Lab 3 - GIS Cartography

The purpose of this week's lab was to create 3 maps, alter symbology, explore labeling, and utilize dynamic text. The 3 maps each depicted different features of Mexico. The first illustrated and labeled the Mexican states and symbolized states into 6 groups by population size. The second included and inset map and illustrated urban areas in Central Mexico with railroads, major federal roads and major and primary rivers, each symbolized uniquely. The map above is the third map which shows to topography of Mexico, symbolizing a raster feature class with a color ramp. I chose the Surface color ramp because the Mexican elevation raster feature layer shows elevation. This color ramp represents high elevations as white and low elevations as green. Because high elevations are mountain tops which usually contain snow and low elevations are valleys which are usually green, the surface color ramp makes the most sense to represent these natural features. I also decided to no fill the Legend or Inset Map and selected a subtle north arrow so that their presence was not distracting. I found the exploration of advanced labeling - creating different label classes - to be very helpful in creating this week's maps.

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