The purpose of this lab is to learn how to map data for administrative and land use purposes. The data used for this lab pertains to the Confluence Project. The Confluence Project is a collaborative project between UW Eau Claire and the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center. The intent of this development is to be a mixed use facility containing University/student housing, commercial retailers and three performance spaces and a variety of other uses.
The specific goals of the lab were to:
- Explore various datasets for Eau Claire and Eau Claire County
- Digitize the proposed site of the Confluence Project
- Create a brief legal description of the proposed site
- Build a map with data frames relevant to the confluence project.
Methods and Procedure
To begin, my first step was to read information provided in the lab about the confluence project. The readings provided are in the three links below
http://volumeone.org/news/1/posts/2014/01/21/6112_county_board_will_pledge_3_5m_to_confluence_if
Along with other information, the location of the site was described in these readings. This was helpful when it came time to digitize the area of the proposed site.
Digitization
For the digitization of the confluence project I completed the following steps
1. Created a blank geodatabase in ArcCatalog
2. Added the feature class pro_site (Polygon features)
3. Set the coordinate system from the Census Features class
4. Inserted an image basemap, and the parcels area feature class
After I had these steps completed, I looked at LegalOutline.jpg (In lab 1 folder) and drew polygons covering the areas of the proposed site. Using snapping tools, I was able to snap edges and vertices to the already existing parcel layer. Once this was done, the site was digitized, and the pro_site feature class was ready to be used.
Brief Legal Description
For the brief legal description I completed the following steps
1. Looked up the Parcel ID number using the identify tool while in the parcel_area layer
2. Went to Eau Claire's Property and Assesment Search Website and typed in the parcel ID numbers for the properties
3. Compiled information into a brief legal description.
Using Eau Claire's Property and Assessment Search Website and the information from the parcel layer, I was able to produce these two descriptions shown below. A map with the parcel highlighted is shown for clarity to the side.
For this map I made the following Data Frames
1. Civil Divisions
2. Census Boundaries
3. Public Land Survey System
4. Zoning
5. Voting Districs
6. EC City Parcel Data
In all of the data frames I put an aerial image basemap and the proposed site of the confluence project. Each data frame had different data portrayed so adjustments needed to be made in scale, color choices, and transparency. All of the data came from the City of Eau Claire geodatabase. The decisions for how to portray data usually came from decided what would best portray the most usable information, and what would be intuitive for the reader. The completed map is shown below
Results and Reflection
The results of the lab can most effectively be seen by the above map entitled "Relevant Maps for the Confluence Project. Patterns between the maps may be hard to discern because of the variability of the data portrayed, but a general conclusion reached by viewing some of the graphs is that the proposed location might be a good place based on the goals of the confluence project, the residential and commercial areas that already exist in the area prove that it is a location that people live and work. In reflection of what I have learned from creating this map, I have improved in skills related to formatting different values, for instance making certain values different colors or making layers transparent. Additionally, working with a variety of types of data has shown me how to adjust the map based on what I need to show.
Sources
Data for maps: City of Eau Claire and Eau Claire County 2013
General Information: Eau Claire Regional Arts Center. (n.d.). Confluence. Retrieved from http://www.eauclairearts.com/confluence/ University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. (n.d.). News @ uw-eau claire. Retrieved from http://www.uwec.edu/News/more/confluenceprojectFAQs.htm
Information for Legal Description: Hemstead, Brenda. PLSS – Legal Descriptions. Retrieved from http://www.sco.wisc.edu/plss/legal-descriptions.html
