GIS 1 Lab 1

Goals: This was my first lab in an introduction to GIS course. The goals it were to experiment with some basic tools in the ArcMap and ArcCatalog programs to help better understand the differences between geographic and projected coordinate systems.  I had to analyze data and figure out what type of projection it was, and if necessary change it to become more useful in a GIS.  A few major objectives of this lab were to make collection of maps displaying feature data of the world from a variety of projections, isolate the state of Wisconsin from a view of the entire country, and create a map of the counties and rivers in central Wisconsin.

Methods: I started out by downloading the data from D2L and then unzipping it.  I set the environments in ArcMap by selecting environments from the geoprocessing menu.  This allowed me to direct all new files to the location I wanted them to go. I then set it to store relative pathnames to the data sources. Then I added the Country and Geogrid shapefiles to the map.  I changed the name of this data frame to be Geographic Coordinate System and then, through that data frame's properties menu, I set it to the WGS 1984 coordinate system.  I then added a new data frame to the map and then added the same two shapefiles.  When I went into the properties menu this time, I changed it to the Mercator (World) Projected Coordinate System.  I repeated these steps three more times, adding new data frames for the following coordinate systems: Robinson, Sinusoidal, and Equidistant Conic.  The next part involved me isolating the state of Wisconsin.  I added a new layer and named it Wisconsin UTM and then added the States shapefile.  I used the select features tool to select the state of Wisconsin, and then created a layer of the selected feature, thus isolating Wisconsin.  I then selected that and exported the data to create a new shapefile named Wisconsin.  I added that shapefile to the data frame and removed the other ones.  I projected this using UTM, NAD 1983, Zone 16N.  I then added another new data frame and named it States.  I added the States and stroads_miv5a shapefiles and changed the projection of the roads one to match that of the states. To do this, I used the Project tool from ArcToolbox.  Using this tool, I input stroads_miv5a and navigated to States for the output.  Doing so allowed them to be projected in the same way.  I then changed the coordinate system in data frame properties to be North American Lambert Conformal Conic.  Once this was all done, I switched my view to be Layout Mode and resized all of the different frames so I could see them all on one page.  I added labels and titles to the page to give me my final product which is labeled below as Lab 1 Map Projections.
The second portion of this lab focused on identifying and fixing projection problems with GIS data. I started with a new blank map and added the Central_WI_Cts shapefile.  It had an undefined coordinate system and projection, so I gave it GCS North American 1983 based off of the metadata. I used the project tool to give it a Lambert Conformal Conic projection.  Then I added the Lower_Chip_Strms shapefile to the map. I gave it the same coordinate system and projection as the above shapefile to ensure they would line up properly.  Once I had the two shapefile lined up and looking good together, I switched over to Layout View and added labels to the map.  Below is the resulting product labeled as Central Wisconsin Rivers and Counties

Results: 

This is the final product that I created for the first portion of this lab, entitled Lab 1 Map Projections. As you can see, all of the data frames I added to the map are present on one page since I created this document in layout view. 

This is my final product for the second part of the lab, entitled Central Wisconsin Rivers and Counties.  I added the various other map elements, such as the scale, legend, and north arrow through the layout view window. This demonstrates the abilities to reproject datasets in a way that will make them compatible and useful to each other. 

Sources: 

Price, M.H. (2015). Mastering ArcGIS. Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill Higher Ed.

Michigan Department of Transportation (2016). Retrieved from http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/