Intro to Map Making

Heather Abernathy will be leading our next WGSA Workshop on an introduction to map making using ArcGIS. The workshop will be held on Friday (10/16) from 9:30-10:30 as part of the WGSA Procaffeination Hour. We will plan to meet in the GIS lab in building 4 instead of the Dean's Conference Room. A brief description of the workshop is below as well as a link to the files you will need (you can download them to a computer in the GIS lab if you are not using your own PC).

Do you find yourself wishing you had a better image of your study site that Google Earth can create? Or struggling to learn basic map-making in GIS? If so, this workshop is for you!

Broadly, my objective in this workshop is to expose novice GIS user to the wonderful world of map-making; namely we will be working with ArcGIS interfaces, Adding data, symbolizing data, making a simple map.

Photo obtained from USDA

Specific Workshop Objectives:

1. Become familiar with the ArcMap user interface
2. Access and organize multiple sources of spatial data in a Data View
3. Apply basic cartographic concepts to display spatial data effectively
4. Create a map using an ArcMap Layout View
5. Provide advice on pulling data from online sources and dealing with this data 

Instructions to attendees:

1. Please download the zip file attached as it has all the data we will be working with.
2. Please read over the attached terms (Terms Associated with ArcGIS geospatial data) to become familiar with ArcGIS geospatial data terminology we will use during the workshop. I have also provided details regarding the complete ArcGIS Software Package as well as the four major applications of desktop ArcGIS.
3. I have provided a list of useful sources for acquiring your own data to help inform on objective 5.

Data files