Skip to content
Week 12: Cartographic Fundamentals
11/17/2025
This week’s lab focused on using Arc GIS Pro to make maps properly and to interpret them accurately. Through the use of a variety of tools within the software as well as a pre processed flight mission, proper map creation was ensured. The study area for this lab was Wolf Paving Company’s material site, and this was used to produce a series of products. The data from this flight was first downloaded and organized, and then the fun began. Critical thinking questions were answered before actually modifying the project, and the below metadata table (in Figure 1) was created.
Figure 1: Metadata table
Proper file naming and locating convention was examined shortly thereafter, and the project was created. The difference between DSMs, DTMs, and orthomosaic products were reviewed, and so were the associated hillshades. Each product essentially tells the viewer a little something about the elevation of structures and terrain, and the hillshade adds depth perception to the imagery. Three layouts were created after this was complete: a shaded DSM map (as seen in Figure 2), an orthomosaic map with detailed insets (as seen in Figure 3), and an orthomosaic map with a reference grid (as seen in Figure 4). It should be noted that in technical terms the map is the imagery product whereas the layout is the product with the title, legend, etc., but sometimes I just say the word “map” to describe the layout.
Figure 2: Shaded DSM layout
Figure 3: Orthomosaic inset layout
Figure 4: Orthomosaic reference layout
In the realm of usefulness, the shaded DSM layout allows the viewer to understand elevation of the map including structures, and was created by laying a transparent DSM layer over its own hillshade. The detailed insets orthomosaic allows the viewer to see the bare imagery of the map as well as the zoomed in sites of each of the GCPs. The reference grid orthomosaic layout allows the viewer to easily describe locations on the map with the use of an arbitrary reference grid, limiting confusion in discussions about locations. All could prove to be very useful in specific scenarios, and this activity was good exercise in the realm of map creation.
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ··· in the right corner or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.