Clear Vision Eau Claire announced a public-private partnership between local developers, UW-Eau Claire and the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center that intends to construct a new development at the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire Rivers in downtown Eau Claire. This Development, the "Confluence Project", plans to break ground on a new community arts center/university student housing and commercial retail complex in downtown Eau Claire beginning in 2014. The goal of this project is to get experience working with local data and using it to represent a real world application, the Confluence Project.
Methods
First I examined the classes in the City of Eau Claire's and Eau Claire County's geodatabases and gained an understanding in the data they represented. The second step I took was digitizing the area in which the confluence project would take place. This digitized image was placed over satellite imagery to help the viewer understand exactly where the project is taking place. I saved this digitized image as a feature class to use in future maps. The last step was to create six different maps that represented different data that is important to the confluence project, Civil Divisions, PLSS Features, Census Boundaries, Voting Districts, City of Eau Claire Parcel Data, and Zoning Classes.
The first map contains civil divisions in the area that surrounds the confluence project. The City, Town, and Village municipalities are clearly visible with a legend that leaves no confusion to which one is which. To create this map I added a base map of the satellite imagery then added the civil divisions. To make the map more clear, I assigned colors to the municipality types and made them transparent so the satellite image could be seen beneath it. I then added the proposed site with a callout then a scale and a legend.
The second map shows the PLSS Features and where the confluence project falls within it. Again I added the base map with the proposed site for the confluence project highlighted. Next, I added the PLSS Quarter Quarter zones with distinct lines. To finish this map off I added a legend and scale with uniform backgrounds that made it easy to read.
The third map shows Census Boundaries. This shows the population per square mile in downtown Eau Claire. With the same base map I added the block group feature class symbolized the population with a normalized value of square miles. I put a border around each of the block groups and added a clear legend and scale.
The fourth map shows voting districts around the proposed site. Over the same base map I added the voting districts with clear boundaries and labels. A callout was added to make the proposed site stand out more.
The fifth map shows City of Eau Claire Parcel Data. Over the same base map I added feature classes for water, centerlines, and parcel area. I used a color that stands out more for the parcel area's because I thought it was more important in this map than centerlines and the river. The centerlines and river are still clearly visible but the parcel area stands out more. A legend and scale are also provided.
The last map is a map of the different Zoning classes in downtown Eau Claire. Over the same imagery I added the zoning class feature class and symbolized unique values and assigned a color scheme that was not confusing to someone looking at the map. I had to combine all of the zoning classes into 6 classes. A scale and legend were attached to this to clarify which color is what type of zone.
Results
This is the finished image with the six maps as described above. It is easy to conclude that Clear Vision Eau Claire took all of these things into consideration when selecting a place to put the confluence project.
Sources
Clear Vision Eau Claire. (2014). About Us. Retrieved from Clear Vision Eau Claire: http://clearvisioneauclaire.org/
Hupy, C. (2016). Lab 1: Base Data. Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
