Background
For this lab
I had to assume the role as an intern for Clear Vision Eau Claire. While
interning at Clear Vision Eau Claire they announced that they were establishing
a public-private partnership between local developers, University of Wisconsin-Eau
Claire, and the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center to construct a new development.
This new development earned the title as the Eau Claire Confluence Project. In
collaboration with the other partners, Clear Vision Eau Claire has asked the
interns to apply their knowledge and skills with GIS to create base maps that
feature several components relating to the confluence project. These components
include maps with voting districts, land use, civil divisions, census
boundaries, and more.
Goals
The goal of
this lab was to become familiar with various spatial data sets for a variety of
uses. Some of these uses included land use, public land management, and
administrative use. Another goal of this lab was to prepare base maps for the
Eau Claire Confluence Project.
Methods
I began by
focusing my attention on studying the 2009_07_13_EauClaire Geodatabase and the
City of Eau Claire Geodatabase. Within these geodatabases I became familiar
with the feature datasets, in order to understand the topology and location for
which I would be directing my attention too.
Next, I
established a new geodatabase for the proposed site of the confluence project. Once
the EC_Confluence geadatabase was created I used that information, as well as
parcel areas from both the City of Eau Claire and Eau Claire County. From the
parcel areas I was able to locate the two buildings using the Identification
tool. Then I went ahead and digitized the two buildings that are located at the
proposed site of the confluence project. This task was made easy due to the
functionality of the Snapping tool and the formation of the polygon features
that represent the two buildings.
Objective
number three called for understanding the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), as
well as representing this information in a data frame at the proposed site of
the confluence project. In this objective I used PLSS feature from the
geodatabases and then using the Identification tool I was able to read about
the PLSS features, which contained numerous information including the legal
descriptions. This information was valuable, but to further understand the
legal descriptions I read a section from the link of the Wisconsin State
Cartographer's Office.
In the next
objective I created a brief legal description for the two parcels of the
proposed site of the confluence project. To gather the parcel ID and the parcel
number I had to use the Identification tool. Once I gathered the necessary
values I went the City
of Eau Claire's Property and Assessment Search Website. At this website I
entered in the parcel ID for each property and read through the legal
descriptions.
In the final
objective I was asked to create six separate data frames, or base maps, that
contained relevant information concerning issues related to the Eau Claire
Confluence Project. During this final objective I built a date frame of the
Civil Divisions that make up the demographic of Eau Claire County. Since this
data frame is zoomed out I used the Drawing tool to create a callout label for
the proposed site, in order to give the audience an appreciation for the civil
divisions. The callout label indicates
the location of the proposed site and makes it easier for the audience to see
the spatial data represented. In a new data frame I mapped the Census
Boundaries. In this data frame I used the POP2007 as my value field and then I
normalized the data by SQMI. Next I created the PLSS map by utilizing the PLSS
features from the geaodatabases. This data frame was fairly easy to construct
because I had become familiar with the datasets in an earlier objective.
Somewhere during this last objective I got a sidetracked and ended up needing
to rely on Dr. Hupy’s YouTube video
display. I was glad I could apply the lessons learned in this informative video
to all my data frames. The City of Eau Claire parcel data was the next frame I
created. In this frame you can see that I relied a certain features, like water
and centerlines, to emphasize the spatial information being portrayed. Next, I
made a Zoning map to illustrate the different types of land use in and around
the area of the proposed site for the confluence project. Also, in the Zoning
map I placed a centerline feature for a reference and to emphasize the spatial
patterns. Last, I created a data frame that contains information of the voting
districts of the City of Eau Claire. After all the base maps were created I
conducted edits to each frame to make it cartographically pleasing, in order to
be easily understand by the intended audience.
Results
After much work and research about the proposed site for the Eau Claire Confluence Project you can examine the results by studying Figure 1 below.
Citations
Hemstead, Brenda.
"PLSS - Legal Descriptions | PLSS." PLSS - Legal Descriptions | PLSS.
Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office, 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
"Eau Claire, WI -
Online Property Assessment Database - Search." Eau Claire, WI - Online
Property Assessment Database - Search. Eau Claire Wisconsin, n.d. Web. 19 Feb.
2015. 2014.
Hupy, Christina. "Lab
1 Example." YouTube. UWEC, 17 June 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
Source: City of Eau Claire and Eau Claire County 2013
