Week Five GIS

The area I chose was Fog Mountain and Fog Mountain saddle. This area is up the Selway Wilderness area and has amazing lookout tower and had no roads into the area, this helps to keep in a pristine state. There are horse trails and hiking trails to access the mountain and saddle. This area is a popular area during elk hunting season and lots of people use horses to hunt this area. It overlooks the Selway river and Selway falls, which also only accessed by horses or hiking because it is a wilderness area.I have hiked to the top of this area and also rafted the the selway river from Moose creek airport down to Selway falls. It is one of the prettiest rivers I have ever been to in the fall.

GIS lab 5

Aitoff EQUIDISTANT

Geodesic 6,934.478105 miles

 Loxodrome 8,112.060673 miles

Great Elliptic 6,934.483772 miles

Behramann EQUAL

Geodesic 8,763.089124 miles

 Loxodrome 8,112.060673 miles

Great Elliptic 6,934.483772 miles

  Stegraphirc CONFORMAL

Geodesic 6,934.478105 miles

 Loxodrome 8,112.060673 miles

Great Elliptic 6,934.483772 miles

 

Mercator CONFORMAL

Geodesic 6,934.478105 miles

 Loxodrome 8,112.060673 miles

Great Elliptic 6,934.483772 miles

  Eckert IV EQUAL

Geodesic 6,934.478105 miles

 Loxodrome 8,112.060673 miles

Great Elliptic 7,835.028179 miles

 

Winkle 1 EQUIDISTANT

Geodesic 6,934.478105 miles

 Loxodrome 8,112.060673 miles

Great Elliptic 6,934.483772 miles

       This lab used tools that are significant for mapping by using the measuring tool in the program. By using this tool you are able to measure the distance between two points on the map that you chose, which can give different results depending on which of the measuring formats you are using. There are 4 different options; planar, geodesic, loxodrome, and great elliptic.These different measuring tools give a large difference in the values that are given in the tool bar when measuring the same distance, as shown above.

       There are quite substantial differences in the maps between the different layouts on the projects that were chosen. Both the equidistant maps, Winkle 1 and Aitoff, showed values that were the same for all three different types of measuring tools used. The values for the conformal and the equal were the same distances as well, but the maps in the image form were very different. The maps were all the similar, but showed a large difference in that data was shown in the data.

        Each map projections has its pro's and con's when used in context. Conformal maps preserve both angles and the shapes, but not necessarily their size. This allows angles to be shown on the map with the lat/long lines without any differentiation in the true angles.Equidistant maps preserve maps from some set poin or line. This allows the distance to be measured in a straight line, instead of having it bend along the lat/long lines as with other types of map projections. Equal area maps have the largest amount of variance between the two maps projections that are of equal distance, that being the Eckert IV and Behramann. The equal distance maps provided the most distance and take into account the most space used on the map.

       After using this program to measure distance it was apparent that there are a large number of maps that are available and choosing the right map for the project your are working on seems a daunting task. I think there might be better instructions on which map would be more applicable with which certain type of mapping situation.