Final Poster and Map

After all of my work, I was able to come up with a map that encompassed much of what my client, Dr. Kolosvary wanted. I included the layers that she wanted for wetlands, roads, her breeding sites and the park boundary and for the land cover and open area layers she had asked for, we came to an agreement that the raster data was just too cluttered to add to the map. Instead, Dr. Kolosvary said the base map worked well, because we were able to see where the forested areas and open areas were, which was most important. The streams seemed a little too much as well, so we both decided to keep the wetlands, and take away the streams and rivers that took over a lot of the map.

Since I did not have enough time to go to the park after I had learned that the stops along the road and trail maps were another layer she thought of, I did create a separate, georeferenced map which shows where the breeding sites are in relationship to the overall park map. This is the smaller map on the right hand side. I also was able to present my project at the Academic Celebration in the student union, so my poster was printed and displayed at that event, which is something I am very proud of. Below is the final product of my map as well as my poster:

Week 7 Progress

This week I created a new map in order to show the locations of the wood frog breeding sites to areas such as the visitors road and trails, by georeferencing an already existing park map. I then added the wood frog breeding site points to the geoferenced map. Below is what it looks like:

 

I also was able to finally get the land use layer downloaded from the public folder, which is what Dr. Kolosvary had originally asked me to include. However, as of right now my land use is shown below, and I'm not sure how to make this look presentable. Any suggestions? I have already reclassified for foested areas if that's something she may want instead.

 

As of right now I will have one map with the land use (above), then show Dr. Kolosvary what it would look like if there were three different maps with different layers instead of just that one map.

Week 6 Progress

This week I talked to Dr. Kolosvary and confirmed that what I have so far is good, and said I would make time within the next week or so to show her what I have made. I have added the tax parcel data layers to the map, which I found out was a good decision to add because the USA federal lands layer I was originally using for the park boundary was incorrect. Now I am now trying to query out just the Saratoga Battlefield, and creating a layer for that, so that boundary is the only one that shows up. However, I am having trouble deciphering what it is I am looking for in the attribute table that I need to query out for.

I am waiting to send the draft to Dr. Kolosvary until I can get this issue figured out, and make a more presentable map, with the land use layers added in as well. She also asked if I could possibly add in trails that the park has and the spots that cars can stop along their drive to read interpretative signs. This request was a minor detail she said I could add in if I had time, but I am hoping that it is something I will be able to provide for her. Dr. Kolosvary mentioned that in the previous .gif files, these spots were put in already, but since I have been using the map from bingmaps, I need to find a way to get this information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5 Progress

This week I have just been working on changing the symbology so that I am able to show all of layers in a way that looks presentable. So far I have not made much progress so I think I may try to intersect certain layers that overlap each other and see how this turns out, or maybe use a different kind of tool from chapter 8 to help me. Next week I hope to have this figured out, and bring a draft to Dr. Kolosvary to see if she would like me to change or add anything else to the map. From there, I will either add what she needs, or begin creating the final poster.

Week 4 Progress

Last week, I originally found a data set on the clearinghouse which I thought would be helpful entitled "State Historic Sites and Park Boundaries," however this did not show up when I added it to my base map. This week, I was also able to find more information on the NYS GIS Clearinghouse, which was the Saratoga County Tax Parcel Boundaries, which may be a better option for me to determine the correct boundaries for the Saratoga Battlefield. I was also able to unzip the street layers data set from the Clearinghouse. I was also able to find New York State wetland data by looking through the public folder, clicking on hydrography, and then selecting the wetlands. For next week, I would like to have the park boundaries included as well as the land use layer added, which will require meet to do more searching online or in Arc Catalog, because the NYS GIS Clearinghouse does not have this exact data on its site. I also hope to start to edit the symbology to make the map look more professional Below is my map as of now:

Week 3 Progress

So far this week I have e-mailed Dr. K regarding changes from the .gif files to the new Bing map. I also included in the e-mail inquiry as to whether or not I should plan on changing my current points. The biggest battle for me this week is to figure out how to get the particular layers I need for this map. I have searched the NYS GIS Clearinghouse to see if I could find the layers such as wetlands, roadways and forested areas and so far I have found several data sets that might help me. However,
I am still looking to find others. As I find these data sets I am also e-mailing Dr. Meierdiercks in hopes to get the password to unlock the New York State Historic Sites and Park Boundary. On ArcGIS online I was able to search for USA federal lands, which outlined the boundaries of the Saratoga Battlefield, which was one of the layers I was looking for, but I will use the NYS boundary data to confirm that this is the correct boundary. Below is a map of the current map as of now:

 

Below are the sites from the GIS Clearinghouse that I hope to find the data layers I need from within the next week or two. One question I need to get the answer of is how to use the zip files once I obtain them.

 

http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=978 (Historical Land Use and Land Cover)
http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=815 (National Land Cover Data)
http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=1167 (DEC Roads and Trails)
http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=928 (NYS Hydrography)
http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=932 (NYS streets)

Week 2 Progress

This week I edited the points for the study site locations in the excel file to change the degrees and minutes for latitude and longitude into decimal degrees. I was then able to convert these points to shapefiles, which I made in a separate map, and uploaded them to my map. I was having issues getting the points to show up on my initial map with the "tif" files uploaded, so I began a new map, using all of the study site locations, with a bing map as the basemap instead. This has given me a much better start to this project, and I can proceed from here. I hope to speak to Dr. Kolosvary by next blog post, so I can confirm that what I have changed will be okay with her.

One question I have as I proceed is where do I find the New York State Clearinghouse database? I have searched on ArcGis online, but I am not so sure I am finding the correct data for the layers I need at this site. By next blog post, I hope to include whatever layers I can find on the NYS clearinghouse that will be important to the research of the wood frog populations.