GIS 1 Lab 3

Goals and Background:
The main goal of this second lab is to explore and gain practice with different methods of gathering and using forms of GIS data and standalone data.  One specific goal is to transform data from a standalone table with data into a map-able attribute table.  Another goal is to become familiar with the U.S. Census Bureau website and be able to obtain information from it for GIS use.  This lab will also be practicing the creation and use of both static and dynamic maps.  The past few weeks of this class have been devoted to exploring attribute and table data and presenting and mapping GIS data.  Lab 2 will put some of those concepts and practices to use.



Methods:
The first part of this lab involved downloading and mapping census data in ArcMap.  Using the U.S.Census Bureau website, I navigated to 2010 SFI 100% Data for all counties within the state of Wisconsin and downloaded data for Total Population into my student folder and then unzipped the file.  I then opened the population data in excel and saved it as an MS Excel file.  The population size data was set to numeric in order to successfully join tables later.  To obtain spatial representation for the map, I went back to the U.S. Census Bureau website and downloaded a shapefile of Wisconsin and saved and unzipped it in my student folder.  I then opened a blank ArcMap and added the shapefile and the population table to it.  I joined their tables based on the matching field GEO#id and then exported the joined table as a shapefile. I created a graduated colors map with the shapefile data (Figure 1).  I then went back to the U.S. Census Bureau Website, downloaded Housing Units data, and repeated the steps above with that data in a new map document (Figure 2).  I added map elements like titles and legends to both, "cleaned up the map", and changed the projection to NAD 1983 Wisconsin TM (Transverse Mercator).
In the second part of the lab, I created a dynamic map with the housing data I downloaded in the first part.  I created a feature service by signing into ArcGIS Online from ArcMap and published by housing map document through ArcGIS server.  I then signed into ArcGIS online from a web browser, found my document under the My Contents section and added the layer to a map.  Once the layer was against the map, I configured pop-ups and shared my map.


Results:




Figure 1
The data for this map was converted from an Excel table and joined to a table of data from a shapefile.  It shows population size in each county of Wisconsin with a graduated colors map.  It demonstrates the ability to download and use data properly and conduct a successful join.



Figure 2
The procedure and method route are exactly the same for this map as they were for figure one.  This map shows the number of Housing Units in each county in Wisconsin.



Figure 3
This map is a demonstration of the ability to create a static dynamic, interactive map from a static one.  In a dynamic map like this one, users can click on counties to view information about the number of housing units in that county and zoom in and out freely.

Sources:

Price, Maribeth. Mastering ArcGIS. 7th ed. N.p.: McGraw Hill, 2016. Web. 7 March. 2016.

"American FactFinder." American FactFinder. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.

Becker, K. (2016, February 16). Kelly's Geog 335 GIS 1 Blog [Web blog post].

kellysgis1blog.blogspot.com