Reference no: EM131736108

Hazard and Disaster management - GIS Project

Assignment Brief

For this assessment you are asked to submit ONE document containing FOUR A4 maps showcasing the skills you have learnt in the practical classes. Each map should be accompanied by a paragraph (around 200-300 words) explaining the choices you made in creating your maps; for example map style, layout, symbology, fonts and map projection.

Map	Details
1	Map of Northamptonshire roads with appropriate symbols, labels and furniture
2	Map centred on a country showing features such as major cities, tectonic boundaries, active volcanoes and UNESCO world heritage sites
3	Using the aerial imagery of Kingston, a map depicting all trees, the River Thames, footpaths in Hampton Court and all buildings in the triangle between Portsmouth Road, Surbiton Road and Riverside Close.
4	Choropleth map of a UK county of your choice showing percentage of unemployed economically active persons 16-74. Pay particular attention to data manipulation, data classification and symbolisation. Incorporate roads, neighbouring counties and the locations of major towns.

Data

You are provided with some sources for data to complete some of the maps (the data supplied for practcials), but you are encouraged to find and use additional data where possible. Remember UK base mapping at multiple scales can be downloaded from EDINA or the Ordnance Survey Open Data Portal, while the The census data you need for Map 4 can be downloaded from InFuse. There are many other sources of data on the WWW for example; you may find Natural Earth data useful for map 2; while the London Data Store is a great source of data for the London (including Kingston). ESRI also provide a range of base maps and other data (through ArcGIS Online) that you can directly add to your map documents.

Map Target/Purpose

Each map should have a primary theme and target audience as the intended "users" for each map (e.g. a road map to Northampton University or National Trust Properties). You have the freedom to decide what the theme and audience for each map is. The theme/users should either be inherently understandable form the map or explained in the accompanying description.

What Makes a Good Map?

We are looking for useful, informative and aestheticallwy pleasing maps that demonstrate your ability to find and present relevant information.

Lectures 4 Cartography and 5 Classification and Geovisualisation are highly relevant to this question. You should also read the Cartographic Guidelines on Canvas.

Maps must be in order and each map followed by the associated commentary. Landscape maps should be on landscape-oriented pages, portrait-oriented maps and discussion text on portrait pages.

You are strongly advised to visually check the exported file before upload to make sure figure quality and document formatting have been correctly exported. Teaching staff can provide advice on preparing your PDF if required.

Module Learning Outcomes assessed in this piece of coursework

· Evaluate the use of GIS in the capture, storage and handling, manipulation and analysis of Geographical Information.
· Apply the latest developments in geographical database technology to geographical database case studies

Marking criteria

· Use of appropriate data.
· Suitable display of data.
· Communicate meaningfully with your audience through maps and text.
· Demonstrate a range of GIS techniques.
· Critical evaluation that identifies what works well and where design might be improved.