CARTOGRAPHIC DESIGN AND PRODUCTION PROCEDURES FOR NEW MEXICO STATEMAP OPEN-FILE GEOLOGIC MAPS: COMBINING GIS-COMPILED VECTOR DATA, POINT DATA, AND RASTER MASHUPS INTO AESTHETIC, USEFUL MAPS

The advent of compiling and producing geologic map data digitally in a GIS in the late 1990s-2000s brought about wholesale changes to cartographic production methods and means of map data dissemination to both the public at large and the new GIS community. As a result, the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, which carries out geologic mapping in New Mexico through the STATEMAP-funded portion of the National Cooperative Geologic Map Program, now produces two geologic map products: ArcGIS geologic map data, and finished pdf format geologic maps, through the following process.

Linework and symbology are digitized and polygons are built, attributed, and turned into representations in ArcMAP v. 10.2. A raster topographic base map and a hillshade, generated from a DEM, are also produced in ArcMAP. The hillshade is exported to Global Mapper and slope-enhanced, turning flat areas white. The polygon representations and the topo base are combined with the hillshade in Global Mapper, creating a single GeoTIFF raster mashup, which greatly reduces overall uploading file sizes. The mashup is exported back to the Arc geodatabase which is zipped along with the ArcMAP mxd file and served online. For the final map design and layout, the ArcGIS vector linework, point symbology, and raster mashup are exported to Adobe Illustrator (Creative Suite 5), where the final stylistic cartographic adjustments of moving and sizing type, adding leaders, etc. are made. The map is then placed into an Adobe In Design document, which is ideally suited for the final layout process, including placing unit descriptions, symbol explanations, cross sections, correlation charts, and other miscellaneous figures via linked files, and to export it in a production standard pdf format, controlling compression.