After an agonizing week last week with choropleth mapping, I am happy to say that I am back on track and mapping ever forward! This weeks lab was all about isarithmic mapping. Isarithmic mapping is a mapping style that utilizes continuous data to give the reader a visual idea of the data in question. Continuous data can include temperature, elevation, precipitation, and many others. In this weeks lab, I was tasked with creating two maps using isarithmic mapping for precipitation levels in the state of Washington. This data was collected over a 30 year period from various weather locations to show the average annual rainfall in the state by the Oregon State University PRISM Group. This data was then interpolated (analytically estimated the areas between monitoring stations) using the PRISM method which takes factors such as elevation, slope orientation, and coastal proximity into account and shows how said factors can influence precipitation levels. During the lab I made two different maps, one in continuous tones, and the other in hypsometric tints with contours, so let's get right into it!
The second map I made was a Hypsometric Tint map. As you can see, the data is broken up into 10 classes allowing for a more distinguishable map to be made. These classes are separated by contour lines which allow the viewer to distinguish between the amounts of rain across the state. For this map, I believe that this map style is better at representing this data as the contour lines really emphasize the changes in elevation and precipitation that reflect said elevation changes. In this map is a brief description of how the data was derived and interpolated so the target audience and you, the reader can understand. This project has been my all time favorite this semester and a much-needed sigh of relief after the choropleth disaster. I look forward to sharing my future progress with you and as always,
~Map On!
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