Week 6 - Projections Part 2

This week was a challenging assignment, with a lot to take in about projections and working with data. A three part lab, including finding and downloading data, creating xy data from Excel tables, and more work in defining and projecting coordinate systems. Our output goal was to create a map of storage tank containment monitoring sites in two USGS quads in Escambia County, FL.

To make the map I had to go through a series of steps, starting with locating two adjacent USGS quadrangles for Escambia County, FL from LABINS.org. After adding the rasters and relevant vector files to my map, it was time to import xy data. After some lat/long conversions in Excel, I added the xy data, changed it to a shapefile and...ran into my first real problem. The point data didn't line up. Ah yes...lesson learned: you need to define raw data, like GPS coordinates, to WGS 1984 coordinate system first, then reproject it to match the projection coordinate system of other data in the map. Problem solved, data all lined up, on to the sometimes longer process of map design, which I found challenging due to all the points, lines, and raster colors.

A highlight during this lab was during our our online open session when a few of my more experienced GIS classmates provided insight into their process of building a map. For example, studying the data as text to see what it's about, figuring out what story you want to tell with that data, then making it visually happen. In contrast, my usual artist take is to drop everything into the map, then see how to rearrange it-more like a puzzle than a story. Interesting and useful to get the data driven perspective, which is really what this whole GIS thing is all about, right?

Map of petroleum tank sites in two USGS quads of Escambia County, FL. Data includes raster files, polygons, lines, and point data imported from Excel.