Module 1 Challenge

The following link will take you to this weeks challenging challenge. ERDAS Imagine was a bit twitchy at times but I managed to complete this simple map with a few do-overs.

JEL_Mod1Challenge

Final_Cartographic Skills

It was a tough choice between the SAT or ACT. I took the SAT in High School. This time I chose The ACT. Very interesting, the trend in preference for one over the other by location but the test scores showed no particular correlation to the percent of students participating.

Google Earth

JEL World Wind Eco-Farm
Site Selection
Michigan’s coastal Wind Resources and Transmission lines are rated good/ excellent by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2004). Michigan has potential capacity of 16,560 mega watts (13th in US) and relatively low existing capacity at 449 mw. Originally the site was located in Lake Huron before learning that most new wind power development in the U.S. has been onshore, due to the higher costs and risks of offshore wind power, along with delays due to opposition to projects such as Cape Wind (Wikipedia) off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As In the Bowling Green case, the World Wind Eco-Farm, if embraced by the local community can become a green attraction and pilot project for the area.

Wind speed; 6.5-7 m/s predicted mean annual wind speeds at 80-m height (U.S. Dept. of Energy).

Ornithology: This site has very few flyways, corridors, or narrow routes but several converging migratory routes as does much of the Great lakes area per the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (USGS)

Ecology: Although a coastal area, this site is inland and agricultural in character minimizing the ecological impacts.

Noise: Vicinity consists of agricultural and limited residential areas within a one mile radius.

Shadow Flicker: Very few residents in shadow zones especially in the east/ west impact zone.

Electro-Magnetic interference: Negligible

Access: 11 miles to major shipping at Port Huron and 2.5 miles to State Highway 25.

Aeronautical and Military: No airports or military installations in vicinity.

Landscape and Visual: Scenic Highway area through farmland and proximity to coastline may be an issue of opposition. Immediate vicinity has no major resort areas or parks and limited costal homes.

Week8_Isarithmic Mapping

Here is my Isarithmic map for this weeks deliverable. Manually interpolating the observation data was straight forward. I had to learn some new tricks to complete the map with shading but overall a good learning experience.

Week9_Flow Map

Week 9’s Flow map was a challenging exercise for illustrating the movement of people to the U.S. This is a distributive flow map utilizing conceptual point locations. I chose a Robinson compromise world projection to make the map layout more interesting. Using the square root of the data values to calculate my line widths made the range more compact and worked well graphically. There was plenty of room to add annotation to each flow line making a legend redundant and unnecessary. The empty space at the lower corners was perfect place for a legend if it were needed. I decided to add the Homeland Security logo and image for visual balance. Illustrator is starting to be more useful with each map completed and I hope to get more proficient and quicker as the weeks go by.

Week8_Dot Maps

While placing dots for this housing density map I considered the provided ancillary data (lakes, rivers and wetlands) as limiting attributes. I also added cities, towns and urban areas as related ancillary data to further influence the dot placement. Add the random/ human factor and the results are this weeks Areal Frequency Map of Florida’s housing units. The biggest challenge was avoiding geometric pattern, false clusters and voids as suggested in the module reading. I chose not to label the counties because my intent was to portray the distribution pattern for the entire state. County lines and lakes are included for reference.

Week7_Proportional Symbols

Another interesting week with Illustrator vs ArcGIS. Used both programs extensively for this map. I Learned a lot about the capabilities of each as well as some essential formulas in excel for scaling symbols correctly. I used the world map shape file from week 2 to fill in the rest of the land mass and projected from space for the key map.