College of ENV

Landscape Architecture

Fall 2023
LA 3851
Geodesign Fundamentals for Environmental Designers

ASSIGNMENT 6 : MAPS
DUE : SEE CANVAS

There are two parts to this assignment: 1) plan for a basemap for LA County that will assist as we begin
to examine the issues surrounding the clean energy challenges in LA County and 2) add data to a map
project in ArcPro and symbolize the features.

The goal of this assignment is to help you understand how to plan and display the content and intent of
maps so that your maps convey the information you would like in the most effective way. I highly
recommend that you adopt a “map planning” process to your skillset as you move through and beyond
this class.

Read through the entire assignment before you begin. Information about the format for submission and
where to submit are provided at the END of the assignment. Please use this sheet to document your
answers and SUBMIT THIS SHEET.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. - Iris (or “Dr. Patten”)

I.GENERAL REFERENCE MAP (60 POINTS)

You will begin planning to create a general reference map for the county in which you reside. First you
will find datasets to represent contextual information (base data), when we create the actual map we
may not use all of the data you list here. Two of the six datasets are your choice. The minimum data
requirements that you must include are roads, parks/green space, and public transit lines/bike routes.

Answer ALL the questions below. You can answer the questions on this page.

A. What is the purpose of a general reference map?

B. What type of information (data) is typically found on general reference maps?
C. We will be creating a general reference map for LA County. Do an internet search for GIS data
that you would like to use for this assignment. What are three websites for your county that
would serve as good resources for this assignment? (Remember, data is available at various
geographies – i.e., county, state, region) If you find more than 3 appropriate websites then you
can add additional sites, if necessary.

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a. Website 1 (Name and URL):

b. Website 2 (Name and URL):
c. Website 3 (Name and URL):
D. Search the websites you listed above (or others) for the following data. You will download the
data in your GIS_DATA\DOWNLOADS\CALIFORNIA folder (make sure to place the data in the
appropriate folder – i.e., STATE, COUNTY, etc - so that you can access it later. Below you will
paste the url where you found the data. For the “Your choice” options, you decide which
additional datasets you think would be appropriate to include on the general reference map.
a. Roads
i. Website source (Name and URL):
b. County boundaries
i. Website source (Name and URL):
c. Parks/open space
i. Website source (Name and URL):
d. Public transit/bike routes
i. Website source (Name and URL):
e. Your choice: _________________________
i. Website source (Name and URL):
f. Your choice: ________________________
i. Website source (Name and URL):

II. Create a Simple Basemap: Alachua County, Florida (100 POINTS)

This part of the assignment will require that you put together a simple basemap for Alachua County,
Florida. This part of assignment will hopefully help to connect the steps of the ArcPro workflow to create
a project, connect folders to your project, add data, then change symbology. Don’t hesitate to review
the lecture video from Module 6 if there is something you don’t know or if you aren’t sure where to
start.

Data Description Filename

Alachua County Boundary AlachuaCounty
City Limits Par_citylm_2020
Major Roads Majrds_apr22
Lakes Lakes_resource_dec20
Schools Gc_schools_mar21
Florida Managed Areas (conservation areas) Flma_jan22

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PART I
1. Create a new folder in your GIS_DATA\PROJECTS\HOMEWORK\ folder. The name of the new
folder will be ASSIGN6_ALACHUAMAP
2. Create another new folder in your GIS_DATA\DOWNLOADED\ folder. The name of the new
folder will be HOMEWORK
a. Within this new folder, create another new folder named ASSIGN6_FGDL
i. The full path of the new folder you just created should be: GIS_DATA\
DOWNLOADED\HOMEWORK\ASSIGN6_FGDL
3. The following datasets from the Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL) have been downloaded
for you to use in your map.
a. Alachua County Boundary
b. Major Roads
c. City Limits
d. Water Features
e. Florida Managed Areas
f. School Locations
4. The data can be found through the Class Data link in Canvas.

a. The data you need is inside the Assignment 6 – Simple GIS Map folder. You need all the
data in this folder.

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5. Download the data to your external hard drive. Copy the data from where it downloaded on
your hard drive to the GIS_DATA\DOWNLOADED\HOMEWORK\ASSIGN6_FGDL folder you just
created.

CREATE A NEW ARCGIS PRO PROJECT

1. Open ArcGIS Pro
2. On the Start Screen, create a new Map Project

3. The name of your new project will be Assign6_AlachuaMap

4. The location of the new project will be: \GIS_DATA\PROJECTS\HOMEWORK\
ASSIGN6_ALACHUAMAP

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5. Select the folder and click OK

6. Once you return to the main Create a New Project dialog box, UNCHECK the option for “Create a
new folder for this project”
7. Click OK.

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CONNECT THE DATA FOLDER TO YOUR PROJECT

As discussed in class, there are multiple ways to add data. Since we initially added all of the data for
this assignment to the GIS_DATA\DOWNLOADED\HOMEWORK\ASSIGN6_FGDL folder, we will
connect the entire folder to ArcGIS Pro so that we can easily access all of the data in that folder
and so that the data in that folder can be associated with the Assign6_AlachuaMap project that
we are compiling.
1. On the Catalog Pane (right side of your project window), right click on the Folders.

2. Select Add Folder Connection

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3. Navigate to the location of your assignment data (HINT: GIS_DATA\DOWNLOADED\

HOMEWORK\ASSIGN6_FGDL)
a. Click OK

4. Click on the arrow next to Folder in the Catalog Pane to make sure that your data folder
connected.

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5. Click on the arrow next to ASSIGN6_FGDL to make sure that your data is available to be added
to your map.
a. If you can’t see the data for this assignment inside your Assign6_FGDL , what may need
to be done to your data so that ArcGIS Pro can recognize it?

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6. To add the data to your map area, right click over a dataset then choose Add to Current Map.

7. Add all of the datasets to your project. Arrange the layers in your Contents Pane in a way that
makes sense (remember, the “layer cake”).
8. For each of the features listed below, update the way the features are visualized according to
what I’ve listed. If you would like to make other changes to each of the features to make your
map more visually appealing (i.e., change the color, line width, etc.) beyond what I’ve stated
below, that’s fine, as long as my requirements below are satisfied.
 Alachua County Boundary – label the county with its name
 Major Roads – use different line widths for road classes, make the Interstate a RED line,
label the Interstate and US Highways with their actual name/number. (HINT: you may want
to make everything that is not a highway/interstate the same symbol and color…it’s up to
you)
 City Limits – label each area with the City name
 Water features - symbolize all water features using the color “Lapis Lazuli”

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 Florida Managed Areas – these are managed conservation lands. Use different symbology
for each MATTYPE2 attribute description
 Schools – use a symbol other than a regular dot to represent school locations (i.e., a flag,
pushpin, cross, diamond, etc.). Symbolize Charter, Public, and Private Schools using different
colors.
9. After you have snazzied up your map, take a screenshot of the map area and Table of Contents.
Paste the screenshot here.

10. Don’t forget to save your map project.

III. Place Your Basemap in a Layout (100 POINTS)

Create a map layout of the snazzied map you created in the section above. You will export the map as a
PDF and include with your assignment submission.

1. Create a map layout of your map that is zoomed in to the full extent of Alachua County.
2. On your map layout add the following items:
o Title
o Scale bar
o North Arrow
o Legend showing all map elements.
o Your name, date and source of your data.
3. Your map should be readable and all data should be visible (watch your drawing order!).
4. Rename cryptic layer names to something your reader will understand (e.g., majrds01.shp to
Major Roads; etc)

PART III
Export your map layout as a PDF file with 300 dpi resolution and submit it as an attachment with this
assignment.

All done!

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SUBMITTING YOUR ASSIGNMENT

You are submitting two documents: This sheet with completed responses and a PDF of the map
layout.

 Save this file as: LastName_FirstName_LA3581_Section#_Assignment6

o EXAMPLE: If I were submitting this assignment for the Monday section, the filename
would be: Patten_Iris_LA3581_Section03_Assignment6
o EXAMPLE: If I were submitting this assignment for the Thursday section, the
filename would be: Patten_Iris_LA3581_Section04_Assignment6
 SUBMIT ON CANVAS
 ASSIGNMENT DUE: SEE CANVAS

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