to delete the city of St. Louis data along with the Missouri state and US values.  Now the only popest are for Missouri counties.  Other than that it was alot of copy, cut, paste and such, not too hard at all!

Okay, so I went to open my Exel population page I saved and once again I saved it to my memory card, not the computer, and it just so happens I didn’t bring my memory card today.   I am such an idiot, Pull yourself together woman! Try again tomorrow!!!

So I got my google API KEY and I tried to go to the map mashup page, and its empty, there is absolutely nothing written on it, this is so frustrating. I know I had it complete, I looked at it and I double checked to make sure it was there, and now it is gone. I have to give the presntation in like an hour, and I am not even close to being prepared, I need to not procrastinate, although I thought coming in here today I would only have to get my links to my lab log and google map mashup and then upload it to the internet. Well good luck to myself, I am going to need it.

Wow, I found it, computers are so testy. Now I just have to add some fun to my pages, this should be great!

~yahoo directory search: regional—US States—Missouri

From there research community, people, history for particular cities, regions, or counties.

It took a few minutes to peruse the US Census WWW site, but I found resident population and located the state of Missouri. Graphs and data popped up. Also checked out the percent growth and redistribution of population, compared the US to Missouri alone, which didn’t have a high amount of redistribution or percent growth, except a small region in the southeast. Further searching found all kinds of statistical data reports on Missouri alone, not all the states together. The site is helpful and set-up fairly well, not difficult at all.

The keyword searches I found to be much easier and straightforward, as well as providing more options for the info which I was attempting to find. I checked a few different websites before I found exactly what I was looking for, at the Missouri State Census data page. This site provides information just on the state of Missouri, there is no searching for the correct info then finding the state.

Although the Yahoo Directory site was helpful and not hard to search, I definitely preferred using Google as a keyword search. Google was much easier and straightforward, or I might just prefer because I have used it so often and have never done a search through a directory. It might take some time to get used to it, but as for now I prefer keyword searches.

Data Found:

Total Population, Land Area (Sq. Miles) and Population Density, 1900-2000

http://mcdc.missouri.edu/trends/historical.shtml

Population Estimates for Missouri, April 1,2000 and July 1, 2005

http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/pu/webrepts/casrh05/mor2cbsa.pdf

*Note*-still looking for 2006 data

US Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/table-16.pdf

Population of each city and other facts: http://www.city-data.com/city/Branson-Missouri.html

Projections for future populations in Missouri: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_missouri_census

Extras:

The website http://www.naco.org has each state with all the counties listed plus the population in those counties as of 2000. More information on the counties could be useful for population. (This information may also be found under the Yahoo Directory research).

The transportation system in Missouri is split into different regions, these regions along with the counties will be good use on the population map. http://www.modot.org/

Detailed history of all highways/interstates running through Missouri can be found at http://www.cosmos-monitor.com/road/mo

State attractions and landmarks: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108234.html

Relate gas prices to population: http://www.missourigasprices.com/