Exercise 4

4. MAP PRESENTATION

Introduction
Maps are based on spatial data. Spatial data refer to information about the locations and geographic features on the
Earth‟s surface and the relationships between them, along with attribute information describing what these features
represent. You can communicate complex information more effectively using maps than tables or lists, because
maps take advantage of our natural abilities to distinguish and interpret colors, patterns and spatial relationships.
When you display your data properly on a map you‟ll see spatial distributions, relationships and trends that you
couldn‟t see before. Your maps will help you make decisions and solve problems. They also help to communicate
your information and results more effectively to others.

Choosing how to represent your data on a map may well be your most important mapmaking decision.
Symbolizing your data involves choosing appropriate colors and symbols to represent features. This also involves
grouping or classifying features according to their attributes and attribute values.

In this exercise:

 Symbolizing your spatial data.

 Adding text and graphics to a map.
 Labeling a dataset‟s features.
 Graphic symbols and attributes (Bertin).
 The 12 steps to present a map.

Objectives

After having completed this exercise you will be capable:

 to use the 12 steps to present a map;
 to symbolize your data: choosing the correct graphic symbols and attributes;
 to create a complete layout of a map.

ArcMap documents: Map presentation1.mxd

Map presentation2.mxd
Map presentation3.mxd

Using the symbology editor to symbolize data

Choosing how to represent your data on a map may well be your most important mapmaking decision. Symbolizing
your data involves choosing the colors and symbols that will represent features. It also involves grouping or
classifying features according to their attribute and attribute values. Symbolization is a powerful tool used to
explore, understand and analyze your data.

The symbology editor

In Exercise 1 the Symbology editor (Figure 1) was discussed. It might be wise to study the section „Symbolizing
your data‟ again. You use the Symbology tab in the Layer properties window (see Exercise 1) to control how a
dataset is drawn in the View Window. When the symbology editor is opened, you can choose for each dataset a map
type on basis of the type of information your map represents. ArcMap has various map types to choose from. In this
manual map types are considered the options on the left hand side of the Symbology tab under „Show:‟ (Figure 1),
e.g. Categories – Unique values. In Exercise 1 and in the ArcGIS Desktop Help, e.g. search for „A quick tour of
displaying layers‟.

In some cases like in Figure 1 the symbology editor gives you the option to label items in the legend. In this way the
values in the legend are displayed different. For example you could rename the soils with the value “Kalkhoudende
ooivaaggrond” for soilname to “Calcareous ooi vague soil” if you want to present the map to an English speaking
audience.

Figure1. The symbology editor; where you can change the way your data is displayed.

1.

Open ArcMap document „Map presentation1.mxd‟. Activate Data Frame „Wag_south1‟ and open the Symbology
editor of dataset „Soil_types‟:

a. Which map type is used to display dataset „Soil_types‟?

b. b. What does the color represent?

Map types and measurement scales

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Activate a Data Frame, check a dataset and open the Symbology tab in the Layer Properties window.
2. Select a map type, and select which attribute(s) will be used to display the data and the legend from the
Value Field drop down list. When you choose Categories Unique values, don‟t forget to Add all values
and uncheck „all other values‟.
3. To change the symbol, double-click the symbol in the Symbology editor. The Symbol Selector window
appears (Figure 2).
4. The Symbol Selector offers a selection of predefined symbols. These can be altered by clicking on the Edit
Symbol... button.
5. You can also select predefined symbol sets (e.g. for forestry, soils and geology) by clicking on the Style
References... button.

Note: it is also possible to get to the Symbol Selector by clicking on a symbol in the Table Of Contents.
 Figure 2. The Symbol Selector.

2.

In this exercise you will change the display of a dataset by choosing different map types.

a. Create the following legend for dataset „Soil_types‟: Map type: Categories - Unique values

Value field: Area

Is this map type a logical choice to symbolize the attribute „area‟? Explain your answer.
b. Change the map type to Quantities - Graduated colors; choose the Value field „Area‟. Explain why it is not
possible to represent the attribute „Soilcode‟ with graduated colors.

c. Choose an appropriate map type to symbolize the attribute „Soilcode‟. Which map type did you choose and
explain why?

d. Type short names for the soil features in the Label field of the Symbology editor. Set the colors for the different
classes individually; choose your own colors and apply the symbology to the map.

12 steps to present a map

Creating and presenting a map is not as easy as it may seem. This section presents a guideline to help you when
making a map presentation. The guideline is referred to as the 12 steps to present a map.

The 12 steps are:

1. What purpose does the map serve?

2. What user group is aimed at?
3. What is the title of the map going to be?
4. Which spatial components are to be displayed?
5. What is the hierarchy between the components?
6. What is the measurement scale of these components?
7. How many classes does each component contain?
8. Which graphic symbols can be used?
9. Which graphic attributes have to be included?
10. Add the North arrow,
11. Add the scale bar or map reference grid,
12. Add the data source, text, and graphics.

Measurement scale (Step 6)

Attribute values of features are either qualitative or quantitative. Measurement scales are:

nominal: Qualitative attribute values are different in nature, without one aspect being more important
than another (e.g. forms of land use).
 ordinal: Qualitative attribute values are different from each other, but there is one single way to order
them, as some are more important/intense than others (e.g. importance of roads).

interval: Quantitative attribute values are different and can be ordered. The distance between
individual measurements can be determined (e.g. Celsius temperature scale).

ratio: Quantitative attribute values are different and can be ordered. Distances between individual
measurements can be determined and these individual measurements can be related to each
other. They also have an absolute zero (e.g. number of visitors).

Graphic symbols (Step 8)

Spatial data represented in a map always refer to real world phenomena. These can be heights, measured at specific
points, traffic intensities measured along a route network, or numbers of inhabitants living in an area. We distinguish
point, line and area (polygon) features that refer to point, line and area locations.

Graphic attributes (Step 9)

All the differences imaginable between symbols can be summarized as being cases of six graphical variables
(Bertin, 1983, Figure 3):
 size
 grey) value
 grain / texture
 color / hue
 orientation
 shape

Figure 3. Three graphic symbols and six graphic attributes.

Graphic attributes cannot be used randomly. Each one is perceived in a different way by the map user and they vary
in their perception properties. For example, a difference in color, orientation or shape will be interpreted as a
difference in properties or quality. But a difference in size or (grey) value will be interpreted as a difference in the
amount or quantity. The choice of any particular graphic attribute thus depends on the measurement scale of the
attribute that is to be presented in the map. Figure 4 lists the graphic attributes that most suitably represent the
various perception properties and shows the relationship between measurement scale and graphic attributes.

Figure 4. Relation between measurement scale and graphic attributes (Bertin).

MEASUREMENT SCALE

Preparing the map legend (steps 1 - 2, 4 - 9)

Before you start to create a map of your spatial data, you should think about the purpose and the user group of your
map. For example, topographic maps used by the military differ from the topographic maps used by civilians,
because the military is interested in other kinds of topographic information (e.g. width of roads) than civilians (road
hierarchy). Furthermore, a topographic map is very useful, for example, for a land use planner but not for a package
courier. The topographic map is not primarily focused on roads, it contains too much distracting information to be
useful for the courier. A map designed for children in primary school that shows the different types of land forms of
The Netherlands should be more simple (in detail as well as terminology) than a land form map used by an
environmental scientist. The way you present your spatial data in a map should reflect the purpose of the map and
the corresponding user group.

Data view vs. Layout view

During the next exercises you will practice with the 12-steps-to-present-a-map approach with an existing map,
made in ArcMap. ArcMap provides two ways to view a map:
  Data view
 Layout view

Each view lets you look at and interact with the map in a specific way. When you want a ‟quick look‟ at your
datasets, choose data view. You have been working in data view until now. Data view is an allpurpose view for
exploring, displaying, and querying your data. This view excludes all the map elements on the layout, such as the
title, north arrow, and scale bar, and lets you focus on your datasets destined for a single map Data Frame.
When you are preparing your map to hang it on the wall, put in a report, or publish on the web, you will want to
work with the layout view. In layout view, you will see a virtual page upon which you can place and arrange
map elements. You can do almost everything you can in data view, plus design your final map.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. You can switch between data view and layout view in the View menu on the menu bar.
2. Or you can use the two buttons in the lower left corner of the View Window to switch between the two views .

3.

Open ArcMap document „Map presentation2.mxd‟. This document contains a soil map of the Wageningen South
area, called „Soil map – Wageningen south‟. Set the View Window to layout view.

a. Name a potential purpose and user group of this soil map.

Based on the purpose and user group of your map, you decide which spatial components (datasets) your map (and
thus your legend) should contain, e.g. roads, land uses, soil types, and the hierarchy of these components in the map
and in the legend. The legend of a soil map should begin with the soil types and not with secondary information as
build-up areas or roads. The hierarchy in your legend differs from the hierarchy in your Table Of Contents (TOC)
and thus in your map. The latter is used to draw the features in the correct order. As an example the soil map might
include build-up area. This will probably be drawn on top of your soil types (highest element in your TOC),
otherwise the build-up elements will not be visible, because they will be covered by the soil dataset. In your legend,
however, you should mention build-up as one of the last items.

Next, you determine the measurement scale of these components. This is important because the measurement scale
determines the symbology (graphic symbol and attribute, see Figure 3) that is appropriate to represent the spatial
component(s). Continue with the number of categories/classes each component should contain. Should you
distinguish highways from secondary roads, or not? If yes, the road component values highway and secondary road
are separate classes thus different symbols. If not, the road component values highway and secondary roads form
one class thus one symbol. The number of component classes that is appropriate depends clearly on the purpose of
your map. The last step is to decide how the spatial components are presented in the map. Choose the appropriate
graphic symbols and attributes according to the measurement scale of the components (Figure 4).
4.

In this exercise you will practice the “12 steps to present a map” approach with a map made in ArcMap.

Make sure the View Window of ArcMap document „Map presentation2.mxd‟ is set to layout view. If you want to
look at a larger (full screen) version of the map auto-hide your other windows to make more space or go to the Menu
bar and select: File Print Preview.

A soil map of the study area Wageningen South is displayed with its legend.

a. Repair the link of the missing information about Clay% (Data Source is file Soil_points.shp).

b. Describe in Table 1 the steps 4 to 9 of how this map has been created.

c. What is your opinion about the chosen graphic attributes according to Figures 3 and 4?

Table 1. Steps 4 to 9 of the 12-steps-to-present-a-map approach.

The map layout (steps 3 & 10 - 12)

During steps 4 to 9 you have determined which spatial components (datasets) you want to present on your map
along with the components hierarchy, attribute scale, classes and symbology. Your map is, however, not yet ready
for printing. It still lacks some important map elements: title, scale bar, legend, north arrow, data source,
descriptive text and maybe some graphics. If you want to add these elements, you have to create a layout.

A layout lets you assemble the spatial components and map elements you want to represent in your map and arrange
them to get the design you want. Layouts make it easy to produce presentation quality maps with ArcMap. You can
place more than one Data Frame on your map canvas along with any of the charts and tables in your ArcMap
document. If you change your mind later, you can add, remove, resize and move each element.

This section continues with a description how to create a layout and how to add various map elements, and
concludes with an exercise in which you will create a layout yourself. The ArcGIS Desktop Help system also
contains an elaborate description of the map layout. Use the keywords „layout‟, „page layout‟, „map elements‟ or
„legend‟ in the search tab.

Creating a layout

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In the Table Of Contents, check the check boxes of the datasets you want to present in the map.
2. Set the View Window to layout view.
3. You will find all necessary buttons to add map elements to your map in the Insert pull down
menu on the Menu bar (Figure 5). Note that these buttons are only active when working in
layout view.

Adding a Data Frame to a layout

The central element of the layout is the Data Frame. This is a frame that presents your datasets. You can
have more than one Data Frame in your layout. Simple maps usually have only a single Data Frame.
Sometimes you want to show changes through time, for example land use in the Netherlands in 1980,
1990 and 2000. If this is the case, you can add three Data Frames to the layout, one for each year.

ArcMap uses all Data Frames present in the Table Of Contents in the layout. If you have two Data
Frames in the Table Of Contents, you will automatically get two Data Frames in your layout.

Figure 5. Map feature

buttons.
Warning: it is not possible to simply delete a Data Frame from the layout. When you do this, you also delete the
corresponding dataset from the Table Of Contents, and at the same time from the entire map document. This may
not be a problem, because the data itself will be kept, and can always be added to map document again. If you do
want to keep all datasets in the map document, you should rearrange the datasets in the Table Of Contents into one
Data Frame and then delete the other frames.

It is possible to alter the properties of the Data Frame in layout view: right-click the frame and select Properties.
You can, for example, change the border of the frame, set a scale, or add a reference grid.

Adding a legend to a layout

A legend tells a map user what the symbols on the map, used to represent features, mean. A legend in a layout is
associated with the legend used in the Table Of Contents. When you change the symbology of a dataset (its
appearance), the legend in the layout changes as well.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. On the Menu bar select: Insert Legend (this is only possible when you are in layout view).
2. It the appearing window, select the dataset(s) you want to add to the legend. You can also change the order
of the datasets in the legend (think about hierarchy) with the up and down arrows. Click Next.
3. In the following windows some options appear to customize your legend. You can use these if you wish.
4. The legend is placed on the map canvas; it is possible to move it around and change its size.
5. If you are not satisfied with the result you can always modify your legend. Right-click the legend in the
layout and select Properties from the menu that appears, or double-click the legend box. The Legend
Properties window opens in which you can adjust the legend settings. It is always possible to change the
name of one of the layers by clicking on it in the Table Of Contents.

Adding a Title to a layout

A map title gives the user guidance in the usage and content of a map.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. On the Menu bar select: Insert Title (this is only possible when you are in layout view).
2. In the appearing Textbox you can define your title.
3. Click OK and move the title to an appropriate place on the map canvas.

Adding a north arrow to a layout

A North arrow indicates the orientation of the map.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. On the Menu bar select: Insert North Arrow (this is only possible when you are in layout view).
2. In the North Arrow Selector menu you can choose the north arrow style.
3. Click the Properties button to change for example the size and font of the arrow.
4. Click OK and move the north arrow to an appropriate place on the map canvas.

Adding a scale bar to a layout

A scale bar provides a visual indication of the size of features and distance between them on the map. A scale bar is
a line or bar divided into parts and labeled with ground lengths, usually in multiples of map units such as tens of
kilometers or hundreds of miles. If the map is enlarged or reduced, the scale bar remains correct.

Add a scale bar after the datasets and a legend are added to the layout.

Note: Before you add the scale bar to your layout, you have to check if your Data Frame has a coordinate system
(see Exercise 3) and if the map units are set to the correct unit. You can see this in the Data Frame Properties.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. On the Menu bar select: Insert Scale Bar (this is only possible when you are in layout view).
2. Choose the scale bar you want to insert and click OK.
3. The Scale bar is added to map canvas where you can change its size and move it. Make sure it is not too
small.
4. Double click on the scale bar to open the Properties window.
5. In this window the Scale and Units and the Numbers and Marks tabs are important.
6. In the Scale and Units tab set the Division value (not to small), Number of divisions, Number of
subdivisions and what the scale bar should do when it is being resized. Do not use „adjust division value‟,
because the division value should be a „round number‟, like 1km, 500 m etc.).
7. Set the Division Units.
8. In the Number and Marks tab define how often a numerical value appears on the scale bar, and where this
is placed in relation to the scale bar.
9. Click OK.

Adding text, graphics and labels to a layout

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Using the Draw toolbar you can add a textbox to your map canvas for descriptive text, like the data
source, and you add graphics such as boxes, circles and arrows anywhere on your layout.
2. You always can change the properties of a text box or graphic: right-click its frame and select Properties.

You can label a dataset‟s features with text showing the values from any attribute in that dataset‟s attribute table.
When you label features, the labels are attached to the dataset they belong to, so they will only appear on your map
when that theme is displayed. ArcMap offers a wide range of options to modify the labels according to your wishes.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Display the dataset you wish to label.

2. Open the Layer Properties window of that dataset and select the Labels tab (Figure 6).
 Figure 6. Label editor.

3. Check the Label features in this layer box and select in the Text String dropdown list which field from the
attribute table you want to use for labeling. In the Symbol and Placement Properties you can modify the
font, size, color, style and location of the label relative to the feature. Click OK. All features will be
labeled.
4. You can also add individual labels to features. On the Draw toolbar click on the Text dropdown arrow and
select the Label function. The Label Tool Options window opens in which you can select two straight
forward options. If the label function is unavailable, click the Focus Data Frame button on the Layout
toolbar first.
5. Click on the feature in the View Window to appoint the label.

5.

Open ArcMap document „Map presentation1.mxd‟. Activate Data Frame „Wagsouth2‟. In the map you‟ll find a well
and some locations with rare vegetation near the river Rhine.

a. Draw a circle around the well. Keep the circle within the borders of the feature. Make this area recognizable by
changing the outline, color, etc. Add a textbox with the text „Well‟.
b. Add an irregularly shaped graphic around the locations with rare vegetation. Make it recognizable on the map
by changing the appearance of this graphic. Add a textbox with the text „Nature Reserve‟.

c. Label the features of dataset „Soil_types‟ based on the field „Soilcode‟. Set the label properties to: Verdana, 18,
Bold Italic, red.

d. What will happen to the labels when you turn the „Soil_types‟ dataset off? Explain your answer.

e. Turn the labels off. You can uncheck the Label features in this layer box or right-click the dataset in the Table
Of Contents and uncheck the Label features option.
f. Add a label to the most northern soil feature using the label function in the draw toolbar.
g. What will happen to this label when you turn the „Soil_types‟ dataset off? And when you deactivate the Data
Frame? Explain your answers.

Save the changes.

Exporting a map

If you want to use your map in a report, you should not make a screen dump of your map, because this diminishes its
quality. You should use ArcMap‟s export function.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. On the menu bar select: File Export Map.

2. In the following dialog box you can specify the name of your map, file type (e.g. .bmp, .jpg, .png),
resolution (in dots per inch), and output location.
3. Click Ok.

6.
Open the ArcMap document „Map presentation3.mxd‟.

For the inhabitants of the Hinkeloord area a map should be created that gives information about nature in this area.
You are free to choose information out of all available datasets.

a. Have a look at the different datasets and write down the 12 steps to present the map.

1. Purpose

2. User group

3. Title

10. North Arrow

11. Scale bar or map reference grid

12. Source, text and graphics

b. Create the map using ArcMap according to the 12 steps to present a map.
c. Export the map as a .jpg file with the name „Nature map Hinkeloord‟. Use a resolution of 300 dpi.
Discuss your map together with the table above with one of the supervisors.