ESM 263 Geographic Information Systems

Assignment 2: Evaluation Rubric

CONTENTS

• Assignment 2: Evaluation Rubric
  • Overall
  • Symbology
  • Legend
  • Scale bar
  • Locator map
  • Source information
  • Data table
  • Submission mechanics

This assignment doesn’t have a specific “this many points off for that mistake” rubric. However, here are some of the problem areas we’ll be paying attention to:

Overall

• Any text (title, legend, sources, etc.) on your map should be correct (i.e., telling the truth), grammatical, and free of typos.
• Map components’ prominence should be proportional to their information content.
  • Your legend, title, and (if present) locator map should neither be too small to read/interpret, nor so large that they overwhelm the main map.
• Use the layout’s space wisely. Your map should be neither too cluttered nor too empty.
• Your map should have Goldilocks margins: not too big, not too small, but just right…
• Your map’s scale should be large enough that the primary data are clearly visible.
• Define any acronyms the first time you use them.
  • Especially: don’t use an undefined acronym in the map’s title, unless it is part of everyday English (e.g., USA).

Symbology

• Your color scheme should clearly distinguish land vs water.
• Your map’s background colors should be distinct from, and significantly less obtrusive than, the colors used to symbolize your data.
• Consider using transparency to distinguish overlapping layers.

Legend

• The legend should identify all visible map distinctions.
• Units displayed in the legend should be appropriate and correct.
• The legend’s labels should be clear and relevant to your map’s main message.
  • e.g., “sea level rise”, not “elevation”

Scale bar

• Include a scale bar if the map’s scale is large enough that the scale is reasonably constant at all locations and in all directions.
• Make sure the scale bar indicates the scale of the data frame.
• Scale bar units and divisions should be selected for ease of human interpretation.
  • E.g., use “round” numbers: multiples or powers of 10, etc.

Locator map

• Include a locator map if the map frame’s extent is not obvious to its intended audience.
• A locator map should have an extent indicator.

Source information

• Provide source information for all layers displayed, and any undisplayed layers that were used to calculate displayed information.
• Source information should contain dates for any time-sensitive layers.
• A layer’s “publisher” is the entity that provided the data to you (e.g. ESRI), vs the entity that complied the data (e.g., USGS).
  • For data provided directly to you by the ESM 263 class, you may either omit the publisher, or use “ESM 263”.

Data table

• The data table must be present and correct.
• Suppress spurious precision (e.g. trailing zeroes) in displayed numeric data.

Submission mechanics

• Your map image should be exported at the correct size and resolution.
• Any files you submit should follow the specified naming convention exactly.