Christa's GIS Archive

I'm coming to the realization that I'm becoming more of a GIS/map nerd than I thought I'd ever be. I think a large part of it comes down to my perfectionism, to a fault; however, I also want to believe it's because I long for a creative outlet, especially when I'm stuck making a certain type of map at work. They're not bad maps by any means, but there's a certain formula and structure to them that doesn't allow for much experimentation, which speaking of experimentation... It was so nice to finally get my grubby GIS hands on more creative map-making again! This week's module focused on typography, which made us consider the importance of labels and how we stylize, set, and size them can affect the legibility of features. The lab walked us through the process of building a solid foundation for a map layout that focuses on the major features throughout Florida. These features were rivers, swamps/marshes, cities, and counties. One of my first assignment...

Module 1 covered a brief introduction to Cartography, its history, and map design principles. I grew up Catholic, so hearing about the 20 Tufteisms instantly made me think of this being the Cartographer's 20 Commandments. Haha! Anyways, this week's lab required students to find 2 maps, one deemed well-designed and the other poorly designed, and critique them. I spun around several ideas in my head. At first, I really did want to do a map from my childhood, like something in a video game; however, I couldn't find a decent enough example that I wanted to go through with. The map I chose, which is well-designed, is one that I see quite frequently when I want to go on a nice stroll. And that is Cascades Park in Tallahassee, Florida. Cascades Park in Tallahassee, FL. It features all the points of interest that visitors can visit, as well as amenities, parking, and additional information such as hours of operation and rules. The Cascades Park map above is quite beautiful! I love ...

Back again with another GIS course -- this time it's Computer Cartography! After taking a management course, I feel excited to continue learning more about GIS. For the start of the Computer Cartography class, we're going through the motions of orientation week, which includes creating this blog post and a Story Map. This would be my 2nd official Story Map, and it covers some highlights of my life. To give a brief summary about me, my name is Christa Dizon. I work full-time as a GIS Engineering Specialist for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. I maintain various GIS data and curate maps for the programs throughout. I joined UWF's master's program in GIS Administration because my colleagues on my team had graduated from the same program, and I wanted to challenge myself further by growing in GIS and developing my skills. I hope to merge my love of health education and promotion with GIS in the future. However, I'm happy and proud of the work I am abl...

Life got the better of me, and I forgot to upload my maps to my final project last semester. It wasn't a requirement to make a blog post for the final; however, I'd still like to archive my maps here at least before I forget again. The maps below are my LULC maps of Pebbledale Mine, showing changes from 2010 to 2019. I went with supervised classification to give myself the most control and to also challenge myself. There are definitely improvements to be made and drawbacks, which I outlined further in my final paper; but due to the time limitations and having personal plans that required me to finish this project a week ahead of time, I will hopefully be able to improve if I have to do a similar project or task in the future. Overall, still very proud of what I was able to accomplish and enjoy my maps!