Google Earth - Computer Cartography

 Hello cartographers!

This will be the last post for this class, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. I have learned a lot and refreshed my memory on so many concepts that I cannot wait to utilize the concepts in my current job.

For this week's lab, we explored Google Earth and how it can be used for data presentation. We were expected to learn how to convert layers in ArcGIS Pro into KML files, this was pretty straightforward and I also do this all of the time for project managers whenever they need to view property boundaries. The next thing we needed to know how to do was create and share a KMZ map that presented the data we converted into KMZ file format. The last thing we were expected to learn was creating and sharing a KMZ tour of  South Florida. I have never done this before, but it was fun to learn. I fly drones for my job, so when making this tour I tried my best to utilize the angles and shots I would normally get when flying in the field. Note that I said "tried" as it is definitely harder to do with a computer mouse. 

To create the map I am showing you below, we had to add the layer to ArcGIS Pro and select the symbology that relates most to water. We were then told to go to the analysis tab and search up the layer to KML tool. Once the layer was converted, I clicked on the file twice and it opened up to Google Earth Pro. We then needed to add the legend to Google Earth, so I went up to the "Add" tab and selected "Image Overlay". There I added the jpeg file of the legend and shaped the image to not be too large. I then clicked the "Save Image" button at the top of the page which inserted a scale and legend.

Here is how the map turned out:

Thanks for reading about this week's lab!