Vector Lab

 

    This week in lab we focused on vectors and how to change them. There were two parts to lab this week. The first part of lab we learned how to select by attributes in order to get to a specific goal. The select by attribute tool in ArcGIS Pro allows you to input a feature class and add/remove things to find things that are in a relation to each other.  For example, if the goal is to find out how many gas stations in Slidell, Louisiana are within  2 miles to a hospital and 5 miles from a school; you can input gas station and filter it down to all of the ones that are 2 miles to a hospital and then filter it again to which ones are in the 5 miles of a school. This is good tool to learn when doing data analysis to help find problems and solutions. 

    The second part of lab we learned about buffers, unions, and other ways to manipulate data. In the map above, the water and roads were buffered and then put into a union in order to create a map showing where they overlap, with the removal of conservation areas. These sites could be places where people can go to bird watch, sit an enjoy nature, or take a lovely stroll without disturbing conservation sites. I choose to use this color scheme because I feel like there is a lot of chaos going on in the background with the water and roads that a very simple scheme helps calm the chaos. I made it 30% transparent in order to see the roads and water that cross into these sites and make them easier to find. I also classified them by hectares so that it would be easier for the map viewer to understand the area of the possible site they would want to explore.  Next, I decided to investigate the attribute table for the roads and only add names for the longer roads because with all of them named it looked crazy and very distractive. Therefore, I only choose the roads that were the longest and could be easily followed. Finally, I found a data set from Mississippi Geospatial Data Catalog that included all the counties in order to make the inset map in the top right hand corner, the legend went in the bottom left corner, and everything else became fillers in the open white areas where they looked visually appealing.