Data For GIS: Indian River County, FL

Week 7/8: Midterm

This week we utilized all the skills we have learned up to this point. We were asked to download all original data from different online databases, such as Labins and  FGDL. Then we had to ensure that all of the data was on the same projection system, which I almost successfully did. I went with the original projection from the FGDL website, since that is where most of my data came from. I now realize that it would have been better to choose a projection system that all the features supported. My quad image did not support the Albers Conical projection system that all my other data was in. For some reason, it interpreted it as NAD_HARN_Albers. All in all I gained essential knowledge on how to create a map from scratch, even for just one particular location.

This map includes:

Invasive species, county boundary, cities, major roads, surface water, public parks, and an aerial quad

This map includes:

DEM and county boundary

This map includes:

Wetlands, county boundary, and cities

Projections and Reprojections

Week 6-

This week we covered many concepts and tools within ArcGIS; from downloading map features and aerial images from web databases to using Excel to create data tables. I became very familiar with reprojecting layers from one coordinate system to another using the project tool. There is a vector project tool and a raster project tool.

At the end of the lab instruction I was prompted to create my own map with several different types of layers from different sources. I used the project tool to reproject most of the layers so that they were all on the same coordinate system. This ensures that all of the map features and scales correlate. I also became familiar with how to add data from an excel worksheet where I did conversions to longitude and latitude. It took me 6 hours or so to get through the lab and the process summary report, and then another 3 hours to create my map. My map consisted of a quad index, the county boundaries of Florida, the major roads, and an aerial quad from Escambia county. I also included a data layer with a list of all the petroleum storage tank contamination monitoring sites in town. I added this layer from an Excel file. All and all this lab was a tough-y.