Lab 3 GIS 1

Introduction

The goal of this lab was to create a map from found data. I used data from the U.S. Census. The lab walked me through making the first map, and the second map allowed me to try it out for myself with data of choice to compare with the first map.

Methods

      I went to the U.S. Census Data Finder and found Wisconsin County level population data from 2010. I opened the metadata in Excel and saved that as a new .mlx file so it could be usable on ArcMap. I loaded the metadata and the census data into ArcMap and joined the data together. I then changed the colors of the map to be more aesthetically pleasing and also represents the data better.
    After creating this map, I found some more census data to work with. I found U.S. Rural and Urban housing data. I downloaded the data, and there were 6 different data sets I could map. I chose the population of urban housing in Wisconsin by County. I went through the same steps as the first map which created the map on the right.
 I went into data view of the maps where I added the legends, scale bars, and north arrows. I then exported the map into an .ai file and opened it in Adobe Illustrator. This is where I organized the legends, scale, and added boxes behind the data and title text to make a presentable map that is easy to understand.

Results

The trends between urban housing and population seem to be similar. Madison and Milwaukee have the darkest areas on both maps, the only difference is there is less urban housing on the counties surrounding these cities. This means that the urban sprawl of Madison and Milwaukee is not very far. There may be more people in these areas, but it is not considered urban housing.