Lab 1

Introduction:

The goal of this lab was to download and use data from the US Census Bureau in order to create a map and also create a web map. These tasks were achieved through seven objectives.

Methods:

Objective One: Download 2010 Census Data

In order to find specific data an “Advanced Search” was used on the US Census Fact Finder website.  In the “Topics” category People, Basic Count/Estimate and Population total were selected. In the “Geography” category County 050 and Wisconsin/all counties in Wisconsin were chosen. The data TOTAL POPULATION from the 2010 SF1 dataset was selected and downloaded into a personal folder labeled LAB2. The files were extracted as CSV files, however an extra row had to be deleted in the excel file as to not disrupt the rest of the data. That file was saved as an Excel Workbook file and was uploaded into ArcGIS as TABULAR data.

Objective Two: Download the shapefile for the WI census data

On the Census Bureau website, the counties in Wisconsin were still selected, so they were downloaded and saved as a shapefile(.zip) in order to obtain spatial data on Wisconsin.

Objective Three: Join the data together

A blank map was opened in ArcMap and the Layers data frame was labeled Population. The shape file and the TOTAL POPULATION excel worksheet that were downloaded from the Census Bureau were added to the map. Then the attribute tables of the shape file and the excel worksheet were joined using “GEO_ID” as the common attribute field.

Objective Four: Mapping the data

A new field was added to the joined attribute table. Using the field calculator, the D001 field data (population) was added to the new field as D001new and as a Double field type so that it could be mapped quantitatively. The data was then added to the map using graduated colors.

Objective Five: Mapping another variable

Back on the US Census Bureau website another variable was selected. Going through the same process described in Objective One “Age & Sex” and “All Counties within Wisconsin” were selected and the tabular data for “Median Age by Sex” 2010 SF1 100% Data were downloaded. After deleting an unwanted row and saving the file as an Excel Workbook and the shape file of the counties in Wisconsin data were added to ArcMap under a new data frame labeled “Median Age by Sex (Male)”. The attribute tables were joined and a new field was created using the data from D003 and was labeled D003new so that the data could be mapped quantitatively. D003 represents the median age of the male population in each county. The symbology was changed to graduated blue colors.

Objective 6: Building the layout

The coordinate system for both data frames were changed to NAD 1983 Wisconsin TM (US Feet) in order to lessen map distortion of Wisconsin. Basic map elements such as the title, legend, north arrow, scale, source and author were added to the map. The maps were saved and the map created in Objective Five was deleted, because it was no longer need for Objective Seven.

Objective 7: Creating a web map

In order to create a web map ArcGIS Online for Organizations was accessed by signing into the University of Wisconsin Geography & Anthropology Organization account using my own UWEC username and password. Once logged in, the map was published as a service under the UW-Eau Claire – Geography and Anthropology connection. The service was named Wisconsin_Demographic_Information_Kleinschmidt. The capabilities were enabled as Feature Access, the item description was added and the service was shared to UW-Eau Claire – Geography and Anthropology. After analyzing the map and eliminating any errors the map was published!

Next, in the ArcGIS website after signing in again and navigating to the home page of the UWEC Geography & Anthropology account the feature layer that was just created was found under the My Content tab. After viewing this layer, the previously-created map appears. Next the Population and County names were configured and saved as pop-ups. Now when a county in Wisconsin is clicked the population in each county and the county name appears. The map was saved and then shared.

Results

This lab produced two maps. The first map contains two maps of Wisconsin for comparison. The first image of Wisconsin (left) shows the population of Wisconsin by county.

 Through analyses of this map, one can conclude that the counties with the largest population are located in the southern part of the state, with Dane, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties appearing to contain the largest populations. There appears to be less population in the northern part of the state.

This second map (right) displays the median age of Wisconsin’s male population by county. By analyzing this map one can tell that the median age of males is higher in Northern Wisconsin. By comparing these to maps one can conclude that the median age of males is lower where there is a higher population. For example, Milwaukee county is in the highest population range in the state, but also is in the lowest median age of males range in the state.

The final map is a web map of the previously-made Population by County map of Wisconsin.

With the handy pop-up tool, the name and population of each county can be seen by simply clicking on it!

Sources:

http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml?refresh=t
http://www.arcgis.com/home