Exercise Eleven - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and assignments and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

STEP  COORD. SYS.                                         DISTANCE
5         GCS_WGS_1984                                     3,642.062498 Mi.
9         World_Cylindrical_Equal_Area     5,308.808501 Mi.
11       World_Winkel_I                                    3,724.587452 Mi.

Assignment 2 - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and assignments and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

Question 1
What are ways to add tables and layers?

• Layers and tables can be dragged directly from the table of contents of ArcCatalog to the map display of ArcMap.
• Layers and tables can be added via the “Add Data” button in ArcMap.
• Layers and tables can be added by right-clicking the topmost “Layers” icon and selecting the “Add Data” symbol.
• Layers and tables can be added by selecting the “File” menu then selecting the phrase “Add Data” option.

Question 2
What is the best way to make all features in both the files of ArlingtonBND.shp and the Census2000_BlkGrp_Tarrant.shp visible?

• I placed the “ArlingtonBND.shp” layer above the “Census2000_BlkGrp_Tarrant.shp” layer, made the “ArlingtonBND.shp” layer 50% transparent, and shaded the “ArlingtonBND.shp” layer a little darker than the “Census2000_BlkGrp_Tarrant.shp” layer.

Question 3
What would you use as the common attriburte to associate the non-spatial table with the shape file attribute table?

• I used the “LongBlkGrp*” in the “Tarrant_BlkGrp90_10.dbf” table and the “LBLKGRP_ID2” in the “Census2000_BlkGrp_Tarrant.shp”as the common attribute because they are the same data type and have the same length.

Question 4
How many people were in Tarrant County and in the City of Arlington in 2000? (Note: make good use of the Statistics tool and the Selection tool)

• In 2000, the city of Arlington had 390,692 Texans while Tarrant County had 1,446,219 Texans. (The intersect method was used to derive the above numbers). Figures 1 and 2 show the statistics window for the City of Arlington and for Tarrant County in the year 2000; respectively.

Figure 1: Population statistics for the city of Arlington, Texas in 2000

Figure 2: Population statistics for Tarrant County, Texas in 2000

Question 5

How many people will be in Tarrant county and in the City of Arlington in 2010?

• In 2010, the city of Arlington is expected to have 482,204 Texans, while Tarrant County’s population is estimated at 1,785,752 Texans. (The intersect method was used to derive the above numbers). Figures 3 and 4 show the statistics window for the City of Arlington and for Tarrant County in the year 2010; respectively.

Figure 3: Population statistics for the city of Arlington, Texas in 2010

Figure 4: Population statistics for Tarrant County, Texas in 2010

Step 6

Calculate the population growth rates of Tarrant county and Arlington between 2000 and 2010 and compare the growth rates.

• 
  
  The population growth rate, from 2000 to 2010, for the city of Arlington is 23.423 % [482,204-390,692)/390,692].
  
  
  
• 
  
  The population growth rate from, 2000 to 2010, for Tarrant County is 23.477 % [(1,785,752-1,446,219)/1,446,219]
  
  
  

Step 7

Create a thematic map showing the spatial pattern of population distribution in Tarrant County in 2000 and another one in 2010. Discuss the change in spatial pattersns if there is any.

• The two thematic maps are identified by data layers, “Tarrant POP 2000” and “Tarrant POP 2010” and shown in Figures 5 and 6; respectively. By activating one layer and then the other, it is observed that the population is growing West of Fort Worth along interstate 30, North of Fort Worth along interstate 35-W, and Southeast of Fort Worth along US 287.
• Another way of determining the spatial growth pattern is to take the Tarrant POP 2010 and divide it by POP00 (normalization). This will show quite clearly the growth patterns…See Figure 7.

Figure 5: Population of Tarrant County, Texas in 2000

Figure 6: Population of Tarrant County, Texas in 2010

Figure 7: Population of Tarrant County, Texas in 2010 normalized against its population in 2000

Question 6

How many hotels are physically located in Tarrant County in the address table?

• 
  
  By right-clicking on the “Tarrant_Hotels.dbf” table, selecting “open”, and observing the number of records, I determined that there are 172 hotels physically located in Tarrant County.
  
  
  

Question 7
How many hotels are physically located in the city of Arlington in the address table?

• By right-clicking on the “Tarrant_Hotels.dbf” table, selecting “open”, right-clicking on the “LOC_CITY” field heading, selecting “Sort Ascending”, and then selecting all the records which show “Arlington” as the city; I determined that there are 35 hotels in the city of Arlington.

Question 8
How many hotels have been geo-coded in Arlington and Tarrant County, respectively? Manually geo-code the rest of the unmatched hotels in Arlington.

• I created an address locator which uses the “US Streets with Zone” template (style). Table 1 shows the results of applying this address locator to the “Tarrant_Hotels.dbf” file.

Table 1: Initial geo-coding matching results.

Matched 98 (57%)

Tied 1 (1%)

Unmatched 73 (42%)

Out of the 98 matched hotels in Tarrant County, only 20 were matched hotels in Arlington. I continued to manually rematch the data until reaching a 99% match rate. The remaining, unmatched hotel address corresponded to a hotel outside the Tarrant County boundary. See Figure 8.

Figure 8: Final re-matching results

Question 9

How many geo-coded hotels have the room capacity of equal or greater than 50 rooms in Tarrant County?

• I made sure that the map display showed the Tarrant County layer, the Arlington boundary layer, the major highway layer, the roads layer, and the hotel locations. In addition, I made sure that nothing was selected. I then clicked on the “Selection” menu, then “Select by Attributes”. This brought up the “Select by Attributes” window. I then typed in the following equation in the bottom window.
• "LOC_RM_CAP" >= 50 (See Figure 9)
• The above equation selects all hotels in Tarrant County which have a room capacity (LOC_RM_CAP) equal to or greater than (>=) 50 occupants. I then go to the table of contents and right click the “geo-coding results” layer and select “Open Attribute Table”. The number of hotels which meet the criteria in the equation is shown at the bottom of the table. The number is 93 hotels. See Figure 10.

Figure 9: “Select by Attribure” window showing equation used.

Figure 10: Attribute table showing equation results.

Question 10

How many hotels with a room capacity of 100 rooms or more are within the city of Arlington?

• I made sure that the map display showed the Tarrant County layer, the Arlington boundary layer, the major highway layer, the roads layer, and the hotel locations. In addition, I made sure that nothing was selected. I then clicked on the “Selection” menu, then “Select by Attributes”. This brought up the “Select by Attributes” window. I then typed in the following equation in the bottom window.
• "LOC_RM_CAP" >= 100 AND "LOC_CITY" = 'ARLINGTON' (See Figure 11)
• The above equation selects all hotels in Tarrant County which have a room capacity (LOC_RM_CAP) equal to or greater than (>=) 100 occupants AND the “LOC_CITY” term is equivalent to “Arlington”. I then go to the table of contents and right click the “geo-coding results” layer and select “Open Attribute Table”. The number of hotels which meet the criteria in the equation is shown at the bottom of the table. The number is 11 hotels. See Figure 12.

Figure 11: "Select by Attribute" window showing equation used.

Figure 12: Attribute table showing equation results.

Question 11

How many hotels selected in Question 10 are within 0.5 miles from major highways?

• With the above results still showing on the display panel, I clicked on “Selection” from the menu bar, then clicked on “Select by location”. The select by location window appears. In this window, I chose the following configuration:

Figure 13: "Select by Location" window showing options used to determine the number of hotels within the city of Arlington which are 0.5 miles from a highway.

• 
  
  Select from the currently selected features in
  
  
  
• 
  
  Geocoding Result: Geocoding_Result_4
  
  
  
• Are within a distance of
• Tarrant_Highways_2009
• Apply a buffer to the features in Tarrant_Highways_2009
• 0.500000 Miles

The total number of hotels that are satisfy the criteria in Question 10 and are within ½ a mile of a highway are 11. See Figure 14.

Figure 14: Results for Question 11.

Question 12

What does “select features from” mean?

• “Select features from” means that the program will take into account ALL features in the layer when processing the request.

Question 13
What does “select from currently selected features from” mean?

• “Select from currently selected features from” means that the program will take into account only the features which are currently selected in the layer when processing the request.

Step 11
Report created, saved as a PDF, and printed.

Assignment #2

In assignment #2, question 11, it is asking for us to calculate how many hotels that were selected in the previous question are within .5 miles of a major highway. I understand how to get the answer to question 10, but can not figure out what equation to type to find out how many of the selected hotels are within .5 miles of a highway. Does anyone know how to solve this, or have any suggestions? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Exercise Ten - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

[Sixth Bullet]  Try the following equations and observe the change in number of records in the attribute table associated with the layer.
    Question 1:  "Population" > 50,000

• 546 out of 606

    Question 2:  "Population"<50,000

• 59 out of 606

    Question 3:  Using the Switch tool (right-click on the "cities" layer, then choose "selection", then "switch selection"; or open the attribute table of the "cities" layer, "options", "switch selection").

• The map display toggled between the results for "greater than" and "less than" 50,000.

    Question 4:  "Population">50,000 and "Capital"="y"

• 157 out of 606

[Eighth Bullet] Type in equation "Population">=25,000 AND "Population"<50,000.  See howm any records are selected.

• 167 out of 606

[Tenth Bullet]  Type in equation "Population">=50,000 AND "Population"<100,000.  See how many records are selected.  Why.

• Only 4 out of 606 records were selected as only these records met the stringent criteria.

[Twelfth Bullet]  Type in equation "Population"<=50,000 AND "Population">100,000. See how many records are selected. Why.

• No records were selected (0 out of 606) because the requirements are conflicting and produce mutually exclusive solutions.  In other words, a city CANNOT have 50,000 citizens or less while simultaneously have 100,000 citizens or more.

[Fourteenth Bullet]  Type in equation "Population">=50,000 AND "Population"<100,000. See how many records are selected. Why.

• Only 25 out of 606 records were selected as only these records met the stringent criteria.

[Sixteenth Bullet]  Type in equation "Population">=50,000 AND "Population"<100,000. See how many records are selected. Why.

• The following message appears on the monitor due to the syntax error.

Following thru to the end of the exercise, the report I generated looked like this:

Exercise Nine - Ed's Answers

No answers to post.  Exercise nine was pretty self-explanatory.  Everyone should have arrived at the same conclusion.

Exercise Eight - Ed's Answers

No answers to post.  Exercise eight was pretty self-explanatory. Everyone should have arrived at the same conclusion.

Exercise Seven - Ed's Answers

No answers to post. Exercise seven was pretty self-explanatory.  Everyone should have arrived at the same conclusion.

New Due Date for Assignment #2

We have covered the techniques needed for completing most steps, except for steps #5, #10, and #11. We will learn those next week. Do start working on the assignment now. The new due date is Nov. 7.



Jianling

ArcGIS 9.4 is on its way...here's a teaser.

The ArcGIS 9.4 beta release is expected in the fourth quarter of 2009.  ArcGIS 9.4 is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2010.  Here's a link:

http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/whats-new/whats-coming.html

ArcSDE, Personal, and File geodatabase descriptions

This link explains the different types of geodatabases in ArcGIS version 9.3:

http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Types_of_geodatabases

Assignment One - Ed's Answers

I'm putting my answers to assignment one up here for discussion and for future reference (i.e., the final exam)...please let me know if I made a mistake or if your correct answers are different.  I received a 92 as a grade.  I received this grade because the last question in step 8 (changing the metadata) and the last question in step 9 (changing the legend name) were not saved.  During the re-try, this has been corrected.

(Step 1) Start ArcMap and open the map document "Assign1" in the REAE_Assignments/Assign1 folder of the class drive.

• How many layers are in the map?
• Four layers:
• Cities;
• Roads;
• Lakes; and
• States
• Which layer is on top of all the layers?
• The "Cities" layer is above all layers.
• What is the order of the layers? (Begin with the topmost layer)
• Cities;
• Roads;
• Lakes; and
• States.

(Step 2) Move the layer "Cities" to the position after the layer "States".

• What do you see?
• The points corresponding to the "Cities" disappeared. Only the features corresponding to "Roads", "Lakes", and "States" are now visible.
• Why?
• ArcMap draws the map according to the order of the layers, from the bottom to the topmost layer. Thus, ArcMap drew the cities, then the states, then the lakes, adn finally the roads. The states layer completely covered up the cities layer and thus the points corresponding to the cities are not visible.

(Step 3) View the properties of the layers.

• Where are the data located?
• The data is located on teh class drive (z:\).
• Write the path names.
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\ROADS.shp
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\LAKES.shp
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\STATES.shp
• Roads data located on: z:\REAE5327_Assignments\Assign1\CITIES.shp

(Step 4)  Identify objects using the "Identify" tool.

• What is the population of Texas in 1990?
• 16,986,510 Texans.
• What is the population of Texas in 1999?
• 20,127,338 Texans
• What is the name of the lake located near the border of Texas and Oklahoma?
• Lake Texoma

(Step 5)  View map in different scales.

• As you zoom in a view, what happens to the scale?
• The denominator gets smaller, hence the scale gets larger.
• After you zoon out, what happens to the scale?
• The denominator gets bigger, hence the scale gets smaller.
• What does the scale ratio represent?
• The scale ratio is the relationship between the size of features on a map and the size of the corresponding places in the world.  If the scale of a map is 1:10,000; then the features on the map are 10,000 times smaller than their actual size.
• There are several ways to zoom.  What are the ways?
• Select the "zoom in" tool [looks like a magnifying glass with a plus (+) sign in the middle of the glass], then draw an area around the point of interest which you would like to maginfy.
• Select the "zoom out" tool [looks like a magnifying glass with a minus (-) sign in the middle of the glass], then draw an area around the point of interest which you would like to shrink.
• Select the "fixed zoom in" tool [looks like four arrows pointed towards an imaginary center point].  This will maginfy the center of the map slightly.
• Select the "fixed zoom out" tool [looks like four arrows ponted away from an imaginary center point].  This will shrink the center of the map slightly.
• Manually edit the left side of the scale ratio number in the scale ratio window itself.
• Select the "Full Extent" tool [looks like a small planet Earth].  This will shrink the map so taht the entire map is shown on the screen.
• If your mouse has a scrolling wheel between the left and right mouse buttons, simply rolling this scrolling wheel will instantaneously zoom in (scroll away from you) or zoom out (scroll towards you).
• All these tools can be accessed, additionally, by right-clicking on the map and selecting the appropriate tool.
• Describe the spatial pattern of the cities in the United States.
• If you select all but the states layer, one can clearly observe the majority of the cities in teh United States are located near bodies of water [along the coastlines, along the great lakes, and along major bodies of water (The Great Salt Lake in Utah)] and along, and at the intersection of, major highways (for example, Dallas/Fort Worth TX; St. Louise MO, etc)].

(Step 6)  Select two objects and measure the distance between the two.

• What is the distance between New York and Los Angeles?
• 2,476.626579 Miles

(Step 7)  Search and copy files using ArcCatalog.

• Search the file "mysates.shp" from the class drive.
• Where is the file located?
• z:\GTKArcGIS\Chapter20\MyData\mystates.shp
• Once you find the file, copy it from the class drive to your diskette.
• Rename the file to "US_States".

(Step 8)  Find information about the file "US_States" on your diskette and edit the metadata of the file using ArcCatalog.

• What is the coordinate system of the file?
• Horizontal Coordinate System: Geographic coordinate system name: GCS_North_American_1983
• How many features are in the file?
• 51
• What do you find about the attributes of "State_Name", "POP1990", and "POP_SQMI"?
• "State_Name" has a data type of "String" and a width of "25".
• "POP1990" has a data type of "Number" and a width of "10".
• "POP_SQMI" has a data type of "Number" and a width of "5".
• Change the descriptions of "Keywords", "Abstract", and "Purpose".

(Step 9)  Create a map document using ArcMap.

• Open and empty map in ArcMap.
• Add the layer "US_States".
• Display the layer by the values of the field "state_names".
• Change the layer name to "United States".
• Change the legend name to "State Names".

(Step 10)  Save the map docuement to your diskette.

Exercise Six - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

• Q1:  What is the common ID for joining the "landuse" table with the "parcel" attribute table?
• I used the FID and OID as the common attribute between the two tables.
• Q2:  What is the common ID for relating the table "owners" with the "parcel" attribute table?
• I used the APN as the common attribute between the two tables.
• STEP 7:
• Select a record in table "owners.dbf", what do you see in the table "attributes of parcel.shp"?
• The record in "attributes of parcel.shp" matches the record in the table "owners.dbf".
• Select a record in the table "attributes of parcel.shp", what do you see in the table "owners.dbf"?
• The record in "owners.dbf" matches the record in the table "attributes of parcel.shp".
• Click on any parcel on the map and examine the result in the "Identify Results" dialog box.  What attribute information do you see in the [identify] dialog box?
• I see the attribute information contained in the "parcel.shp" table.
• Click on the ID shown in the dialog box so that the plus sign becomes a minus sign.  What attribute information do you see in the dialog box? (Click again to see the attributes in the related table.)
• I see the attribute information corresponding to the "owners.dbf" table.
• Reopen the attribute table of the "parcels.shp" layer.
• Select any record.
• Click the "Options" button in the "parcels.shp" table.
• Select "Relate Tables".
• Select "Relate1:owners"
• Examin the "owners" table.  What do you see?
• The highilghted record in the "owners" table has the same common attribute (APN) as the selected record in the "parcels.shp" table.
• What did you learn from this exercise?
• Joining tables simply appends the information from the source table to the destination table.
• Joining a tables can be done with tables of different dimensions (one to many or many to one relationship).
• Relating tables allows you to "drill down" into the details of a selected/identified feature.
• Relating tables can only be done on dimensionally similar tables (one to one relationship).

Exercise Five - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

(End of Step 5)

• How many addresses have been geocoded?
• 2 out of 100.

(Step 7)

• How many addresses have been geocoded in the newly created geocode layer?
• 96 out of 100

(Step 10)

• I selected "ZIP + 4" style, used address as both aliases, and re-ran the locator. I got 0% match.....
• Did anyone try a different style and get better results?

Exercise Four - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

• Which part of the figure constitutes a data dictionary?
• I think part b) is the data dictionary.
• Which part of the figure constitutes a metadata?
• I think part c) is the metadata.
• Based on the information from the metadata, indicate if the GIS data file is completed.  Explain the reasons for yoru answer.
• I believe the GIS data file is not completed because the metadata says "in progress" adjacent and the right of the status word "Progress".  If the GIS data file was completed, I would guess that the metadata would say "Completed" or something to that effect rather than "in progress".

Exercise Three - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

• What data model would you consider and why?
• I would consider using a VECTOR data model because the university map is a two-dimensional (x, y coordinates) drawing which is not concerned with depth, a gradient scale, or frequency of motion or events (rate).  All of the latter of which are z coordinates.
• How many layers would you use to organize the geographic information?  What are they?
• In order to create the map, I would use layers which display similar information; rather than displaying many type of information on a single or a couple of layers.  For instance, I would group the layers as follows:
• Layer one would show the building shapes and the shape surrounding the building identifier.
• Layer two would show the building numbers
• Layer three would show the building abbreviations and building names
• Layer four would show the streets
• Layer five would show the street names
• Layer six would show the data dictionaries (legends)
• Layer seven would show the outlying alphanumeric grid markers
• List the type of feature class for each layer and explain why you chose to select a particular feature class to represent a type of object.
• Layer one would be composed of polygons because I think this is the best representation of a bulding shape and building identifier shape.
• Layer two would be composed of strings (text) because most of the buildings are identified by numbers, letters, or a combination of both.
• Layer three would be composed of strings (text) because most, if not all, of the buildings are identified by numbers, letters, or a combination of both.
• Layer four would be composed of lines because streets are best represented by lines.
• Layer five would be composed of stings (text) because names are normally text.
• Layer six would be composed of strings (text) because most of the information inside the data dictionary is text.
• Layer seven would be composed of strings (text) because the outlying grid is made up of entirely numbers and letters.
• List the possible attributes for each file (layer).
• Layer one could have the building dimensions (sq ft), age, construction type, etc.
• Layer two could have details about what the identifiers mean, for example, LIBR = Library, COBA = College of Business Administration, ELAB = Engineering laboratory, etc.
• Layer three could explain what each number means, for example, 49 = Student parking lot, F10 = Faculty/Staff Parking Lot
• Layer four could categorize the streets as minor, general, or major.
• Layer five could expand street abbreviations.
• Layer six could give more details about the one-word descriptions.
• Layer seven could have the directions relative to the center of the map, for example, north of center, southwest of center, etc.
• List the data measurements of each attribute.
• Layer one = square feet, years:months
• Layer two = no data measurements
• Layer three = no data measurements
• Layer four = one car lane, two car lane, three car lanes or more
• Layer five = no data measurements
• Layer six= no data measurements
• Layer seven= no data measurements
• Give an example about what you would include in a data dictionary.
• What building abbreviations mean.
• What building shapes designate.
• What building colors (if map is a color-map) mean.

Exercise Two - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.

 

Step 3:

• Click on the Identify button to find "United States" in the Country layer.  What's the US population (Pop_CNTRY) in the layer?
• 258,833,000 people
• Click the identify tool, click on a city in the Citeis layer to identfy information assocaited with a city.  What information about a city can you get from the Cities layer?
• Field ID
• Shape
• Name
• Country
• Population
• Capital

Step 7:

• In order to measure distance, I resized the map display so that New York and Los Angeles were visible.  Then I used the measuring tool to draw a line between them (snap to feature was ON).  Did anyone use another method to get distance?  I wasn't too satisfied with the apparant accuracy of my method. 

Exercise One - Ed's Answers

I'm going to be posting my answers to the exercises and I invite everyone to critique them and let me know if my answers differ from your own so we can discuss the differences until we have agreement on a final, correct answer.


1)  Where are "My Folder", "Folder 1", "Folder 2", and "Folder 3" now?  (Write the paths for the newly created folders.)

• C:/Users/Eduardo TorresValdez/Documents/My Folder
• C:/Users/Eduardo TorresValdez/Documents/Folder 1
• C:/Users/Eduardo TorresValdez/Documents/My Folder/Folder 2
• C:/Users/Eduardo TorresValdez/Documents/My Folder/Folder 3

2) Where is the new location of the file "Bird.tif"?

• C:/Users/Eduardo TorresValdez/Documents/My Folder/Folder 3/Bird.tif

Instant Messenger

While logged onto the blog, I'm usually also logged onto Windows Instant Messenger (electrode49@hotmail.com) and my gmail account (electrode49@gmail.com).  Feel free to add me to your Windows Instant Messenger or Yahoo Instant Messenger so we can discuss the exercise or assignment we are working on in real time.  Gmail has the same feature called, "Instant Chat".

Any good ideas can then be posted to the blog for all to see.  I'm usually on every evening from 8:30-ish until midnight-ish.  Look forward to discussing assignment 2 with everyone.

Question 5, Assignment 2

Stuck on figuring out the population of Tarrant County AND Arlington....Any suggestions....

Added new link...

Added "Free Batch Geocoder" link to the real estate links section....thanks Alex!