Lab 2: Cartography

 

This weeks lab was focused on cartographic design and essential map elements. In this post, I will briefly review the context of the data used and then I will focus on my cartographic design decisions. This map is meant to show the viewer the location of the UWF campus and some features of Escambia County, where the campus resides. Our data included Escambia county boundary, Florida cities, all Florida counties, interstates, major rivers, and the point location of UWF. We used Escambia County boundary and Florida Counties data to create an insert map located at top right corner of the page to help the audience see that the county in question was at the top left corner of the state. For the main map, I clipped the data for major rivers and interstates so that only the rivers and interstates in Escambia county were visible. I set a definition query for the Florida cities data and set a clause so that County was equal to Escambia County. From this step, I began to consider my essential map elements and cartographic design.

Essential map elements include title, scale, legend, north arrow, border, date, data source, and cartographer's name. I placed the title at the top of the page so it would not overlap with anything on the map. I chose a larger size text for my title than any other text on the map with a simple, easy to read Tahoma typeface and bolded the text. To create my title, I used the insert rectangle method and typed in my title – “University of West Florida Main Campus.” My inset map title is smaller than the main map title and in a similar easy-to-read typeface. The scale bar, the north arrow, along with my name, sources, and date all went on the bottom of the page where there was plenty of white space. I manually entered the information via a text box for my name, sources, and date. The UWF logo is place on the left side of the map on more white space due to the shape of the state of Florida. After reviewing the "Using Color in Maps" guide by Georgianna Strode from the FSU Geography Department, I decided to make the area of land outside of Escambia County in green. Green is the standard color for most land types within maps including parks, golf courses, reservations, forests, and orchards. I kept the same gray color for Escambia County in both the main map and the inset map to minimize confusion of the county’s location. The rest of the counties of Florida and Escambia County are both included in the legend with corresponding-colored symbols. The legend also lists the symbols for cities, rivers, interstates, and the location of UWF represented by a blue star.