Map Production

    Within the SJCJEC (San Juan County Jail Education Center) lies the Map Room Department which produces “OHV Trail System” maps for the whole of San Juan County. We produce area maps for such trails as:

• Behind the Rocks
• Hook and Ladder
• Falls Missile
• Shay Ridge
• Bridger Jack Mesa
• Arch Canyon
• Jacob’s Chair
• And many others

    We produce concentrated areas of these trails and also all of the trails throughout San Juan County’s trail system, not including the Navajo Reservation Area, located on the boarder of the San Juan River, just south of Bluff. We have over 17 maps currently in production in conjunction with an Organization called S.P.E.A.R (San Juan Public Entry and Access Rights) located in Blanding. Spear gives the map room department an order for various maps and quantities. Once the order(s) are fulfilled and delivered, they (S.P.E.A.R) distribute them to other companies for sale, either for tourist information, Search and Rescue, Sheriff’s department, and others.

    The maps we produce typically come in three different sizes: 16”x16”; 21”x21”; 42”x42” and some custom maps and posters. The 16x16 size maps are those of the concentrated trail areas, such as “Behind the Rocks”, which displays on the map; GPS coordinates of all the trail intersections, Trail difficulty, places of interest, major roads and towns, and in some maps, pictures with corresponding markers on the maps to help locate where these locations are and how to find them on the map, also land uses, like: Public access, BLM areas, State and Federal areas and Private lands, all of which are described in the map legends on each map we produce. We feel that the maps we produce are easy to use, friendly to the eyes of people using our maps and full of information that the user may need while on the trail.

    Now the we have talked about what the map room produces, in terms of maps, let us describe of how these maps and any other map out there, other than what we produce, are built, because all the maps use similar software to produce maps of the world, United States, Trail maps, Parks and lakes, etc. The software we are talking about is ArcGIS 9.3 (GIS – being: Geodatabase Information Systems). This software just isn’t for the use of building maps, it has many other applications that could be done on this software, and we will talk about that in a moment. First, let us talk about “Layers” and how they apply to maps and how the map room uses layers to produce our maps.

    Layers are the building blocks of building maps in any avenue. They consist of information gathered, either from spatial information (like; Topographical lines, 3D satellite images and a coordinate system), Points ( Like; Highway symbol, trail difficulty marker, Rangers Stations, etc.), Lines (ones you create for use on a map you are building or ones that you can get off the internet, to identify what that line describes, like: Lines to describe water and sewage , roads, trails, Property boundaries, etc.), and Polygons (which is a filled area on a map, like: describing land uses, city boundaries, states, country boundaries, lakes and rivers, etc.). The Spatial information consists of any of the three just described: Points, Lines, and Polygons.

    We then manipulate this information in any sequence we choose to produce the desired product. Our maps have over 5 different layers combined to create our maps that we build and maintain. These layers are then “stacked” on top of each other to get the desired effect. Think of layers as building a Sandwich. The first layer is a piece of bread that sits on the bottom, then in the next layer you add types of dressing like: Mayo and Mustard, then the next layer is the cheese, then the next meat, then the lettuce, then the tomatoes, and finally on top is the second piece of bread to finish the sandwich. What is on top of the finished product is what you see the most of, like a map. Typically, the “Points” on a map are the layers to be put on last, like: Highway symbols, trail markers, etc. We also utilize other programs and software to ensure quality in our maps, like: Photoshop and Microsoft Excel. The use of Photoshop allows us to clean up the pictures that we use so that they are free of blemishes and clear of any haze that the photo may contain. We also use it to reproduce pictures that are otherwise to hazy to clean up, as is the case of our “4 Corners” picture, below, on the cover of our maps. Photoshop is an important tool to our production and it has helped us produce better quality maps.

    Now that we’ve described, in a nutshell, the production process of the map room department, let us talk about the other applications this software is capable of producing, as mentioned above. This department is only using, our guess, about 10% of the ArcGIS software capabilities. If we had access to the proper information (spatial), we can do so much more than simply map production. Though, map production is quite extensive to build, maintenance after the build is quite simple and straight forward. In this department, we have the drive and eagerness to expand our knowledge and production into other avenues through the use of the ArcGIS software. Let us here give some examples of these “other avenues” of which we have been talking:

• Querying data – such as: identifying, selecting, finding, hyperlinking features/data and creating reports. This would be useful, besides maps, in areas such as; Real Estate – a broker or/ and investor of Real Estate. If you obtain the information necessary, you can, at the click of the mouse, locate a particular home, either you – as the investor or your customer – you as the broker. Simply by asking some basic questions, like – do you want a pool? 4 bedrooms 3 bath? Master Suite or not? The size of desired lot? 1 or 2 car garage? Area looking to buy? Such questions would be answered within minutes and then you have the houses narrowed down to physically look at. And if you have access to pictures, then those could be brought up as well.
• Preparing data for analysis – such as: crating graphs and exporting data. This is useful, for example, if you have dissolved your property into lease areas and summed their values. You will use this to present the values in a graph and add the graph to a map layout. The graph wizard lets you create many different kinds of graphs, including column, pie, area, and scatter graphs. You can set properties for such elements as titles, axes, and graph markers.
• Analyzing spatial data – such as: calculating attribute values and buffering features. This is useful, for example, marking the “Drug free zones” around schools. Once you locate the schools in your city or area you set “Buffers” around those school zones and those buffers are projected onto the map or city area where you identified the schools.

    Here in the San Juan County area, we could do Mine analysis on the many mines located throughout, what the mines produce, what is their waste to product ratio, how much of their product they produce on a monthly and/or yearly basis, the tax revenue they contribute to the area, the number of jobs they give to the community, etc. We are capable of many types of Census analysis, and with the new ArcGIS 10, if we are able to upgrade, we can even provide the county residences with updated road, city, tourist information, city and county wide projects and the phases they complete, and many other useful informative tools, of course, in conjunction with the web team and their knowledge.

So, as you can see with what has been presented, we are able to provide awesome continued services for both the residences of San Juan County and the thousands and thousands of tourists that visit this beautiful area.

Other sample maps from the Map Production Team: