Cartographic Creations in ArcGIS Pro

From 1965 to 1975, the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs over Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In December 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense released digital records detailing those Vietnam War bombing missions.

In this lesson, you'll start with a file listing more than one million missions, and with the help of ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, you'll create a map that includes:

a time chart reflecting attack distribution
an insert map showing strike density and patterns
historical context and interesting areas

Lesson plan

Add and symbolize bombing missions	Create a point layer of missions from a CSV file and symbolize it appropriately.	20 minutes
Add and symbolize countries	Search Living Atlas for a layer of countries, symbolize it, and emphasize countries of interest.	30 minutes
Add, symbolize, and label reference data	Contextualize missions with additional reference data, such as terrain and cities.	30 minutes
Create supplementary charts and maps	Create a time series chart and a hexbin inset map to present additional information.	20 minutes
Arrange map items for print	Configure a print layout and add text, lines, and other information.	20 minutes

Builds skills in

Mapping & Visualization

Focus industry

Education

Requirements

ArcGIS Pro (get a free trial)

Acknowledgements

The CSV file for Vietnam War bombing missions is from the Vietnam page at data.mil, a public website compiled by the Defense Digital Service in collaboration with the United States Department of Defense.
Banner image courtesy of the Defense Visual Information Distribution System (DVIDS). The appearance of United States Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitue DoD endorsement.