Lab 1

Goal and Background

          The purpose of Lab 1 was to revisit key concepts and basics of GIS I and to familiarize with the software before learning new skills and techniques of GIS II.

Methods

          Within ArcCatalog, selecting the Connect to Folder icon will allow the user to bring in the desired directory to the Catalog Tree, where the desired folders and contents are easily accessible on the left side of ArcCatalog. The contents of the folder can be examined by clicking the + icon next to the folders. Connect to the Lab 1 folder and activate Countries94. In the Preview tab, the data Counties94 is shown in its original form. Preview other data within the Lab 1 folder.

          Open a blank map in ArcMap, where the data can be displayed and manipulated in layers. Open the ArcCatalog tab within ArcMap and drag the shapefile WorldCities into the display screen in ArcMap. Clicking on the colored box in the Table of Contents can allow the user to change the colors of the data.

          Under File, select Open. Navigate to the Lab 1 folder and select the Redlands map (it's a mxd. file). The map is displayed in ArcMap. Checking and unchecking the layers in the Table of Contents will display and remove layers on the display screen. Try displaying Railroads and Streets. Right click any of the layers and select Properties. Information about the layer and be viewed and altered in ArcMap, like its geographic coordinate and projected coordinate system. 

          The Redlands map has a stored bookmark. From the Bookmark tab, select ESRI. The display zooms in on the ESRI feature, the location of ESRI. ESRI and street names are now visible because the map creator put a scale limit to these two features. In the Toolbar, click on the Identity tool. Click on New York Street. A window opens with all the attribute information on New York Street. Clicking on the name of the street in the Identity window will flash the feature on the display screen. Selecting All Layers from the layer dropdown in the Identify window will display all attributes of all the layers that New York Street is contained in. Identify more features and review their attributes.

          Return to the original extent by clicking on Original in the Bookmarks tab. Right click Railroads and open its Attribute Table. Review its attribute fields and the number of rows. Do the same for the Donut Shops and Streets layer. 

          Open a new blank map in ArcMap. From the Add Data icon, navigate to the Lab 1 folder and add the Erie shapefile. Open its attribute table and take note of its attribute fields. Open the layers Properties window and go to its Symbology tab. Select Quantities and then Graduated Colors. For its Field, select Persons. Change the color ramp to an appropriate choice. Some data should be normalized. For example, if an attribute can be affected by how much land there is, it's a good idea to normalize it by Area. Normalize Person by Area to get a population density (Figure 1). From the Properties window, go to the Labels tab. Select Person as a Label Field. Right clicking the Erie layer in the Table of Contents and selecting Label Features will show the labels in the display screen. In the Symbology tab, create a graduated color scheme for another attribute and decide if normalization is appropriate (Figure 2).

          

Results

           The attributes Persons and Households were both normalized by Area to show more useful data - population density (Figure 1) and household density (Figure 2). Both variable show very similar patterns in which tracts have high and low densities. This comes to no surprise as both variables should go hand-in-hand.

Figure 1: Population density for Erie County.

Figure 2: Household density for Erie County.

Sources

Curtis, Caitlyn (2018) Lab 1 Data [Downloaded Data].