GIS Lab 2: Exercises on ArcGIS Functions and Tools

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Part A (75 points):
Start a new project on ArgMap.
This exercise is based on the datasets: Bayarea_cities.shp, bayareatract00.shp, SF_income&race.xls.

1. Bay Area census tract data (bayareatract00.shp) – this GIS data set includes all the census tracts of the nine
counties in the Bay Area.
2. California Place data set (bayarea_cities.shp) – this GIS dataset shows the city boundary, which can be used
to extract census tracts within city of San Francisco.
3. Non-spatial social economics information: databases downloaded (with some aggregation) from Census
Bureau:
● File “SF_income&race.xls” in the folder “social_economics-Data” – contains information on total
population, race, total number of households, and household income in each census tract.

Attribute Name Meaning

TRACTID ID of the Census Tract
TOTALPOPUL The total population in the tract (numeric)
WHITE Total white population in the tract (numeric)
BLACK Total African American population in the tract (numeric)
ASIAN Total Asian population in the tract (numeric)
HOUSEHOLD
S Total number of households in the tract (numeric)
INCOMEBELO number of households with annual income below $15K
INCOME_$15 number of households with annual income between $15K to $30K
INCOME_300 number of households with annual income between $30K to 50K
number of households with annual income between $50K to
INCOME_500 $100K
INCOME_100 number of households with annual income above $100K

A list of other useful data sources:

● SF bay area census tract GIS data can be downloaded at:
http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/maps/maps.htm
● non-spatial SF census tract race data by county can be downloaded at:
http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/small/small.htm
● Bay area transportation (roads, bike lanes, transit) GIS data from Metropolitan Transportation
Commission: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/maps_and_data/GIS/data.htm

Notes: This website contains a lot of useful information such as 1990 Census Roads and 2000 Census
tracts in Category 1 and the transit and bikeway files in Category 2.
● Current San Francisco Facilities - City-Owned, City-Leased and other designated critical facilities
(hospitals, shelters, et al) can be downloaded at: https://data.sfgov.org/Facilities-and-
Structures/San-Francisco-Facilties-Current-Zipped-Shapefile-F/9vhi-qnsc
● California natural hazard data:
a. Fire hazard: http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/data/frapgisdata-subset.php
b. Geological hazard information: http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/rghm/Pages/Index.aspx
● In addition to the items listed above that are directly related to this project assignment, in case
you are interested in exploring other data files, here is a very useful GIS data library:
http://dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/gis/datalibrary/gisdatalibrary.html

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 (1) Set up your working environment following Step 1,2,4,5 in Lab 1 Instruction. Make sure you adjust
accordingly.
(2) Add Data:
a. How to add data to ArcMAP? See Step 8 in Lab 1 Instruction
b. In Lab 2, we need the following: Bayarea_cities.shp, bayareatract00.shp, SF_income&race.xls
(3) Select or extract data
In this exercise, you are required to learn how to select or extract a subset of GIS data. For example, how
to extract only the census tracts within the city of San Francisco and create a new map of San Francisco
census tract map.

There are several functions that may be useful:

● Selection feature by attributes – If the census tract data has a field indicating the city that each tract
is in, you can select census tracts that are within SF using this selection function.
●
Tip: How to select features by attributes
1. Click Selection on the Main menu and click Select By
Attributes.
2. Click the Layer drop-down arrow and click the layer
containing the features you want to select.
3. Click the Method drop-down arrow and click a selection
method.
4. Double-click a field to add the field name to the expression
box.
If you want to sort the list of fields or see the fields by their
aliases, click the small button on the top right of the fields
list.
5. Click an operator to add it to the expression.
6. Click Get Unique Values to see the values for the selected
field.
Double-click a value to add it to the expression.
7. Click the Verify button to see if you are using proper syntax
or if the criteria you've entered will select any features.
8. Click Apply.
The status bar at the bottom of the ArcMap window tells you
how many features are selected.
9. Use the Clear button to empty the expression box.
10. Use the Save and Load buttons respectively to save your
current query as a file or load an existing one.
11. Click Close when you are finished selecting features.

● Export datasets (Step 16 in Lab 1 Instruction)

● Clip layer (Step 20 in Lab 1 Instruction)
● Format Layout View (Step 32-35 in Lab 1 Instruction)

Deliverable #1: Generate a map that contains only the census tracts in the city of San Francisco. (Export the
deliverable as PDF file before starting the next step, because you will modify the layout later)
 (4) Join tables
This exercise is based on the census tracts map you just created.

Joining data is typically used to append the fields of one table to those of another through an attribute or field
common to both tables. You can choose to define the join based either on attributes, a predefined geodatabase
relationship class, or by location (also referred to as a spatial join). You will only see join by relationship class
listed if you are joining geodatabase data for which a relationship class has already been defined in the
geodatabase.

Several tables or layers can be joined to a single table or layer and relationship class joins can be mixed with
attribute joins. When a join table is removed, all data from tables that were joined after it are also removed, but
data from previously joined tables remain. Symbology or labeling that is based on an appended column is returned
to a default state when the join is removed.

In most cases, appended columns are named "TableName.FieldName". This naming convention helps prevent
duplicate field names when the target table and a join table have common field names. Field aliases set in ArcMap
prior to a join are ignored but can be reset after the join. This is useful if the field names prove to be too long for
some of the field lists in ArcMap. Field aliases set in the geodatabase prior to the join are used to define the field
aliases for the joined columns.

Tip: How to join tables

You can perform a join with either the Join Data dialog box accessed by right-clicking a layer in
ArcMap or a set of geoprocessing tools. Use the join geoprocessing tools when working with
particularly large datasets to get the best performance. You can also include these tools in
geoprocessing models and scripts when you want to automate repetitive or complex steps
involving joins. As these tools perform the actual behind-the-scenes join processing slightly
differently than the Join Data dialog box, use the tools if you encounter any unexpected issues
with the join functionality in that dialog box. The geoprocessing tools are:
Analysis Tools > Overlay > Spatial Join tool
Data Management Tools > Joins > Add Join tool
Data Management Tools > Joins > Remove Join tool

Deliverable #2, a WORD or PDF file containing:

a. Diagnose possible data inconsistency in the original data and write a short paragraph summarizing what you
find. Are you able to join the census tract data with the income dataset? Why? See the diagnosis tip below.
b. A screenshot of census tract attribute table joined with the income data.
c. Diagnose possible data error. Are there census tracts that do not have joined income information? Look into
those records and try to find what is causing this missing information. (Write a short paragraph summarizing
what you find.)

Diagnosis tip: In order to join two tables by certain attribute (census tract ID in this case), you should make
sure that the attributes in the two tables are in the same format. For example, in this assignment you need to
join the two tables based on the Census Tract ID. If the ID in one table is String (text), while ID in another
table is Numeric, you won’t be able to join them.

In the attribute table associated with SanFrancisco.shp, attribute field “TRACTID” (Census Tract ID) is defined
as String. You can add a field to the SanFrancisco table, name the new field as for example “Num_TrckID”.
To add a filed, go to ArcToolBox, select “Data Management” -> “Fields” -> “Add Field”. Specify the format
of this new field as numeric (in this case since ID is integer, you can define it as double). Then use “Calculate
Field” tool (next to “Add Field”) to let the value for “Num_trckID” be “TRACTID”.
 Double

(5) Create maps showing data analysis results

In this exercise, you are asked to create a map that shows the level of poverty of each tract. You may define
poverty as annual household income below 15K (you may also consider 30K as the poverty threshold, it’s up to
you.). Change the symbology of the map, and use different colors to show the poverty levels (percent of
households below the threshold). Remember to normalize the number of poverty households by the total number
of households in that census tract (normalize here means divided by the total number of households).

Deliverable #3: Create a poverty map to visualize the poverty level of each census tract in San Francisco. Do
not forget to add title, legends, scale bar, north arrow etc.
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Part B (25 points):
Start a new project on ArgMap.
This exercise is based on the datasets: sfpd_stations.shp (Police Stations), schools_public.shp and
SF_census_tracks_new.shp.

Add public schools and Police Stations to the map. You will see something like the figure below, where red star
represents police station and blue polygon represents public school (you can define these symbols whichever way
you like).

Analyze whether the schools are covered by police stations within a certain proximity. In order to do this, you
will need to use the analysis tools -> proximity -> buffer. Choose the feature layer as the police station layer,
and define the proximity as 1 mile (later you can change this to 2 miles and see how the buffer changes). Once
you create the buffer, you’ll see something like the figure below. You may further change the transparency of
the buffer to make its background visible.

Extract the schools that are NOT covered by the 1-mile buffer of the police stations and create a new layer for
these schools (Hint: try “selection by location” and “switch selection”).

Deliverable #4: A map showing the 1-mile buffer of the police stations and the schools that are NOT covered
by it.
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Part C: (This is a bonus part. You will get extra 15 points if you do it all correctly!)
Start a new project on ArgMap.
This exercise is based on the dataset: SF_census_tracks_new.shp.

In this exercise, I would like you to explore the relationship between the average income and the average education
level using the census tract data. Compute the average education level and the average income for each census
tract (see Hint 1) and plot these data using excel (see Hint 2). Do you see some relation between income and
education levels? Describe your observation qualitatively (Deliverable #5: a Word file containing a scatter plot
and a paragraph of your observations. 5 points). Create a SF census tract map, and highlight (in green) those tracts
are within the top 25% percentile for average education level, and highlight (in red) the tracts that are within the
bottom 25% percentile for average education level (see Hint 3) (Deliverable #6: two maps or one map
highlighting the two categories of tracts. 10 points).

Hint 1: To treat discrete education levels, you may assign a score to each education category and use a weighted
(by population percentage) sum as an indicator for the average education level. For instance, we MAY assign a
score for the average education level of the below zone with
(1* HIGHSCH+2* CLG+3* BACHELOR+4* MASTER+5* DOCTORAL)/TOTAL=2.619.

The income data has been treated as reference.

Hint 2: Export attribute table to excel: ArcToolbox-Conversion Tools-Excel-Table to Excel.

Hint 3: Similar steps to assigning/removing symbol colors for lakes in Lab1.