Airport Expansion Lab 4

I used a tutorial for ArcGIS to create the following maps. The tutorial and software was complex and had somewhat of a learning curve that was a bit frustrating to overcome at times but overall was very helpful in learning how to utilize the system. The first graph I creating focused on schools and how they were oriented in relationship to the airport expansion. The tutorial walked me through some of the basic steps in importing data to ArcGIS along with labeling the different data sets and individual schools on the map. It explained how to change the orientation of the map along with expanding and resizing it. The tutorial also showed me how to import a legend for the map along with a distance bar and compass star. It was difficult to utilize the many different tools bars at first mainly due to the depth of the soft wear. There was always a large amount of options when it came to settings and adjustments so it was helpful to have the tutorial, to guide me through the finer details.

The second map that I created in the tutorial focused on land use and how to select and focus on different zones that would be possibly affected by the airport expansion. This part of the tutorial walked my through selecting different zones that where influenced by the future noise ring that would surround the airport expansion. IT then walked me through how to identify these zones by there use, whether it be agricultural, industrial, residential, and then color code then. The graph creation process was a bit difficult, once again due to the vast amount of options available, however by following the tutorial precisely, I was able to create a bar graph of the different land uses affected by the airport expansion.

The bottom map was created by mapping the population densities surrounding the airport and in the county overall. This required the use of the filed calculator which allowed me to calculate population density by going into the data and creating a new category. The tutorial also walked me through how to draw exact lines and curves while drawing a new feeder road for the airport. After completing this map one of the finale steps was to create a small scale map for the first map I created, that focused on schools near the airport, in order to  show its' location in relation to the county as a whole.

ArcGIS is an amazing software that allows users to manipulate and construct maps in infinitely many ways all from geographic data. It was frustrating to learn at some points but the Tutorial is very detailed and takes the user through all of the steps, leaving you with the basic information necessary to complete stunning, informative, and professional looking maps. ArcGIS, though sometimes complicated, makes GIS as a study much more intricate, and precise.