Module 7: Choropleth Mapping

This weeks assignment we produced a choropleth map showing overall population densities in European countries using 2013 European census data.  Then tied in wine consumption, data from Wine Institute 2012 liter per capita, as a graduated symbol overlay.  In the choice of graduated or proportional, I chose graduated as proportional has too many options for my brain.  Proportional scales the symbol utilized to the data.  Each symbol is proportional to other data, leading to a range of the scale symbol instead of a set number of classes.  I chose a ramp color scheme for the choropleth map to depict the population density, using from forest green to almost white.  I stuck with a green scale to symbolize a ground type color.  The darkest color represents the highest data range.  I chose a more blue green as opposed to a yellow green to help contrast the red for the wine symbol.  The population density legend has no spaces between the individual categories to indicate a continuous range of data.  I chose to utilize natural breaks for the classification method as it seemed to allow for a more natural division as opposed to Equal Interval that forces data into equal divisions or Quantile that forces an equal amount of values into each category.  I eliminated four outliers of small countries with high population density that would have skewed any classification method.  The scale of the map to fit the page would not have clearly shown these four small countries, Monaco, Gibraltar, Malta, and Jersey and with very low wine consumption served more of an element of clutter than information.  I utilized Data Exclusion with a SQL Query to manipulate the data.  I almost utilized a 7 class division as it seemed to allow for even more natural breaks to be represented, however I chose a 5 class division to keep the color distinctions at a maximum.  I labeled the countries in ArcMap and corrected some of the names into english by adding a field to the attribute table with the labels I wanted to utilize.  I further adjusted location of the labels in AI and added a small halo to allow for clearer reading.  The wine symbol started in ArcMap as a half circle in a red wine color.  I added an outline to that symbol as well as added a stem to form a wine glass in Adobe Illustrator.  I chose to keep the stem of the wine glass consistent across the classes to add weight to the bowl of the glass.  The detail of the stem to the wine glass may be too small when the map is considered in the small thumb print for Blogger, but I felt it was adequate to communicate the information.  I added required map elements: legend, scale bar, north arrow, data frame and for this map a small blurb about what the data offers in way of information.