GIS 4006 M5 Lab: Choropleth and Proportional Symbology

This was another great lab. Here, I prepared a map of Europe with a choropleth map of population density, with graduated symbols over each country representing annual per capita wine consumption. We were asked to look at the use of map projection and why it was a good or bad fit for this map, and to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of projections in general. The main focus on this lab was on making stylistic and aesthetic to clearly convey map information to readers, while incorporating previous lessons like Gestalt principles. Map choices included choosing a classification scheme for our data, choosing aesthetically appealing color ramps and symbolism, style choices about the basemap and legend, data hygiene (some country names were in other languages initially), and choosing countries that were too small or too much of an outlier to display well, as well as cleaning up and displaying effectively areas with dense labels. I chose to make a layer beneath my main map with the Balkans unlabeled and partially transparent, exlude Balkans on the top layer, and make that area an inset map. I got a lot of practice using SQL expressions to include or exclude labels for the inset and main map, both for the inset area and small European countrie that couldn't be mapped effectively at this scale.