Exercise 2, activities a and b involves importing a map using folder connections. I modified map layers to enhance visibility and layer display. I explored attributes tables and sorting attribute data. Symbols and labels were modified to show city names and size. World pollution and population data was added to a basemap. I also discovered how to measure distance, in this instance, between two cities.

This type of map and being able to turn layers on and off could be useful in the water/wastewater industry. A typical Water Treatment plant will have 10's of thousands of assets. That could be challenging to decipher on a crowded map. Appropriate symbol design would be an asset in visual simplification, and representation. Also, the ability to turn layers on and off is extremely helpful. Rather that seeing a map with 10,000 symbols, I might choose to turn on a valve layer, a pipe layer, or a chlorinator layer.