GIS Blog: Melanie A. Sutton

Created using ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 This week's lab covered three key skills in ArcGIS: georeferencing, editing, and overlaying data in a 3D environment. First, we learned the process to select control points for image registration, referred to as georeferencing. For the map shown on the left, this involved selecting points in the raster image and linking them to their corresponding point in a loaded vector feature class (e.g., corner of a building). Several transformations were possible based on the number of control points selected, target root mean square error (RMSE) values, and the desired appearance of the final registration (e.g., choosing a 1st or 2nd order polynomial transformation based on which one minimized RMSE or distortion).  This week's lab also emphasized editing of feature classes in the form of adding polygons and lines to existing building and road feature classes, respectively. The process of digitizing these features was based on using the outline of t...

Created using ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 This week's lab focused on best practices when geocoding data, including following the four-step process of reviewing your table of locations for the best fields to use, choosing the best locator, mapping the fields in the most efficient ways, and correctly naming your output file for the results.  Additional training emphasized how to resolve unmatched items using a combination of choosing a good basemap with street imagery, cross-searching in Google Maps, and using Select by Attributes in ArcGIS to narrow down possible matches. These skills were used in the map above to correctly place emergency management service (EMS) stations that were initially unmatched. The lab concluded with an introduction to the Network Analyst in ArcGIS to determine the best routes between several stops on this map. This is shown above for three of the EMS stations. This part of the training emphasized different ways to adjust the cost of a particular route, ...

Created using ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 This weeks lab provided an introduction to buffer analysis and overlay tools. The map above was generated based on locating intersections of great campsite locations within a specific distance of water sources and roads that were also outside of known conservation areas in De Soto National Forest in Mississippi. The lab did a great job of summarizing the relevance of variable distance buffers. In this context, the map above looked at areas within 150 meters of lakes and 500 meters of rivers. The lab also addressed how to use ArcPy to quickly perform new buffer analyses (instead of using the slower toolbox settings approach). Finally, the lab summarized the advantages of a singlepart layer compared to a multipart layer as an alternative means to more effectively explore the properties of each location in the map further.

Created using ArcGIS 2.2.0 The maps above provide examples of conducting location queries in ArcGIS.  The map on the left is an example of land parcels within the City of Pensacola that are within 4000 ft of the coastline and regional rivers/water sources. On the right, I refined the query to extract from the set on the left only those land parcels that were also within 100 ft of major roads.  The training this week noted the importance of planning prior to conducting the queries to make the spatial analysis run smoothly. For example, this meant thinking about the order of the queries and whether one should return to the original data set or cascade the next processing step from the subset produced by a previous query result. I also learned  how to recognize where query results  a ppear within the navigation screens of ArcGIS and within any associated geodatabase assigned for storage.  Finally, the training this week further and clearly empha...

  Created using ArcGIS Pro 2.2 This week's lab involved independently locating nine different sources of data sets to compose three maps highlighting various features within Brevard County, Florida. Goals of this lab included seamlessly using vector data in the form of points (e.g., cities, locations of invasive plants), lines (roads), and polygons (e.g., lake boundaries), alongside raster data (e.g., for elevations, land use, and aerial photography).  Additional skill reinforcement focused on determining a common coordinate system to project all the data, clipping each layer of data to the county boundary, and then using map frames in informative ways to create the final set of layouts. The most interesting part of the lab for me was determining how to create a theme for each map. The most challenging aspect was adjusting labeling properties within layers to reduce clutter.

Created using ArcGIS Pro 2.2 This week's lab focused on acquiring data from a variety of online sources to create an informative set of layers for one city in Escambia County, Florida. Pensacola was selected for this. In the map above, the aerial imagery came from the Labins.org site. Overlaid on top of this are the major highways from the  Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL) site. The green symbols represent petroleum storage tank contamination locations imported from an Excel file provided by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection site.  Skills emphasized in this lab included loading tabular data created in Excel into ArcGIS. In the example above, this involved converting geographic coordinates in degrees/minutes/seconds to decimal degrees inside Excel prior to ArcGIS loading. Additional skills emphasized in the lab included understanding the projection system of each data set when it was created and then making sure all data sets were re-proj...

Created with ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 The map above contains three data frames demonstrating three different projections of the State of Florida (Albers, UTM 16 N, and Florida State Plane 903 N). Four representative counties (Alachua, Escambia, Miami-Dade, and Polk) were selected for comparison of the associated impacts on area calculations. The table at the bottom of the image above demonstrates how area calculations for Escambia County were more closely aligned with the Albers area values given this county resides in UTM 16 N and State Plane 903 N. The remaining counties showed increasing distortion in area calculations given their locations either outside UTM 16, or State Plane 903 N, or both.

Created in ArcGIS Pro 2.2.3 The map above is an example of a story map created in ArcGIS Pro. The map is hosted at the ArcGIS Online site using this  link . The map provides the locations of 5 buildings on campus containing Automatic External Defibrillator devices. In addition, a rating of the overall quality as well as a general note about where in the building to locate the device is provided, along with an image showing the current condition of the device. The map can be improved in two ways. First, the symbology of the locations could be changed to better pinpoint the locations. When zooming in on the map, several features are also automatically colored green, so green was not a good choice for the "Like new condition". The second improvement to the map would be the legend area where the heading "AED Location" should more correctly read "Quality Assessment of AED Device".

Built using ArcGIS Pro 2.0 This map shows the topology of Mexico (measured in meters) with an inset map demonstrating the placement of this country in the world setting. The color ramp selected for the elevation data was based on one of the standard ramps used for elevation inside ArcGIS. The map can be improved by selecting a lighter color blue for the background ocean information so the elevation information near the coastline is more prominent.

Created with ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 This map was created to highlight the location of the main campus of the University of West Florida (UWF), while also noting the major interstates, rivers, and cities within its home county of Escambia County, within the State of Florida.  The inset map in the top right corner is used to highlight how this county (noted in red) is located in the western Florida Panhandle area.  The larger map is used to mark the relevance of the notable features (interstates, rivers, and cities) to the location of the main campus of UWF, which has been highlighted with a red school-shaped building symbol.  The color choice on the larger map (pale yellow) is used to enhance the river color (blue) along the borders of the county.

Created with ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 The map above was generated during the first week of GIS5050L to emphasize various features available in ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 for customizing the layout, title, legend, scale bar, north arrow, and text characteristics on an exported map.