Activity 6: Data search and collection

In this exercise we created a map by applying all the knowledge gained from the previous maps that were created. All the basic but essential parts of a map were added such as: Title, North Arrow, Scale and Author. In addition a reference box was added to give credit to the organizations from where the datasets were obtained. An essential part of map cartography is acquiring GIS data; the theme and scale of a dataset has to be considered when locating GIS data. For this map the dataset was obtained from the Biodiversity and Environment Resource Data System of Belize. The datasets where Rivers, Roads, Settlements and protected Areas of Belize. Another important aspect of Arc map is that datasets available are often found in a larger spatial extent than desired. All the features obtained from BERDS are of the entire country of Belize; the clip function in arc map is a helpful tool that project specific features in polygons required (Cayo District). The clip tool creates a new shapefile file for the output, which needs to be saved. The inputs are Settlements, Roads, Rivers, Protected areas and the output is the Cayo District. After all the features are clipped individually to Cayo District Arc map will display only Cayo District with all the features that are found with in Cayo. To finalize the map a personal touch was added to the title, north arrow and color of the map. A color ramp for the different protected areas was also added so that the legend can clearly show the identity of each of the specific protected areas.