Final Project

Lab 10

Oil Production In Texas

This map shows a multiple different types of data from the drilling of shale. The circle size represents the wells and the colored circles is the gas-to oil ratio. And the isoline of colors show what is in the land wether it is oil, wet gas or dry gas. 

Although this map is also a dynamic map the static final version still shows us important information and gives us a good idea of whats going on in the south of Texas but, we don't see the change very well from 2006-2010 without the dynamic ability. 

The bottom Maps is the same map with a simplified legend its static, looks a lot better but its really that much better due to the lack of information on the legend. Check out the links below to learn more about the maps and shale drilling in Texas. 

http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=3770

http://oilindependents.org/the-eagle-ford-texas-shale-star/

Lab 9: Dot Density

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I plan on making a choropleth map of Europe countries using music recording data.

The data will be from the International Federation Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reports called “Recording Industry in Numbers” which releases every year with updated data and the last 4 years of data . The report complies data from all countries main data source that documents the record industry stats. For example Recording Industry Association of America for America.

Like I stated earlier I’ll be focusing on Europe countries, which are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.  Which in total is 24 countries that I have data for.

Here is an example of how a portion of the data looks for a country on the report this one is France.

Primarily I want to create two maps side by side of these countries looking at the 2007 and the 2011 percentage of sales that are subscription based music services. ( I could also look at physical sales and total digital sales). The audience of this map ranges from labels seeing if its lucrative to have catalogs of music distributed through subscription services or investors looking to dip into the market of subscription services. 

Example of the type of map I want to make. 

The reason I want to focus on Europe is because music sales in Europe work in an interesting fashion. Having a song reach the top of the charts of one country almost guarantees you will also do well in the charts in other areas. For example a hit song in Germany will garner attention in most of Eastern Europe. A hit song in France will spread throughout Canada and even French influenced areas in Africa.

Also subscriptions services such as Spotify and Rdio have been increasingly popular through the last few years it would be interesting to see how much of the market they actually hold in terms of sales. Especially in Europe considering countries such as Finland, Spain, France and Greece all have laws that everyone should have access to the internet, so more people would be able to subscribe to these services.  


First I need to get a shape file of Europe that has the included countries open in ArcMap and save as an illustrator file, then compile the data into a spreadsheet so i can break them down into intervals (not sure which one). 

Population Density Change in Chicago

The changes from Chicago racial diversity are an interesting topic within its self. But I chose this map because I think it poorly displays it. It is hard to tell whats going on without reading the topic. It just seems the amount of people just increased and neighborhoods have got more dense. They explain the change well and more other information in the article though. The links describe more detail about the change in the neighborhood and gentrification through the city. 

http://www.lib.niu.edu/1988/ii880524.html

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/news/why-are-we-still-collecting-taxes-prevent-white-flight-chicago-110325

Lab 8: Isoline

Solar Radiation Across the World

This map shows the solar radiation level across the world I am not sure about the measurement is but you can get a good idea of the colors and the location for instance the deep orange color is closet to the equator as you move outwards it becomes yellow than eventually green. I like that its a whole map of the world and that distribution of colors is consistent with what you would imagine the high points of solar radiation would be (higher closer to equator. I may have chose a different color though for the area near the poles maybe a light blue because we associate that with colder climates and then inside near the equator used the red color even though the legend spectrum has that color I would have made values incorporate that color.
But then again I am not sure about the application completely maybe the color scale is a universral thing where showing the red in the spectrum would be unlikely.

You can read more about the map and solar radiation in the link below

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/ocng_textbook/chapter05/Images/Fig5-8A.htm

Lab 7: Proportional Symbol Map

Major Oil Spills

This weeks blog post dealing with proportional symbol I found a map showing the major oils spills through the years.  I like how the bigger droplet correlates to the total amount during that oil spill, but also gives you the numeric value. Also it shows you what the spill came from either  a oil tanker, pipeline, or off shore drill site. 

The link below doesn't give much more information on the map or the creator but the second link is the creators website you can see his other works that include other maps.

http://www.mappery.com/map-of/Worst-Oil-Spills-in-History-Map

http://gavinpotenza.com

Lab 6: Color Choropleth Map

Compared to the printed version, the colors on the digital copy look a lot lighter and more crisp. Especially the drop shadow it looks smudged and messy on the printed version, but on the digital copy it looks smooth. On the legend the text and colors look fine on the digital version but on the printed version the last spot on the legend is hard to read because all the colors appear darker. The light colors really didn't change as much but when you get to the middle class (seafoam green) to the darkest blue they got a lot darker in the printed version. I think I would have made the dark blue a bit lighter just so its easier to see text on the legend or maybe change the text color so I could keep the same color.

 Overall I think the digital copy looks a lot better than the printed version it could be just because of the printer though and also the paper it is printed on. For example I printed some maps at kinkos color printer for another class and the colors came out looking almost exactly like the digital copy maybe because it was an industrial printer and because the paper was a thicker glossary type.

Saudi Arabia Geological Map

This is a map of Saudi Arabia and various geological features. The use of color you can easily identify what they each represent on the legends, although the legend is sort of confusing you can get a good idea just glancing at it what each color represents. I like how the author on the website compares the vibrant choice as a tribute to a Sgt. Peppers album cover.  Also I think the choice a of a black background really makes the foreground of the countries stick out because they have white area also you really focus on that part and not the seas or anything else showing they don't really play any importance besides being a reference. 

You can read more about this map and other maps dealing with the geology in saudi arabia nd the middle east in the petroleum perspective in the link below, but also in Fenwick Library because the book that has these maps is the Aramco Handbook for employees which can be found Fenwick. 

http://www.codex99.com/cartography/8.html

Lab 5: Classification

Help of Head Start with Homeless Families

 Head start is a program that helps support children in low-income families develop strong foundation around early education and other things like health. This map describes the homeless families that have children in the head start program having a positive correlation to them eventually getting housing because the program helps the children and family get over obstacles that help the child. 

I like this map because it looks neat the boundries are easy to see from ash of the states but I think it would be better if it had light gray or a different color background to help it pop out more and establish better figure ground.  

Check out the link below if you wanna read more about the map and about the head start program. 

http://www.icphusa.org/index.asp?page=16&report=81&pg=14

Lab 4: Boundaries

Campus of Queens College of Durham University

This is a map of one of the satellite campuses of Durham University called Queens college. I picked this map because It shows more than just where the campus is it shows the city around it and the features give you an idea what is around you if you attend the school. 

Lab 3: Harpers Ferry Map

What Our States Excel In

First of all I picked this map Cause I found the information pretty Intresting. But Strictly speaking on the font and type, its an eye sore. There is different types of sizes on the same phrases then different colors on the smaller states its hard to stare at for a while. Although the size of the font sometimes illustrates what it says when its larger typically that state has the most of that.

Check out the link below to get more info there is also a map on what our states do poorly in.
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/infographic-united-states-of-the-environment

Lab 2: Mollweide Graticule

Distance From Toronto

 Leonard Guelke created this map to give you an idea of the distances from Toronto, Canada. According to description it is pretty accurate if you draw a straight line and do some math to get the distance, but many of the shapes of the continents are distorted. The shape was a sacrifice in order to get real world accurate distance. But you won't be able to get accurate distance measurement if you measure points that aren't Toronto (Sydney to Hong Kong won't be accurate but Toronto to Hong Kong will).  Check out the link below to get more information on the map and the maker.

I chose this map mostly because its interesting to see maps focusing on other parts of the world in relation to others. Normally Id think to see a map like this focusing from DC or New York although Toronto is still close to us its still a different focal point. Also I believe this projection is a conic projection because of the distortion at the outer circle of the map. 

http://odtmaps.com/behind_the_maps/guelke-map-details.asp

Lab 1: Illustration of Sphere,Geoid, Ellipsoid, and Natural Surface

The XX Stream Sharing Map

The band "The XX" released a stream of their album to one fan on Facebook that lived in London. From there they tracked where it was being shared to, which this map displays. In about 24 hours the website crashed after being shared to millions of other people around the world. I thought this map was really cool way to see how information spreads, and that the minimal design was influenced by flight path maps.

The XX Stream Sharing Map