Cartographic Fundamentals: Map Creation, Description, and Interpretation

Nathan Sylte
Geospatial Field Methods

Cartographic Fundamentals 

Introduction:

In the previous two labs we have been learning about surveying techniques, grids and coordinates, and different interpolation techniques. This lab (lab 3) is a continuation of the previous visualization of our terrain survey lab. Lab three also reviews some of the key fundamentals of creating quality and informative maps. Some of the objectives of this lab are the following. First, create a new cartographically pleasing map of our terrain survey data. Second, review some of the key aspects of creating quality maps. Third, generate several maps of the Hadleyville Cemetery in Eau Claire County using the key fundamentals of map making. 

Proper maps should incorporate the following fundamentals. Maps should include a north arrow, scale bar, locator map, watermark, and data sources. A north arrow is critical for the viewers orientation, and is also important for reference purposes. Scale bars are a way in which the viewer can judge distance on the map. A scale bar is especially important if the area of interest is of an unknown size (a cemetery). Locator maps are also important. Locator maps are crucial for the viewers orientation and reference. They give the viewer information on the whereabouts of the area of interest. A the map creators "watermark" should also be included in the map. This states who generated the map and helps prevent plagiarism. Data sources are often under-included. It is important to know how the data was collected, the precision of the collected data, the data sets coordinate system, and the time and date the data was collected. 

Methods:

Using the data from our sandbox terrain survey we first generated a map of our terrain features. With the use of the interpolation method that best portrays our data, we created a hillshade map of our terrain features. ArcScene allowed us to take four oblique angles of our map which were included in our final map. The natural neighbors interpolation technique was selected as the interpolation method that best portrayed our terrain features and a cartographically pleasing map was then created. 

The next part of the lab involved the creation of four separate maps of the Hadleyville Cemetary. Nominal data labeling the year of death, labeling the last name on the grave, and showing whether the graves were standing or not were included in the first three maps. The last map was supposed to show the year of death using different size points. 

Results and Discussion:

When looking at the results from the sandbox survey the first striking feature that jumps out is the hill feature (Figure 1). The hill feature is located slightly north of the center of the map and is a height of 21 centimeters (cm) above sea level (sea level is the bottom of the sandbox). Directly west of the hill feature runs the valley. The valley resembles a banana in shape and is at an elevation of 7 cm at the bottom of the valley. If the viewer shifts their view to the south of the valley he/she will notice the plain feature. The plain takes up a majority of the space in the south west quarter of the sandbox. The elevation of the plain is 12 cm. It should also be noted that the elevation of the plain is very close to the average elevation of the sandbox (12.48 cm). The most common terrain feature found in the sandbox is the depression feature. This feature can be found several times in the sandbox. The largest depression can be found directly east of the hill feature. This depression has an elevation of 10-11 cm. Another important piece of statistical information that should be included is the range in elevation. The range was a value of 14 cm. This means that the distance from the top of the hill to the bottom of the valley was 14 cm which shows a drastic change in elevation proportionate to the map. 

Figure 1. Natural neighbors interpolation and hill shade map of the sandbox survey terrain features. Elevation is represented by seven different colors with the lowest elevation shown in light blue and the highest elevation shown in white. 

The results from the cemetery maps show several pieces of information. First, the data show that the cemetery is very old. Hadleyville Cemetery is a very old cemetery containing graves dating back to the mid 1800s (Figure 2). Figure two below demonstrates this by displaying the ages of the grave by labeling the year of death. It should also be noted that there are many family members burred in the cemetery. This can be seen in (Figure 3). For example, in the south west corner of the map there are several members of the Dickerson family that are buried.

Overall, the cemetery is in good shape. Despite containing many graves from the 1800s, a majority of the graves are standing (Figure 4). Only five graves in the entire cemetery are not standing. All the graves that are not standing are located at least 20 meters from the road. An interesting observation that can be described relates to the distributions of the graves themselves. It can be seen that many new grave sites (post 1940) are located among the old grave sites (pre 1900) (Figure 5). Another interesting observation is that there are many old grave sites that located far from the road near the south end of the cemetery. These observations are likely a result of family members being buried next to one another (Figure 3). 

Figure 2. The above map displays the year of death. Grave sites are marked by orange circles. 

Figure 3. Above the names of the people buried are listed next to the grave sites. Grave sites are marked by orange dots. Some grave sites do not have information for names.  

Figure 4. This figure shows whether or not the grave sites are standing or not. Standing graves are shown in green while graves that have fallen over are shown in red. Graves that do not have information on whether or not they are standing are shown as smaller dots. 

Figure 5. This image shows a graduated symbols map of the year of death. The most recent years of death are shown in red while the oldest years of death are small black dots. 

Conclusion:

The last several weeks have resulted in the development and improvement of many skills. Interpolation and surveying techniques are now very familiar. These are very practical and important skills to possess in the geospatial field. ArcScene is another program that has become familiar. Generating 3-D maps in ArcScene will prove to be a useful skill to have in the future. Re familiarization with cartography was another important feature of this lab. Generating cartographically pleasing maps is extremely important in the geospatial field and lab three did a good job of refining those skills.