Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences Image/Map Georeferencing and Digitizing

Georeferencing and Digitizing Image/Map

Introduction

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. Georeferencing is also a necessary step in
the digitizing process. Digitizing in GIS is the process of “tracing”, in a
geographically correct way, information from images/maps. The process of
georeferencing relies on the coordination of points on the scanned image (data to
be georeferenced) with points on a geographically referenced data (data to which
the image will be georeferenced). By “linking” points on the image with those
same locations in the geographically referenced data you will create a polynomial
transformation that converts the location of the entire image to the correct
geographic location. We can call the linked points on each data layer control
points.

The selection of control points is important. Some guidelines:

• They should be easy to confirm as representing the same geographic
location (street intersection, political boundary, landmark, etc.).
• They should be spread across the image to be registered, one suggestion is
to select a control point near each of the corners of the image and few
throughout the interior will often work well.
• Good overlap between the two dataset is also important.
• Make sure you are clicking as close as possible to the same geographic
location, zooming in can help in this process.

As you add points the complexity of the transformation that is possible increases.
This is not always a good thing, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order polynomials can be
calculated, usually a 1st or 2nd order transformation is all that is necessary. In
order to complete a 1st order transformation you need a minimum of three
control points, for a 2nd order you need a minimum of six control points, and for a
3rd order you will need a minimum of ten points. A 1st order transformation will
shift, scale, and rotate your image while 2nd and 3rd order transformations will
bend and curve straight lines, which might be necessary, but is rare.

Data:

Three file will be used in this training module, NYStreet.shp, ManhattenCensus.shp, and
Manhattan.sid. The latter is a raster image of the same type as jpeg, gif, tiff, etc.; it’s just
a digital picture at this point. The first file is a shapefile that contains the street map for
the entire state of NY; the second is a layer that contains only the census tracts and
extent for Manhattan, which will be useful for zooming to and initially coordinating the
image. The first thing you are going to do is “Clip” the part of the street map that
intersects Manhattan. The street layer will be used for setting control points.

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Creating a New Layer by Clipping

Open Both layers (NYStreet and ManhattanCensus).

Open ArcToolBox (red toolbox on menu) and open Analysis Tools, then
Extract. Choose the clip tool.

The input feature is the street map.

The clip feature is the census tracts of Manhattan.

The output class should go somewhere you can find it and be named
something you will recognize (ManhattanStreet.shp as an example).

Don’t worry about cluster tolerances.

Click Ok.

Add the new layer and remove the original street layer.

Georeferencing/Registering an Image

Tools:
The primary tool we will be using is the georeferencing toolbar
The georeferencing toolbar is probably not visible when you first open ArcGIS, you can
open it be clicking on view, selecting toolbars, then activating the georeferencing toolbar
option.

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Add the manhattan.sid file.

Right click the shapefile (not image) and “Zoom to Layer,” this is a nice feature
you might have used before that let us get to the geographic extent of a specific data layer
quickly.

From the georeferencing toolbar, click the “Layer” dropdown arrow and
select the manhattan.sid image name.

Click “Georeference” and select “Fit to Display” from the dropdown.

This will display the image in the same general space as the manhattan census tracts
layer.

Before adding control points you should move the image around a bit to get it closer to
the orientation and position of the GIS layers you are using.

Use the Rotate and Shift tools for this.

Now you are read to add control points. Click on the control points tool.

You should be using the clipped data for linking, and use the labels too.
(Right click the layer and select label features).

To add a link, click the mouse on the image first, then on a known location
on the GIS database. You can use the magnify tools to get a close look at subsets of
the data.

You can also turn on the effect toolbar to change the transparency to see both layers at
once if you like, or you can turn the layers off and one as you select points from each.

Once you’ve added a few links you can open the link table to see how each has worked.
View Link Table is the final icon on the right of the georeferencing toolbar.

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In the link table you can view the Total RMS Error as well as the residual for each
link that contributes to the overall Total. The errors are associated with the amount of
disagreement between the two control points for each link once the transformation is set
(once you’ve added more than three links). You have to be sure that the two points that
are linked are the same place in world (same street intersection for instance), as you
could have a very low error and residuals but not have an accurately registered image.

Once you are satisfied with the registration, and you can delete links or start all over by
deleting them all, you can Update Georeferencing, this will save your transformation.
This process will add a .aux file that contains information about the transformation that
is necessary to view this file in the future with other data.

Don’t forget to save your work, save your map as “xxx”.mxd.

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Digitizing Features
Introduction
Now you are going to begin digitizing features of this image. Digitzing is the
process of making features we can see on the Manhattan image editable and
making them features to which additional spatial and non-spatial attributes can
be assigned. This means we are going to follow a process of making digital
versions of objects that will have an attribute table associated with them. Our
primary goal will be digitizing the Wards, which are objects that occupy an area
on the map, once they are digitized and have an associated attribute table these
objects will also be known as polygon features. In an accompanying document
you have data on the home country of Mothers by Ward. When digitizing we can
digitize points, lines, or polygons. By digitizing these features, you make them
available for mapping once you have added the tabular data to the attribute table
(as you know there are a few ways you can do this). The digitizing process is
started by creating new layers in ArcCatalog, and then adding features to them in
ArcMap.

1. Creating an empty shapefile. Open ArcCatalog. We are going to create a new

shapefile that we can edit in ArcMap—this will be a polygon feature shapefile to
which we will add ward boundaries. In ArcCatalog, browse to the location of
your current mxd file. This is the folder in which you will create your
new shapefile, so select that folder and right-click on it. Go to New Æ
Shapefile… to open the Create New Shapefile window. Give the polygon
shapefile an appropriate name such as ManhattanWard. Click on Edit… to see
the Coordinate System of the file. In the Spatial
Reference Properties window click Import…
to use the projection of the manhattan street
layer. Click OK and OK again to create the
shapefile.

2. Add a new filed in the Attribute Table.

Return to ArcMap, and add your new shapefile to
the Data Frame (TOC). If you open the Attribute
Tables of this shapefile you will find it empty. We
are going to use this empty shapefile to create
features from our image.
Now you will start working with the new shapefile. Before you start editing, first
open its Attribute Table. Click on the Options button and Add Field… First create

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a Short Integer (choose in the Type drop-down menu) field called Wards where
the Ward number identifier will be entered. Note that you cannot create new fields
while you are editing a layer.

3. Digitizing Wards and entering tabular data. You will need the Editor
toolbar. ViewÆ ToolbarsÆ Editor. On the toolbar, click on the Editor menu and
Start Editing. You will be prompted to choose the folder that your shapefiles are
in, and then click OK. Before you get started creating polygons, turn off all but the
registered manhattan image layer.

In the Editor toolbar, Start Editing. Choose MahanttanWard (or whatever

you named it) layer as the layer you want to edit. In the Editor toolbar, Create
New Feature. You are going to create a polygon for individual wards, it is probably
easiest to start with some rectangular shapes. There are some good ones south of
central park. From the pull down menu next to the Editor pull down choose the
sketch tool.

By clicking at the four corners (single clicks) of the ward you are digitizing you will
create a continuous outline of it. Double clicking when you get back to where you
started will finish your Sketch. This should make your polygon become an actual,
filled polygon. If you make a mistake you can select and delete sketch. You can
digitize 3-5 ward boundaries and enter corresponding ward ID numbers into the
Wards field in the attribute table.

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Extension Activity
Now that you have digitized a few polygons in ArcGIS you have acquired the skills to
create editable features from scanned maps that can be linked with tabular data. If
you are interested you can do a number of things to extend what you have learned.
You can digitize the rest of the wards, create new fields in the attribute table, and
either edit or link the 1890 Ward data in order to create a map of 1890 demographic
patterns for Manhattan. You can also do just a subset of this work and map a few
wards and link or add the data to create a map of 1890 demographic patterns. What
you are doing has not been done before, you will be creating some of the first digital
maps of Manhattan in 1890, have fun!!