Lab 1: Base Data

      In 2012 Clear Vision Eau Claire announced a new development in the city of Eau Claire just south of the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers. Now known as the Confluence Project, this venture is funded by a partnership of Eau Claire’s private developers and public establishments like the UW – Eau Claire, and the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center. 

     Plans for the site include a large, modern community arts center and mixed commercial space for restaurants, coffee shops, retail space, and student apartments. The site would see various public uses along with University students and members of the regional arts center. This development could be seen as a downtown revitalization project; an initiative that would bring people back to the downtown area of the city.

     The task in this first lab was to prepare a report including a base map with relevant information of the confluence site. In the process, we learned about different data sets used to create these maps from areas of administration, land use, and public land management.

Objective I

     We started by exploring the data sets provided in lab for the City and County of Eau Claire using the ArcCatalog program from the ArcGIS suite of programs. This included parcel, road, and zoning features amongst many others. We also viewed properties of topology features in order to understand how and why rules are used in the creation of features.

Objective II

     The confluence site was digitized using ArcMap. We started by taking a simple base map from an aerial image and added in the city’s parcel feature. This allowed us to create a new feature for the Confluence site itself by following the outlines of the parcel feature. The process involved loading features into our map and using editing and snap program elements. After we created polygon features of the buildings located in the proposed site, we are able to fill them with visible colors, distinguishing them from the rest of our base map.

Objective III

     Next we studied readings on the use of townships, ranges, and sections in the Public Land Survey System. This gave us a basic understanding on how townships are sectioned and the difference between a town or city and a township. We then started with another base map and loaded sections and “quarter quarter” sections (one sixteenth of a section) features into our map. We digitized the confluence site again so that it could be seen in its section and quarter quarter section.

Using this system we would identify the confluence site down to the quarter quarter section. The site is located in the NE ¼ of the NW ¼ of section 20, T27N, R9W.

Objective IV

     In this objective we built up a legal description of the confluence site. This includes information about the current owner of the site as well as the location and detailed description of the property included in the site. This information was gathered from the City of Eau Claire Property and Assessment Search website, as well as the parcel number included in the parcel feature that we were provided with. (Fig. 1)

Objective V

     Finally, six maps were made to visualize the data at hand involving the confluence site. The maps were those of civil divisions, census boundaries, Public Land Survey System data, parcels in Eau Claire, zoning data, and voting districts. (Fig. 2)

     Each map was designed on the same base maps and appropriate features were added to each individual map. Features were digitized using proper coloration in order to distinguish between features as well as visualize datum. The site of the Confluence Project was also given a distinguishing feature from all other features and in some cases given a label. This was to understand the sites orientation within the data.

     The Civil Divisions map has the Eau Claire county boundary added and then the divisions placed over this and categorized by type. These represent the types of civil division designated for government, administrative, or legal purposes and in Wisconsin they sometimes represent a town or township. The data here is nominal, so it can be different non related colors

     The Census Boundaries map shows tracts and groups of blocks within those tracts as they are recognized in census data. The color gradient between block groups indicates numerical data. In this case we added population data normalized against square miles.

     The Public Land Survey map is the same one developed in objective III, but we moved in on the area of the Confluence Project within its quarter quarter plot.

     The Parcel map shows individual land parcels and features such as roads that are relevant on this larger scale.  

     The Zoning Data Map shows what areas have been designated as land in a specific use. It is broken down into different nominal groups of what that specific use is and therefore the colors do not indicate a relationship between data.

     The Map of Voting Wards simply has the Voting wards of the city shaded in and numbered as they are publicly recognized. The numbers were given a “halo” to increase their visibility.

     In Layout view, all six maps were oriented on an 11X17 document using guide lines. More guidelines were used once Legends and scale bars were added allowing for consistency in the orientation and location of these map items. 

Results

Figure 1: Legal description of building and land parcels located on the Confluence site.

Figure 2: Final digitized maps used to report on the Eau Claire Confluence Project.
 Names are indicative of the data used to develop each map.

Sources

University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. Frequently asked questions: The Confluence Project.   
    Retrieved from http://www.uwec.edu/News/more/confluenceprojectFAQs.htm 

Irene D. Lippelt (2002). Understanding Wisconsin Township, Range, and Section Land   
   Descriptions. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. 

Eau Claire Regional Arts Center. The Confluence: Coming Together for the Arts. Retrieved 
   from http://www.eauclairearts.com/confluence/