Brian G. Buchanan
GEOG 483
Project 5/6: Layouts
February 19, 2008
My first task as a GIS Analyst for Union County, Pennsylvania was to produce a zoning map of the White Deer Township. It was the first zoning map ever created for the township, so in order to assuage any fears about it, the county commissioners decided to produce a brochure explaining the proposed zoning districts and what they meant (King 2008). The zoning map I produced will be a key component of the brochure, because it graphically shows the zoning breakdown in what, I hope, is an easy to understand map that conveys the reasoning behind the county commissioners' actions.
In order to do this, I first had to create a chloropleth map of the township based upon the zoning criteria decided upon by the county commissioners. The township was divided into seven different zones: agricultural, commercial, commercial and manufacturing, rural recreational, village, woodland, and other. I also symbolized the hydrography and the FEMA floodplains within the township, labeled the majority of the roads within the township, symbolized the major highways, and set a working map scale. Together, these produced a map that shows the zoning within the township.
Figure 1: Chloropleth map of White Deer Township, Union County, Pennsylvania. The color ramp was keyed to show the zoning within the township. The map shows that woodlands cover approximately half of the county, with the remainder consisting of mostly agricultural land. Note the rather large FEMA floodplain along the eastern boundary of the county. This map was produced using ArcView 9.2 on February 17, 2008.
Now that I had created a chloropleth map of White Deer Township, I needed to show the map information to the citizens of the township. In order to do this, I created two different layouts. The first layout was of the township and showed the different zones. The second layout contained a map of Pennsylvania showing the location of Union County, a map showing the location of White Deer Township within Union County, and a close up view of the zoning within White Deer Township.
The reason I needed two layouts was because of the goals of the map(s) for the brochure. I wanted the citizens of White Deer Township to understand the boundaries of the different zones within their township while also having an understanding of the capabilities of the Union County GIS Department. I needed to demonstrate that by using GIS, maps could be produced that were both accurate and easy to understand. Therefore the first map was to educate the public on the zoning within the county, and the second map was to demonstrate the capabilities of the Union County GIS Department while showing the location of the township in Union County and in Pennslyvania. Both layouts were similarly designed. The title bar along the western boundary of the map was designed to convey the title of the maps while hopefully being unobtrusive. The scale bars and north arrows used the same symbols in all of the data views within the layouts to keep continuity between the symbols.
Figure 2: Layout 1 of White Deer Township showing the chlorpleth zoning map. The map is unchanged from Figure 1. Notice, however, the title bar, scale, and north arrow. While my layout is simple, this was by design. I didn't want to distract the users of the map (i.e. the citizens of White Deer Township) with a super-detailed map layout that could potentially distract the viewers from the main purpose of the layout; which was the zoning of the township. This map was produced using ArcView 9.2 on February 17, 2008.
Figure 3: Layout 2 for the zoning project. This layout is similar in design, but the intent was much different. Layout 2 has a duel purpose: to show the relative location of White Deer Township in Union County, Pennsylvania and to show the capabilities of the Union County GIS Department. There are three data views in Layout 2. In the bottom left is a map of Pennsylvania, showing all of the counties in the state. Union County is highlighted roughly in the center of the state. The map in the bottom right is of Union County, and shows the location of White Deer Township. The township is differentiated using the zoning map I made for Layout 1. Finally, the map in the upper portion of the layout is a zoomed in view of the zoning map, showing the details a GIS can show such as street names, symbols for highways, etc. This layout was produced using ArcView 9.2 on February 18, 2008.
In order to make the maps within Layout 2, I used data on my hard drive that was previously collected of Pennsylvania and Union County (municipalities and county layers, respectively). Unfortunately, when I put these two layers into my map, I discovered that they were in a different coordinate system. The metadata for the two layers was incomplete, so I had to determine the coordinate system myself. Following the suggestion of my supervisor, I tested the different coordinate systems that the Union County GIS Department used, and determined that the two layers were in the North American Albers Equal Conic coordinate system. Once I knew what coordinate system the two layers were projected in, I could define them. They then lined up correctly with my zoning map, and I was able to create the two data views showing the relative locations of Union County and White Deer Township. This taught me another valuable lesson: maintain your metadata! Besides making it easier to use data in different applications, it is good GIS practice to create and maintain your metadata because of the issues I had in trying to use someone else’s data.
The maps I made were produced for a specific audience, the citizens of White Deer Township. I wanted to create a clear and user-friendly map that they could use to understand the new zoning of the township as well as to show the location of White Deer Township within the county and state. In addition, I wanted to create a layout to show the strengths of the Union County GIS Department. The trade-off for producing a clear and concise map was that I did not make the maps as detailed as they could have been. There was a lot more data that potentially could have been added to the maps. This additional data included names for every street, names of the lakes and streams, etc. as well as more advanced and more detailed layouts. This data and detail was not necessary to show the zoning of the township, so I therefore did not include it.
Even though certain trade-offs were made, overall I was pleased with the two different layouts. I feel they will be valuable additions to the brochure being produced, will help people in White Deer Township to understand the new zoning of their neighborhood, and hopefully understand the abilities of the Union County GIS Department.
Source
King, Beth (2008) Problem Solving with GIS, Lesson 5/6. The Pennsylvania State University World Campus Certificate Program in GIS. Accessed 18 February 2008.
This document is published in fulfillment of an assignment by a student enrolled in an educational program of The Pennsylvania State University. The student, named above, retains all rights to the document.