Maps I Made

This cartogram map of the United States is exemplary for the following reasons: 1. The size of each state is based on how many electoral votes it has which in turn is as a result of its population. This adds an interesting way to look at the map. 2. Each state is either red or blue depending on which side of the political spectrum it is affiliated with.  3. The map is relatively organized and uses hexagons to space the states out in an organized manner. Source: https://blog.mapchart.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2016-Elections-Electoral-Votes.png  

  For Map 6 I made a dot density map of the Livingston County population in 2020 without the town borders resulting in a somewhat dasymetric map. I would've liked to add to border to the map, but I found it very difficult to do so. I also chose colors that I thought worked best with each other. This map took me around 45 minutes to do because for me it wasn't easy to create a dot density map without town borders.  As for the other map, I failed to successfully make it in time. I was having a lot of trouble with the Natural Earth Data. At first, the data never showed up when I attempted to add it, but after a suggestion from Dr. Garrity, I was able to see it. Unfortunately, I kept getting this error message after attempting to add the shapefile to ArcGIS. This was very frustrating, and I tried different methods that I found on ArcGIS forums to fix the problem, but I kept getting the same error message. I have a feeling I am the only one having this problem but if I can get it fi

  This proportional symbol map I found of the US population by county is exemplary for the following reasons: 1. The larger dots are slightly transparent which allows us to see smaller dots that may be under them. 2. The map uses a nested-legend setup which is a solid way to show the sizes of the dots by a county's population. 3. The dots are separated into one of two categories- coastline and interior, which shows a different color based on where the dot is located.  Source:  Proportional Symbol Map of the US Population in 2020 by County . https:populationrecord,com/HFW6o4DaPQZhI4YnXOUyfD6sOVSVSG083bRKRatksb=w600-h336.

  This choropleth map showing poverty in the US by county is exemplary for the following reasons: 1. The colors in the legend correspond with colors that a viewer would attribute to positive or negative poverty rates in America. 2. The map states the county with the highest poverty population in South Carolina and the county with the lowest poverty population in New Mexico for viewers who may not be able to see it on the map.  3. The map leaves out urban counties as it could skew the data. Leaving the data as both urban and rural may have the counties in white to either have a much lower or much higher poverty rate. Source:  USA Poverty Rates by County . https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4ALYQ6KZ-Yw/S8yfPaLJonI/AAAAAAAAAFU/23ooUR_i1ic/s1600/2008PovertyCountiesMapfour.jpg.