ArcGIS EXERCISES

Read Carefully before you begin.

There are 12 exercises in this section mostly focused on solving geoenvironmental problem. Clicking on each exercise section will guide you to the exercise page where you will see the link to the data and instructions to complete the exercise. You may have to send me a request to access the instruction.

If you are a student, you cannot request all exercises at once. You have to start with the first one. Once you complete one, you will be given access to the next one.

If you are an instructor, you may request all exercises at once. But, please do give the credit, if you use it for teaching.

Bottom of the page has a block to submit your work. If you are a student, you have to submit your work using the submission form. Again, you cannot proceed to the next one unless you complete the first one.

Exercise 1: MAP READING

Introduces you the maps elements and help you to read a geological map. (The exercise is modified from Dr. Jeffrey Marsh's GIS exercise)

Exercise 2: Basic Mapping/Visualization in ArcMap

In this exercise, you will be introduced to some of the mapping and visualization options in ArcMap. Once you have successfully completed this part of the assignment, you will know:

• How to alter Map Feature Symbology for thematic mapping

• Dot Density

• How to add essential Map Elements (North Arrow, Legend, etc..) for effective map creation

• How to export your map to a JPEG

Exercise 3 : Working with the projection system.

In this exercise, you will investigate how selecting a wrong projection system could provide you an erroneous result. You will calculate the S-wave shadow zone of an earthquake using a proper projection system. After completing the exercise, you will learn -

Exercise-4: Organizing Data using Arc Catalog.

ArcCatalog is the tool for browsing, organizing, distributing, and documenting an organization's GIS data holdings. The Catalog tree on the left side of the ArcCatalog window is for browsing and organizing your GIS data.

Part 1: Reading metadata(Data of the Data)

In this section, you will study the metadata of your dataset using ArcCatalog. Before starting any analysis in the ArcGIS system, you should always study the metadata. This way you know which dataset is useful for your purpose. It will also provide you the information about data producer, projections, data type etc.

Part 2: Making a geodatabase

In this section, you will learn how to make a geodatabase. The geodatabase is not just to store data, it makes data easily accessible. In ArcGIS geodatabase, you can store both spatial and temporal data. However, temporal data are stored in a geodatabase as tabular data, and they are connected to the spatial data by a link known as relationship class.

Exercise 5 : Creating and Editing Data

Part 1: Georeferencing the maps

There is a great deal of geographic data available in formats that can not be immediately integrated with other GIS data. In order to use these types of data in GIS, it is necessary to align it with existing geographically referenced data, this process is also called georeferencing.

Part 2: Digitizing features

In this part, you will be drawing the features from the Queens College map. To do this, you have to create blank feature class or shapefile. In this exercise, you will use feature class(under geodatabase).This way you will be able use Topology when needed.

Part 3:Using Topology

The topology is extremely important tool to use when you digitize a geological map. For example, the geologic units on the map should not overlap; the geologic units should share the boundaries; the fault lines should not intersect etc.

Exercise 6 : Making and MANIPULATING geodatabase

Tabular information is the basis of geographic features, allowing you to visualize, query, and analyze your data. In the simplest terms, tables are made up of rows and columns, and all rows have the same columns. In ArcGIS, rows are known as records and columns are fields. Each field can store a particular type of data, such as a number, date, or piece of text.

Feature classes are just tables with special fields that contain information about the geometry of the features. These include the Shape field for point, line, and polygon feature classes, and the BLOB field for annotation and dimension feature classes. Some fields, such as the unique identifier number (ObjectID) and Shape, are automatically added, populated, and maintained by ArcGIS.

Task to complete

Exercise 7: Making a Bedrock Geology map of NYC(Tool utilized: Project, Dissolve and Clip features)

The purpose of this exercise is to introduce you with some of the tools available for vector processing. The main objective is to show how to get help when you need. There are many tools available in ArcGIS framework. Nobody memorizes the description of these tools. Everybody uses the help file and decides which one to use. However, there are some common tools that are widely used for vector processing. In this exercise, you will learn how to use those tools efficiently.

Exercise 8: Tabular to raster

Part 1: Volcanic Hazard Analysis

In this lab, you will utilize digitized river courses for the area surrounding Mt. Rainier, Washington to evaluate the potential areal extent of volcanic material derived from certain types of eruptions. These maps can help you answer a wide range of questions about volcanic activity at Mt. Rainier. What areas are most in danger of being affected by volcanic mudflows (lahars)? What is the areal extent of volcanic ash deposits?

Objectives and Skills Developed:

Part 2: Creating Faulted Geologic Surfaces

Part 3: Modeling and predicting ozone concentrations

Exercise 9: Raster Analysis:

The structure of this exercise is slightly different. In part one, there are six tasks to complete. These are very basic raster analysis tools that are frequently used. Part two is the problem set. There you have to solve a geoengineering problem using the raster tools.

This exercise is designed to introduce you to a basic set of rasterbased analyses:

TaskA: Importing and displaying Digital Elevation Model (DEM) TaskB: Projecting and Resampling the DEM

Task C: Calculating the Slope

TaskD: Calculating Aspect

TaskE: Raster Calculation and export to vector. TaskF: Making Contour Map from DEM

Exercise 10: Raster analysis

Part 1: Suitability analysis: Making thematic cost raster (15 pts)

In Exercise 9, you have mapped the suitable locations for the resort using used hard criteria. However, your analysis does not show any relative suitability. In this exercise, using the same dataset you will be producing a suitability map for making new resort- you will rate the locations. This method is known as “Weighted Overlay Analysis” or “Multi-Criteria Evaluation”. In this method, you will weight each and every dataset. The final result is represented on a map which is known as a cost raster.

Part 2: Temperature Calculation(85 pts)

As a remote sensing GIS specialist, you are appointed to measure the temperature of lakes. You have the thermal bands- one from Nov 2010, and other from Jun 2009. You have been asked to compare the thermal scenes and compare the temperature of some Lakes. Considering the fact that Landsat band 6 captures infrared thermal radiation at night, it can be used to detect the temperature of the object on the earth, and it is only possible if the transmissivity of that object is know. However, water has such high transmissivity that the thermal band accurately map surface water temperature. Water also has the high capacity to store heat. Thus, thermal band six has been used to monitor the lake water temperature. In this exercise, you will calculate Minnesota lake temperature and compare between June and November scene.

Excercise 11: working with sattelite data

Part 1: Producing stream network and watershed from DEM

Watersheds or drainage basins are comprised of a network of stream channels that link from smaller to larger, providing a conduit for surface water runoff and sediment transport on the Earth’s surface. Drainage basins are defined by topographic contour patterns with drainage divides (bounding ridges) and stream channels (defined by “V-shaped contour lines”). When defining watershed boundaries and stream channels, it is important to remember that water flows from high elevation to low elevation, and in a simple sense, perpendicular to contour line.

Part2: Calculate NDVI for Minnesota lake area, and compare the effects of seasonality.

Exercise 12: Using Model Builder and Making a Professional Map

Task to complete:

Final Project: If you would like to do a complete gis project email me.

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