My “Fatality on the Home Front” Map displays the distribution of fatalities of the war in Iraq, according to their home state in the United States, in relation to the number of recruits from each state in 2004.
The data for fatalities was collected from a well-referenced media source, iCasualties.com. The data was imported to an Excel spreadsheet, where some fields needed standardization to remove anomalies, such as extra spaces before names. A new field was added to provide a state abbreviation, since the “Place Name” that the database was to be geocoded against, had abbreviations and not full names. All entries for individuals from outside of the 50 states were removed from the database, for simplification, and the database was ready to be geocoded. The Place Name file was chosen from NationalAtlas.gov, an Address Locater was created, and the Fatality database was geocoded against that. There were approximately 500 entries that had to be matched interactively. After each of these cities located in Google Maps, the nearest city within each state, appearing in the Place Name file, was chosen to match against.
The geocoding results were then plotted on a base map of the United States, provided by NationalAtlas.gov. Since point data can really only be displayed as points, I realized that I needed something for comparison. First, I attempted to compare it to general population figures, but the numbers were too insignificant. Then, I attempted to locate armed forces census data but discovered that their job profiles are buried in the regular job profiles of the census. After much consideration, and a lot of searching, I discovered the 2004 new recruit data on StateMaster.gov. I attempted to locate a wider range, but unfortunately the Department of Defense does not share that type of information, and it is not available in normal Census data. I decided that since that was the first full year after the start of the war in Iraq, it would be an adequate statistic to measure against.
Comparing the number of fatalities to the number of new recruits was relatively easy in ArcGIS, but the balance of the cartographic design was not so easy. The first consideration was the thematic overly, or map type. I chose a graduated color map, because I believe it displays data on a national level much more effectively than any other type of symbol map. It is easy to see patterns and pick out disparities in the data. For this, I believe it worked very well. The second biggest consideration was a color ramp. I wanted something that would go well with the data and represent something close to the idea of a fatality. After sifting through each of the color ramps provided in ArcGIS, I decided on the one that had the deepest color of red, closest to that of blood, to signify the loss of the same. I was not entirely happy with the pink at the low end, but in the scheme of things, it worked out to signify what it should; there was very little loss of blood/life.
The remainder of the design was primarily towards technical aspects. Initially, I tried a graticule, but it seemed to interfere too much, so I discarded it. For the purpose of this map, it was not particularly relevant, so much as the data in the map itself. I also had Alaska and Hawaii represented, but they too interfered with being able to balance the map and the textual information adequately. Since the numbers for these states were not particularly outstanding, I decided it would be just as well to display their specific numbers in a relative position on the map page. Part of this might have been due to the projection chosen, but I feel as though I might have had the same problem no matter which project I choose. The final choice for projection was Albers Equal Area Conic, since it is one of the accepted norms for representing the conterminous United States. The legend became a small problem, after some inspection. The data was not represented accurately in the first draft, because the numbers were whole numbers. While this would be perfectly acceptable for the intended audience of the map, for data representation it was lacking a bit, and the legend was adjusted to display two decimal places.
The balance of the map page is mostly aesthetic. For appearance alone, the major lakes of the United States were chosen, but later I realized that it completed the map’s representation of the “red, white & blue.” The scale bar chosen displays a singular numerical width of 1000 kilometers. Kilometers were chosen because it is the international standard, and I believe that all measures should correlate with those standards. Label were placed on the states, though a few had to modified for appearance, such as Vermont and New Hampshire; their abbreviation is displayed. The north arrow was chosen for its appearance, and to provide a general sense of direction. The title and subtitle were chosen to reflect the appearance of the intended audience, a general news readership. Text was discriminately for details about the data and its sources, and the Arial font for its clean and neat appearance.
The overall layout was simple and straightforward. I chose a thin, unobtrusive neat line to border the map page at one inch from the margins. All elements were arranged within the neat line for a good sense of balance. In order to make the text stand out better, a slight drop shadow was added, kerning adjusted to 2 pixels, and a fine black “stroke over fill” edge added. For a finishing touch, I added the stock photo of an American flag, for a backdrop. This photo was made to be mostly faded and transparent, so as not to distract from the content of the map page, while still giving the map a sense of patriotism, and honor those that had fallen.
GGP330 - Cartography
3rd Annual Research & Creative Arts Symposium
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