Mapping Mexico

Week 3 Map 1

For this assignment I had to take data from a couple different layers and create a new layer that dealt with the administrative boundaries in Mexico. After doing this I had to make a map that showed the states of Mexico colored according to population with a legend.

Some problems I had during this exercise involved the color choices I picked and the generic ones assigned by ArcMap. In my first draft of the map, the color for the other countries was automatically chosen as a beige/tan color. It looked fine for countries that were not going to be highlighted for this map, but I stumbled into a problem with the color ramp I chose initially. The states on the lower end of the population scale had a nearly identical color to the surrounding countries. I had trouble defining where Mexico ended and the other countries began particularly near the southern tip. To fix it I just changed the color of the surrounding countries, and also switched my color ramp for population to be sure they were totally different.

Another problem I encountered was with the labeling of the individual states. In my first attempt the labels were a bit larger and easy to read; however, they tended to clump together in certain areas particularly in the central belt of the country. I tried to move the labels individually but could not figure out how to accomplish this. Instead, I decided to just reduce the size of the labels and it was a quick improvement. Further along in the lesson, I learned how to move the individual labels and used it in my following maps.

Week 3 Map #2

This part of the assignment had me mapping a zoomed in portion of Mexico with roads, railways, and rivers. This was also the first time I have added a second data frame to use as a locator insert. I think this will be very useful in my future maps. I also added shadows to some of the labels and the insert on this map, but could not find a way to add a shadow to an entire layer (I was going to put a shadow under the country layer to make it pop out from the ocean.) I'll have to do some more experimenting.

My difficulties with this map involved the legend. I couldn't figure out how to switch the order for the Primary and Major River labels in the legend. I could change the names if I wanted to, but that wouldn't actually change the order. I tried to drag and drop them like I was switching layers, but was unable to do it. It wasn't a big sticking point for this map, however it is something I am going to have to learn for future maps.

In this map I also played with some settings and discovered rounding. I used rounding on the edges and borders for the map and the insert and I carried it over to include the legend. It was fun for me to try and figure out how it worked, and I liked the look of it. I had major problems doing anything once I started rounding the map. Everything took 3 to 4 times as long to load whenever I made any changes to the map. It became so frustrating I ditched the rounding for the final third map in the exercise just so I could complete it at a reasonable pace.

Week 3 Map #3

This map was my first exposure to Digital Elevation Model (DEM) raster layers. It added a great textured look to the map and I was excited to try out working with this kind of layer. After playing around a bit, I checked the box for "hillside shading" because it looked better on the map and decided to keep it.

One problem I had while making this map was the units in the legend. As I created it I realized that I didn't know what the units were for the elevation. After a few different attempts at figuring it out, I remembered that I could check the metadata to see what units it was in. I figured out how to do this without leaving ArcMap, but (perhaps since it is just for an exercise) the metadata did not explain in what units the data were collected. I took my best guess after googleing for a few seconds and went with Meters.

One other tip I figured out during this lesson was about the scale. The exercise required us to use round numbers in our scale, and I didn't know how to do that. I was wondering how this was accomplished in my previous lessons where the scales were random numbers that didn't make much sense. Turns out it was as simple as dragging the scale bigger or smaller and looking at the results. Very useful to know.