Goal and Background: Lab one was a test in my ability to discern and use appropriate geographic and projected coordinate systems in different types of data. As well as testing my ability to solve problems in data related to their co-ordinate systems. It also served as an introduction to the cartographical elements of arc.map software.
Methods: This lab was divided into four parts, each with their own task to accomplish.
Part 1: The entirety of part one was using different projection co-ordinate systems on a world map. For this section, I made 5 different data frames and I had to define the layer coordinate system to a set projection 4 times on a world map, and then make one projection of my choice on a world map. This was accomplished by using defining the co-ordinate system using the co-ordinate system tab on the data frame properties. The 4 assigned co-ordinate systems were Sinusoidal (world), Equidistant Conic (world), WGS 1984 and Mercator (world). I used the PolyConic (world) projection co-ordinate system as my additional system of my choice.
Part 2: This section built off the same skill set as part one, but instead focused on a country and state level. I used a state feature class of the US, then created a layer from one selected state feature from the class, making a separate map of only the State of Wisconsin. Additionally, I matched two different features that were incorrectly matched with on-the-fly projecting, to use the same co-ordinate system using the Projection and Transformations feature-project, by importing the desired co-ordinate system from one feature to the other. Creating a map of the US with a separate map of Michigan roads incorporated into it.
Part 3: Part three was an introduction to the cartographical tools in arc.map software, I took the previous 7 maps, and using the layout view, and other tools from arc.map's insert menu to insert a neat line and titles to each map, as well as using the align center, left right and resize options.
Part 4: This was by far the hardest of the sections for me, because it required me to observe both metadata and projections to solve errors between datasets, due to lack of defined co-ordinate systems and incorrect co-ordinate systems. This was done by using the projection tool and the define projection tool, as well as using the data properties and the view item description button. The reason this was so difficult for me was that I needed to realize that defining projection and projection were different things. Once I had realized that I could not simply project a dataset that had no projection assigned to it, but instead needed to define its projection, the lab went much smoother.
Results:
Fig1: My Map results from Part 1-3.
This map showcases the appearance of the world from different projection co-ordinate systems, as created in part 1, as well as an adjusted map of the United States to accommodate new data, and a map of a single feature isolated from a separate feature class, as created in part 2
Fig 2: My Map of Central Wisconsin Counties and Rivers
This map showcases the results of my projection corrections after
Sources:
Textbook:
Price, M, (1963), Mastering ArcGIS--Sixth Edition
Part 1: Anonymous (nd), Country, Provided in textbook
Part 2: Anonymous (nd), STATES, Provided in textbook
Anonymous (nd), stroads_miv5a, Provided in textbook
Part 3: no data used
Part 4:
Anonymous (nd), Lower_Chip_strms, Given by instructor
Eseri ArcGIS content team (10th edition, 2010-06-30), US Counties Generalized, Given by instructor
Thanks to Dr. Cyril Wilson for his assistance in Part 4 of the lab.
