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TUTORIAL: INTRODUCTION TO GIS

ANALYSIS IN ARCVIEW 3
Josef Fürst, IWHW-BOKU

1 PROBLEM
Several datasets containing hydrologically relevant information are available. We are
supposed to present these data as thematic maps, summarize some of the information
and do analyses.

2 TRAINING OBJECTIVES
• Use ArcView 3 to display maps of our observed data
• Learn about basic GIS functionality of ArcView (classify, join)
• Learn how to perform overlays, create buffers, do attribute calculations, …

3 GIVEN DATA
GIS datasets are provided in Shapefile format, referring to the Enns catchment in Austria
and are extracted from the Hydrological Atlas of Austria. They contain a river network,
basin divides, landcover, monitoring networks, and some auxiliary data.

4 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
ArcView 3.1 or later
Extensions: Geoprocessing wizard, Spatial analyst, Spatial Tools 3.3, Xtools, Nearest
Neighbour 3.6

5 TASKS

5.1 Getting started

• Start ArcView, follow the dialogues to create a new view and add the theme of rivers
from gewenns.shp

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• load the extensions listed above, make the source directory the working directory of
the project and set View Æ Properties “Map units” and “Distance units” to “meters”.
• Enhance the display by an improved legend. Double click the line symbol in the
TOC and select “Graduated symbol” with Classification field “Breite” in the legend
editor. Apply a ramp of symbols in the size range 1 to 2, select a blue foreground
color for the symbols.

• Play with some of the tools: Zoom, Pan, Select, Measure, Identify, …
• Add new themes EZGenns.shp and Landcover.shp and display various thematic
maps.

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5.2 Buffers along rivers

5.2.1 Problem
Rivers are generally modelled as linear features, but there are definitely issues that
involve a strip of land near the rivers. Simple constant width “buffers” might be needed to
access the river for maintenance, but for protection of a river against non-point source
pollution the width of a buffer will be related to the landcover. In this tutorial task we start
out with a map of the rivers and the land cover map. We are supposed to create a buffer
along the rivers whose width depends on the current landcover near the river.

5.2.2 Step 1: Assign the neighbouring landcover to river reaches

In gewenns.shp, a river reach generally passes several different types of landcover.
There is a many-to-many relationship between river reaches and landcover polygons
which has to be reduced into a 1 : M relationship between a river reach and a list of
attributes, including the landcover properties. This is achieved by intersection.
First, we select the rivers we want to buffer (e.g. all rivers whose width (“Breite”) is
greater than 1, because our management plans only refer to these.). Next, we start View
Æ Geoprocessing Wizard Æ Intersect 2 themes . Select Gewenns.shp to be the theme
to intersect, and landcover.shp to be the overlay theme. Specify the output file
gew_lc_itsct.shp and push Finish . In the resulting line shapefile the rivers are
intersected where the neighbouring landcover changes and each reach has additionally
all the attributes of landcover.shp. Visualize appropriately!

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5.2.3 Step 2: Assign an attribute to use as a buffer width by a JOIN

with a lookup table
Assume, that the width of the desired buffer is determined by the type of landcover.
Instead of individually assigning a value to each river reach in the attribute table of
gew_lc_itsct.shp, we develop a lookup table (LUT) which can then be joined to the
attribute table. This technique is more flexible and ensures better consistency than
individual attribute calculations. A table to be used as LUT can simply be created as a
text file (for convenience, we also added a column “Landcover” to serve as a translator
into English language in file CorinLUTbuf.txt):
"HAOKLASS", "LandCover", "Buffer"
1, "Continuous urban fabric", 100
2, "Discontinuous urban fabric", 100
3, "Sparsely vegetated areas", 100
4, "Arable land", 600
5, "Vineyards", 600
6, "Grassland", 200
7, "Broad-leaved and mixed forests", 100
8, "Coniferous forests", 100
9, "Wetlands", 50
10, "Waterbodies", 50
11, "Glaciers", 0

To JOIN the new attributes LandCover and Buffer based on the Join item HAOKLASS to
the attribute table of gew_lc_itsct.shp, first Add CorinLUTbuf.txt as a table document in
ArcView.

Open the attribute table of gew_lc_itsct.shp, by making it active and then clicking .
Select column HAOKLASS first in corinlutbuf.txt , then in Attributes of
Gew_lc_itsct.shp and click the Join button . corinlutbuf.txt will disappear and the
attribute table will have two new attributes "LandCover" and "Buffer" which can be used
like all other attributes.

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5.2.4 Step 3: Compute buffers

With Gew_lc_itsct.shp the active theme, select Theme Æ Create buffers … and follow
the dialogs.

Visualize appropriately with a semi-transparent symbol.

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5.3 Assign site properties to monitoring points (spatial join)

5.3.1 Problem
To manage observation networks, it is not only important to know individual station
details like position, instrument type, etc. but also some site characteristics like
elevation, surrounding landcover, distance to the closest river and others. This
information can be derived by overlaying the map of the stations with, e.g. the landcover
map.

5.3.2 Task 1: Assign surrounding landcover to groundwater

monitoring points
Given a point shapefile of the groundwater stations and the polygon shapefile of
landcover, the required operation in ArcView 3 is called a “spatial join”.
Add gwmess_enns.shp to the View. Next, we start View Æ Geoprocessing Wizard Æ
Assign spatial data by location (spatial join) . Select the involved themes and
click Finish . If we inspect the attribute table of Gwmess_enns.shp now or do an Identify
on a groundwater site, we will see 4 new attributes at the end of the list. E.g., site
Gröbming is located within “Grünland” (grassland). Note, that these items are only joined
and not permanently written to the table.

5.3.3 Task 2: Assign distance from the closest river to each site
The distance from a river is an important characteristic of a groundwater monitoring site.
To compute it automatically in ArcView 3, we need a user-contributed extension, e.g.
Nearest Neighbour 3.6 by Johannes Weigel (By the way, if you cannot find a desired
function in ArcView, always try a search at http://arcscripts.esri.com. There is good
chance that somebody already did it for you in Avenue!).
Do Nearest Neighbour Æ Find/Sort Nearest Neighbour and follow the dialogues.
Select Gwmess_enns.shp as source theme and Gewenns.shp as target theme. The
appropriate type of distance here is Edge to edge. Let the tool create a distance field
and also assign the name of the closest river (Flussname). Now, the list of attributes of
Gwmess_enns.shp includes 2 more items. E.g., station Gröbming is at a distance of 354
m from the Gröbmingbach.

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5.4 Determine areal precipitation by the THIESSEN method

Areal precipitation is frequently estimated by a weighted mean of measured precipitation
at rain gauges in and near the watershed. The weights are often determined by the
THIESSEN method, which assigns the value of the closest observation point to each
point in the domain. In a vector system, the lines of symmetry between any 2 points
have to be constructed. In a raster approach, each pixel is assigned the value of the
closest station.

5.4.1 Step 1: Determine the THIESSEN weights

Add the point shapefile of rain gauges prec_enns.shp to the view and make it active.
Add the grid enns_mask to the view and set Analysis Æ Properties (see Fig.). Do
Analysis Æ Assign proximity . Select HZBNR as proximity field. Display the resulting
THIESSEN map. Save the grid as prec_thiessen ( Theme Æ Save data set ). Note that
only gauges within the watershed have been used. To include also external gauges,
switch off the analysis mask, do the Assign proximity and then clip the grid with the
enns_mask (use the Map calculator).

The attribute table of the THIESSEN map includes a field “count” which is the number of
pixels. Open the table, Table Æ Start editing , add fields Area and Weight. Activate
Area. WIth Field Æ Calculate calculate the area as [Count] * 250000 (the area of a
pixel 500 x 500). Using Field Æ Statistics , compute the total area (note the number),
activate column Weight and compute Area/6087750000 (total area). Table Æ Stop
editing .

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5.4.2 Step 2: Calculate areal precipitation

Mean annual areal precipitation is given in field MJNSUM of prec_enns.shp. Open the
attribute table, and join the attribute table of prec_thiessen. Start editing, add field Wprec
and calculate field as [MJNSUM] * [Weight]. With Field Æ Statistics we can read the
areal precipitation to be the sum of Wprec.

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