Module 4 - Vector Analysis

This week was all about vectors. the majority of the lab was centered around making and analyzing buffers. The main purpose of the project was to identify possible campsite locations in a national park in Southern Mississippi. The key criteria for possible campsite locations are for them to be within 150 meters of a lake OR within 500 meters of a river, AND be within 300 meters from a road. However, none of them could be inside a protected conservation area. In order to complete this, I created a 300 m buffer around the roads within the park, a 500 m buffer around its rivers, and a 150 m buffer around its lakes. These buffers were then combined using the Union tool. Then the conservation areas were removed from the combined data using the Erase tool. The result was a series of scattered areas in highly variable sizes (0.07481 ha to 775.361296 ha). In order to better visualize these areas, I grouped the shapes based on their land area in hectares. After reviewing different ways of dividing these groups, I created three unique value classes based on the percentage of total area, grouped by equal interval separation. I then labeled each class as "good," "better," and "best" based on how much area is close to both a road and water source. The final product is shown below, along with a map inset of the park's location in Mississippi.

I struggled with this lab at points, especially the final symbology and class groupings. It took me some time, and I went back and forth on many settings and symbology choices, but in the end, I was happy with my final product, and I've learned a lot about ways to convey data in relation to its use.