Final Project Proposal

For my final project I plan to create a proportional symbol map of total oil production from the Middle East and North Africa using data from 2011.  I chose Middle East and North African oil production as my topic for several reasons.  First, I really like proportional symbol maps and the oil production data, because it is unstandardized, lends itself nicely to a proportional symbol map.  Moreover, I wanted to map an area other than the United States and the Middle East and North Africa fits the bill.  Lastly, I saw a couple of proportional symbol maps depicting oil production, which I felt I could improve upon. 

The target audience for this map is the general public. I can imagine it in a newspaper or magazine article on the connection between oil production and gas prices.  My vision for this map is that it is very clean and modern and easy to interpret.  The scope of the map will be regional, specifically of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa.  The data will come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration from 2011.  I have listed the site for my data below.  The site does not explicitly state the accuracy, but as it is coming from the Department of Energy I feel it is accurate.  The dataset is not very complex or large though there are some very low values and also some very high values that I hope do not cause problems.  I plan to get the necessary basemap from ArcMap.  At this point I am not sure which projection would be best for my purposes, so I will work with Professor Hallden to figure it out.

With regards to a workable and realistic timeline to produce this map I have come up with three major steps.  The first step, organization, involves getting my data into excel to make the necessary calculations so that I can ultimately make my symbols the correct size.  Also included in the first step is figuring out an optimal basemap and having it ready for the next step. The second step, map design, will involve placing the appropriately sized symbols on the map.  I have not finalized my symbol, but I am leaning towards using a geometric symbol. That is not to say I have ruled out using a mimetic symbol.  The second step will be fairly time consuming and I plan to have both the first and second steps done by November 15th.  Step three, the fun part, entails adding the finishing touches—neatline, title, legend, deciding on a color scheme, etc. This is going to be the most time consuming.  I plan to have step three completed by the time I return from Thanksgiving Break.  That will ensure I have it completed for the critique.  I think my biggest challenges will be adjusting the symbol so that my symbol for my largest value isn’t gigantic.  Also I’m going to really push myself to be creative in my layout and other design elements, which is not the easiest for me to do.

I have posted below the images of similar maps I used for ideas.  I think I can create a better version of the first two.  Also I included a third image of a map using oil barrels as the proportional symbol.   I’m going to use the last one as inspiration and perhaps incorporate certain elements into my design.

Data Link:
http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=5&pid=5

7&aid=1&cid=AG,BA,EG,IR,IZ,IS,JO,KU,LE,LY,MO,MU,QA,SA,SU,SY,TS,TC,YM,&syid=2008&eyid=2011&unit=TBPD