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30 points

ASSIGNED: Wednesday September 25

DUE: Monday October 7

The ubiquitous Environmental Systems Research Institute better known as ESRI, pronounced "esz-ree" if you want to sound like a GIS nerd, is a leading purveyor of GIS software: they are the Microsoft of the GIS world.

The core GIS product ESRI sold for years was ArcInfo. ArcInfo used to be a nasty, command driven software package that was difficult to learn and use. ESRI developed ArcView as a simple GIS package intended, initially, to allow users unskilled in the intricacies of ArcInfo to view ArcInfo maps: ArcView had a more user-friendly menu driven interface. Over the years, ESRI added more GIS functions to ArcView, and ArcView version 3.2 became a very popular GIS software package, with Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh versions.

Nearly a decade ago, the entire array of ESRI software was re-programmed for the Windows environment, and the result is ArcGIS: an integrated set of GIS software components, including ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolbox. ArcMap is where you perform GIS analysis and make maps. ArcCatalog helps with managing data, and ArcToolbox helps with data conversion and additional data management. In this course, we will focus on using ArcMap to process our U.S. Census data, link it to digital base maps, and to create a series of population change maps.

Of course nothing remains the same. As we speak, ArcGIS Online is where GIS seems to be heading - promising to be the future of ESRI's GIS software. This is "cloud" computing (GIS) where you create an account and pay for the functionality you use.

For now, however, we are not in the clouds (except for our web pages, an blog, and map mashup). I guess we are semi-cloud.

This Lab consists of an introduction to the main components of ArcMap, enough to familiarize you with the software so that you can use it in Labs 5, 6, and 7. A bit of review for those of you moving backwards through the OWU GIS courses!

Lab 4 Goal: Familiarize yourself with ArcGIS basics, complete a pair of maps of Ohio demographic data, define some jargon, and explore the ESRI WWW site. Comment on all of these tasks in your Luxurious Lab Blog.

We will only touch on a few of the many capabilities of ArcMap in this preliminary exercise. You will grow more familiar with ArcMap over the course of the semester, and do not be afraid to use the help (built into the software), your instructor, or other students.

If you have already used ArcGIS in Remote Sensing or in some kind of fabulous internship, this review should be a breeze.

1) Start ArcMap (on the desktop). ArcMap should start with a new, empty map. You can also open an existing map here (if you have one...but you don't at this point).

ArcGIS won't start: it says something about a license server and contacting The Pope immediately: Ok, it actually might say that you should contact your system administrator (me, mostly). ArcGIS requires a license that is sitting over on one of the servers in Corns. The software checks that the license is valid as it is starting up. If the building or campus internet is down, or the internet connection on your computer is down, or the internet cable disconnected from your machine, you won't be able to use the software. Check these potential problems, and maybe reboot the computer. Wait a few minutes and check if Firefox or some other browser is connecting to the internet. If it still does not work, let me know ASAP.

2) A morass of icons and windows greets you. Like most Windows software, you can move the tool bars in different configurations. If you manage to remove a window you need check teh view or windows menus.

The window to your left will list map layers (when you add them) and is called the table of contents.

The word Layers should be in the table of contents and is a data frame. A data frame holds a series of map layers, and information common to all those layers, including the map projection and coordinate system of your map layers. The maps will be displayed in the large window on the right.

3) Right-click on the data frame called Layers and a menu will pop up:

• scroll down and select Properties...

• Click once on the General tab and change the name of the data frame to World. Hit OK. We will return to this data frame menu to change the map projection later.

4) Add a map layer to your data frame called World. There are several ways to do this:

• right-click on World and select Add Data... or select the Add Data icon (a black cross over a yellow diamond) from the tool bar.

• An Add data box pops up. Select the connect to folder icon (yellow folder with black +) and navigate to the following folder: C:/GIS Lab Data/Data-ESRI/ESRIDATA_2000 and connect.

• In the Add data window, navigate to one of the map files in the ESRIDATA_2000 folder: C:/GIS Lab Data/Data-ESRI/ESRIDATA_2000/World/Countries.lyr and add it to your map project.

• Right-click on the map name and go to Properties... and then the General to change the name of the layer to something like Countries. You could also call it Periminter but that would make just about no sense at all. Note that the pop-up menu and properties of a map layer are different than those associated with the data frame.

5) Change the map projection. The map projection (how the surface of the spherical earth is flattened out) affects all layers in a frame, and is changed in the data frame properties box.

• Right click on your World data frame, and select Properties.

• Select the Coordinate System tab, then in the Select a coordinate system window, navigate to projected then world then select a map projection. Yes this is convoluted. Hit ok and you should see your world map projected.

6) Add another map layer (from the same world folder). Notice that you can turn layers off and on with the check box next to the map layer name.

7) Save your work: the map document (.mxd) file contains all files and settings for a project - all the layer files, etc. Save the file in your ArcGIS folder (create one if you don't have one).

8) ArcGIS allows you to access the table of attribute data associated with each map layer. Right-click on one of your layers and select Open Attribute Table to view the table. Click on a row of data, and that country should be hi lighted on your map: thus the map and the data are connected. You may also select the identify tool (the same letter I in a circle), click on a country, and see the data associated with that country.

9) Close all attribute tables and deselect any countries you selected (from the Selection menu choose Clear Selected Features).

10) Map the data in the attribute table:

• Right-click on the world map layer and select Properties....

• Select the Symbology tab.

• Click on Quantities (which allows us to map quantitative data associated with the map).

• Select Graduated Colors and choose a particular data set to map. The options are in the pop-up window named Value.

• Create a world map, showing one of the attributes in the table.

• From the File menu select Export Map... and save a .jpg of the map, 100 or so dpi is fine for the resolution. Save the map in a new folder in your class folder called Blog Maps and upload it to your lab blog, including it in the entry for this exercise.

11) Finally: map out a US State by Census block groups:

• Turn off the layers in the World data frame (check boxes next to layer)

• Under the Insert menu select Data Frame to add a new data frame to your table of contents. This is important, as we will want a different projection for Ohio than for the world.

• Change the name of the data frame to Ohio

• Add US Census block group data and major roads to the data frame: use the data in the ESRIDATA_2000 folder: EastUSA, SouthUSA, or WestUSA folders. The files are CensusBlockGroup.lyr and MajorRoads.lyr recalling that you may have to connect to folder like you did in the first step in this process above.

• Select out Interstate Highways from all the state roads:
  • From the Selection menu select Select by Attributes

  • Layer: Major Roads

  • Method: Create a New Selection

  • Build the query as thus: "HWYNAME" LIKE 'I%'
    • This means to select any highway name that has the letter I at the beginning of the name, thus I-71, I-90, etc.

  • Once selected, right-click on the Major Roads layer, and select selection and select Create Layer from Selected Features. This will make a new layer, which you can rename and re-symbolize.

• Map out two different attributes using the Census data and include the interstate highways on each. Please use a different color scheme for each map (so one might be a range of blue values from light to dark, the other reds from light to dark).

• From the FIle menu select Export Map... and save both your maps as .jpg files, 100 or so dpi. Save the maps in the Blog Maps folder and upload them to your lab blog, including them in the entry for this exercise.

  
  

12) Explore ArcGIS a bit and document two interesting things you figure out how to do with the software. You may do these things to your world data, your state data, or you may want to use the Delaware County Data (in the Delaware Data folder on the C drive). Use the Help in ArcGIS (it is helpful) - and many functions (such as Buffering or Geoprocessing have wizards to help you. Document these two features, and note your results on the lab blog.

13) Define the following list of ArcGIS terms in your Lab Blog:

• Map Document (.mxd files)
• Table of Contents
• Data Frame
• Map Layer
• Attribute Table

14) Go explore the ESRI WWW site and explore a bit. Find two issues of interest to you - anything at all - and note them in your Lab Blog. Also, Jot down a few thoughts about your initial impressions of ArcGIS in your Lab Log.

When you are done, by end of class on due date: email me the link to your blog entry for Lab 4. This should include

• embedded image of your world map (step 10)
• embedded image of your two state maps (step 11)
• comments on part 12
• definitions from part 13
• comments on part 14

E-mail: jbkrygier@owu.edu

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