Wind Turbine location

I chose an area on the eastern side of Lake Ontario. The turbines could be located far enough offshore to alleviate concerns of noise, shadow, and aesthetics. This is an area of interest for the New York Power Authority for wind energy. This area had less conflict with migration routes and a class 3 to 4 mean annual wind. It would be accessible for maintenance and offer possible economic benefit for locals.

Sources:
Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System
http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/navigating/map/index.html

NOAA
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/EastGL.shtml

New York Power Authority
http://www.nypa.gov/press/2009/090422a.htm

USGS
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/migratio/routes.htm

Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States
http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/chp3.html#lake

Isohyet Lab

Mean annual precipitation in Georgia in inches using 5 inch contour lines and continuous tone shading.

Immigration Flow Map

Stylized flow map from origin to destination by world region 2007 using a World Robinson projection. Illustrator's smallest stroke is a .25 so the size of the largest arrow was determined to be 70 pts by using the formula (max line width) x (value / max value).

Non-Contiguous Cartogram

Contiguous Cartogram

I chose to leave the contiguous map at ten iterations. The legend was determined by Jenks breaks and then getting the mean of each group. Japan was added to give a better idea visually of the difference from the US and the numbers below otherwise the highest number seemed too extreme to gauge any information.

Dot Density Map

Each dot represents 4 housing units at a size of .8pt per dot. Red dots were used to contrast with the other map elements. Only counties of higher density were labeled as I thought those would be of interest.

Proportional Symbol Mapping

US Population Choropleth Map

I chose the Albers Equal Area Conic for the contiguous US and the Albers Equal Area Conic for Alaska and Hawaii respectively. This is a commonly used projection for the US. A color scheme from Color Brewer was chosen to accent the unipolar, sequential scheme of the data. The intervals were adjusted to more realistically represent the population changes.

Hispanic Population

Florida Keys Map

Data Classification Lab

I felt that the equal interval with 4 instead of 5 breaks best fit the mean and standard deviation with the least variance.

This is an amusement park yet we don't know where, there is no title. Although there is somewhat of a legend, you must know what those symbols mean to understand them. There is no scale, so there is no way to tell how far from one place to the next (which might be deliberate) and I can only assume where parking and/or transportation might be located to find a way out of this maze.

This first map shows a change in population growth of major cities of the world from 1955 to a projected 2015. The map is easy to use, clear and legible; the symbols and labels are appropriate, and the purpose is easily identifiable; and there is structure and order. The circles/size correspond to the population of the cities originally and are proportional to each other and time. The legend is weak, if it can be called one (perhaps because it was an animation?) and there is no scale but the focus and purpose work well.

The order I've chosen my states reflects that I love the heat and because of that, the south. I also cannot be too far from a coastline, just a phobic thing having grown up in Florida. Most of my family is in the southeast and I like them so I like to be close enough that visiting is not a hardship. Florida and Texas are my favorites for weather and terrain and I hope to move to Texas in the next couple of years. (Also, no state income tax.)