Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Final Project Topic and Proposal



The subject of my map will be the precipitation, wind gusts, and inundation totals in places in Virginia from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. I chose this subject because of the effect the storm had on our state and I wanted to know more about the storm in general.

Tropical storms can be devastating for a state and this storm is significant because our state was associated with it. My map audience will be the general population because this information is easy to understand and will be factual because it is quantitative-based. I am envisioning a graduated symbol map because this will help locate the areas where Sandy was most impactful.

I am planning on making transparent blue circles because the circles are easy to recognize and the blue will be a good representation for precipitation.  I envision the state of Virginia being a light shade of green with the county boundary lights in a light color, possibly grey.  The scope of my map will be the state of Virginia because that is where I am focusing my data on.

The data is from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website from the report, Tropical Cyclone Report Hurricane Sandy written on February 12, 2013. The size of the dataset is around 40 to 50 entries and I like it because it hopefully show specifically where the hurricane was in Virginia. The data seems very accurate because it is part of a large in depth report on the hurricane.

The basemap I am going to need is the map of Virginia and possible the map of the counties of Virginia. I first expect to make my classes, then get my basemaps, add the proportional symbols in the right location, add color, add the title, legend, description, name and date, and scale. I expect to encounter challenges with making my circles a see-thru blue and having it look well with the color of the map of Virginia.

I think I will be challenged with matching the county borders with the map of Virginia as well. There is also the challenge of making my map interesting, easy to read and understand as well, so picking the size and fonts and backgrounds will require some experimenting.  

I hope to have my map styled similar to this one.