Lab 1: Base Data

Introduction
  The goal of this lab was to become familiar with various spatial data sets used in public land management, administration, land use and to prepare base maps for the Confluence Project. The Confluence Project is public-private local development where the Eau Claire and Chippewa Rivers meet. The Project will construct a new art center for the community, university student housing and commercial retail complex in downtown Eau Claire.

Goals
1.) Explore various data sets for the City and County of Eau Claire.
2.) Digitize the site for the proposed Confluence Project.
3.) Learn about the Public Land Survey System (PLSS).
4.) Create a brief legal description of the site.
5.) Create relevant base maps for the site.

Objective 1 
  My first objective for this lab was to familiarize myself with the geodatabase provided. I achieved this by exploring the feature datasets, previewing the feature classes, checking the properties of the feature classes, and reading up on some of the rules that restricted certain feature classes.

Objective 2
  For the second objective I had to digitize the site of the Confluence Project. To do this I created a new file geodatabase and added a new polygon feature class.I then added the coordinate system from the census feature class of the given geodatabase. The subsequent step was to add a base map to my feature dataset, I added the ESRI world image map. Next I zoomed in to the Project area and added the City of Eau Claire parcel area data. This added all of the buildings, bridges, parks, etc, to my map. The final part was digitizing the sites of the Project. Below is an image of the digitized areas for the Confluence Project.

Objective 3

  For the third objective I learned about the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). The PLSS is a method of surveying and spatially identifying parcels of land before they are bought. The PLSS is made up of townships, sections, and quarter-quarter sections. More information on the PLSS can be found here. So for the lab I simply added the PLSS feature class to an aerial base map of Eau Claire, I then compared the patterns.

Objective 4

     For the fourth objective I had to create a legal description of the proposed site. I accomplished this by using the Identify Tool and obtaining the parcel ID number for both parcels and putting the ID numbers into the City of Eau Claire's Property and Assessment Search Website. I then created a report with the digitized pictures of each parcel.

 (Eau Claire's Property Website)

Objective 5

  For the fifth and final objective of this lab I was asked to create six different maps. The first map was for civil divisions, the second was about the Census Boundaries, the third was the PLSS Features, fourth was the Eau Claire Parcel Data, the fifth was Zoning, and finally the last one was Voting Districts. 

  To begin all six of the maps have a few similar qualities. They all contain either the outlines of the proposed site that I created in objective two or a call out box that shows where the confluence project would be. They also all contain the same base map, ESRI World Imagery Map. Furthermore I added the scales and legends onto the maps from the layout view in ArcMap, ArcMap is the software I used to create the maps. 

  The Civil Divisions map I added the civil divisions dataset to the aerial view of Eau Claire. From there I gave the properties of the city of Eau Claire a different color from the rest of the county.

  The Census Boundaries map I added the population data from the census feature class. I grouped the ranges of population to realistic numbers, meaning I got rid of all of the decimals. Assigned each range of population it's own shade of green. I also added the Tracts Group, this added the gray lines that go around the different shades of green.

  The PLSS Feature map shows all of the PLSS areas where the Confluence is located, they are represented by the black lines. Then the red proposed site shows where in the PLSS area it is located. All I did was add the PLSS feature class data. 

  The EC City Parcel Data map I added the feature classes parcel area, centerlines, and water. I changed the symbol of the parcel area to a hollow color and gave it bold outline, doing this allows the background under the data set to be seen with an outline of the data still visible. The centerlines show all of the roads and the water data is shown over the rivers.

  The Zoning map is very similar to the Census Boundaries map. I added the Zoning feature class, which contained data for commercial, residential, industrial and transportation. I assigned each of these categories a unique color. Finally I added the centerlines.

  For the Voting Districts map I added the voting districts feature class for the city and labeled each districts by their ward numbers.

Below is the 6 maps that I created         

Source: City of Eau Claire and Eau Claire County 2013
Click on image to enlarge