Georeferencing and Digitization

This assignment will help you learn about the following:

 Creating a geodatabase with feature datasets and feature classes
 Georeferencing (georegistration) in ArcGIS
 Digitizing features in a geodatabase

Objective
The scenario is that you have to build a geodatabase for a new section of a rapidly growing city.
You have to create a geodatabase for this project and populate this geodatabase with:
 Features representing land use (e.g. parcel boundaries, parks, industrial areas, etc.)
 Features representing utilities, such as water and electrical lines.

For this purpose, your first task is to digitize the parcels of a new sub-division and estimate where
water pipes will be placed. You are given a scanned paper map that represents the parcel property
boundaries.

An additional task is to use a formula to estimate the property value of the new lots.

Task # 1: Geodatabase Design

1.1 Make a new file geodatabase

 Connect to the following folder: D:\CE-210\Tutorial\Georef
 In ArcCatalog, navigate to this Georef folder and right-click, and then choose New → File
Geodatabase.
 Name the file geodatabase City. Set City as the default geodatabase, under File → Map
Document Properties.

1.2 Define feature datasets and feature classes

You first need to create feature datasets to hold the
feature classes (layers) you will digitize.
 Right-click on the empty geodatabase and
choose New → Feature Dataset (NOT Feature
Class). In the dialog box that opens, specify the
name as Utilities – this will create a feature
dataset called “Utilities”.
 Click Next to choose the coordinate system.
Navigate to Projected Coordinate Systems →
State Plane → NAD 1927 and select California
Zone 5 (NAD 1927 StatePlane California V
FIPS 0405).
 Click Next, skip the vertical coordinate system
by clicking Next again. Accept the default
tolerances by clicking Finish.
The next step is to create a feature class within the
feature dataset you just created.
 Right-click on the Utilities feature dataset and
choose New → Feature Class. Name the feature
class pipes and give in an Alias (alternative name)
Water pipes. This will be a vector layer with lines
representing a pipe network, so chose Line
Features for the type of features. Be sure that the
Geometry Properties boxes are unchecked.
 Click Next.
 For the Configuration Keyword page, accept the
default by clicking Next, which brings you to the
attributes page.

We need to define several attributes for the pipes

feature class.
 In the Field Name column, first blank row
(row 3), enter the value "Type". In the Data
Type column, click the cell below Geometry
(row 3) and use the pop-up menu to select
“Short Integer”. Left-click the cell so that
window of Field Properties is visible, and
change alias to "Line Type".
 Repeat the same steps to add a field called
"maintDate” with a “Date” data type. In the
Field Properties change the Alias to
"Maintenance Date".
 Repeat the same steps to add a field called
"maintType” with a “Text” data type. In the
Field Properties change the Alias to
"Maintenance Type". Specify the Length field
as "20”.
 Click Finish. Notice that the pipes feature
class is added to your TOC. There is nothing
drawn in the map, though, because this
feature class is empty – you will have to
digitize the features.
 Right-click on pipes (under the Utilities
feature dataset) and open Properties. Click the
Subtypes tab. We will set up “subtypes” that
link integer codes in a field to text
descriptions via a lookup. For Subtype Field,
use the pop-up menu to select the "Type"
 field. Only “Type” is available because it is
the only field that we created that has
integer values. Set up the subtypes for the
Type field in pipes using the table below.
You do this by clicking in the Code and
Description boxes and then type their
values. Your subtype definitions should
look like the figureon the right.

This process will allow you to choose between 3

types of pipes when you have digitized new a line
segment (Unknown, Main line or House line). No
other values will be permitted for the Type
attribute. When you are done, click OK to close the
window and finish creating your new pipes feature
class.

Now create another feature dataset.

 Right-click on the City geodatabase and choose New → Feature Dataset, and name it
LandUse. Click Next. The spatial reference must also be set. It needs to be the same
projected coordinate system as we used for the Utilitiesfeature dataset. This time you can
simply import these parameters from Utilities rather than setting them manually again.
 Click on the Import button, browse through
the files for your Utilities feature dataset
inside the City geodatabase, and Add it. The
Coordinate System is updated to match
Utilities.
 Click Next, then click Next again and Finish
to finish creating the LandUse feature
dataset.

Create a new feature class called parcels in the LandUse feature dataset.
 Right-click on the LandUse feature dataset you just created, go to New → Feature class,
and name it parcels. This will be a vector layer with polygons representing parcels, so
chose Polygon Features for the type of features. Be sure that the Geometry Properties boxes
are unchecked. Click Next.
 Using your skills from setting up pipes, define
the attribute fields as follows:
o Add a field called "APN” with a
“Text” data type. In the Field
Properties change the Alias to
"Assessor parcel number". Specify the
Length field as "15”.
o Add a field called "Cost” with a “Long
Integer” data type. In the Field
Properties change the Alias to "Land
value (in dollars)".
o Add a field called "Acres” with a
“Float” data type. In the Field
Properties change the Alias "Size of
parcel”.
o Click Finish.

You should have the following feature datasets and

feature classes in your City geodatabase, as seen in
the screenshot from Catalog below.

Import an Attribute Table

Now we will import a table from the owners.txt

file, which is an ASCII text file.
 Right-click on owners.txt.
 Choose Export → To Geodatabase (single).
This brings up the Table to Table window.
The Output Location should be your City
geodatabase.
 Type in owners as the Output Table name.
 Click OK.
Task # 2: Georeference the Scanned Map

GIS users often perform "heads-up" digitizing wherein they use a pre-existing map layer or image
as a guide for manually digitizing a new GIS layer. You will now prepare just such a background
image that you will then use to guide you in digitizing a land parcel feature class.

2.1 Preparing for georeferencing

The scanned map that you have received is not registered to any coordinate system. In order to
digitize using the scanned map as a guide, you will need to place it in its appropriate geographic
location. We will do this in ArcMap.
 Open ArcMap
 Add the parcel.tifraster layer.
Move your mouse around the scanned image and notice that the coordinates given in the
lower-right corner of the ArcMap window are not what they should be for California.
 Open the Properties of parcels.tifin the TOC and go to the Source tab. Study the
information in this source tab.
In order to use the image with the Citygeodatabase, it must be registered to the same
coordinate system as is set for the Utility and LandUse feature datasets in your
geodatabase. This will not only place the scanned image within the boundaries of
the feature datasets in the geodatabase, but will also assign correct spatial
referencing information.
 Set the projection for your ArcMap session.
o Right-click on the data frame ("Layer") and choose Properties, then click on the
Coordinate System tab. Import the projected coordinate system information from
either the LandUse orUtilities feature datasets. Save your map document at this
point.
 ArcGIS comes with a Georeferencing toolbar to georeference
feature classes. Load the toolbar by selecting Customize →
Toolbars → Georeferencing

You will see a toolbar that looks like this:

To georeference data you simply need to create a table of origin points

and destination points -- matching specific points on the map (source
coordinates) with their real-world coordinates (target coordinates).
2.2 Georeferencing the parcel raster
Georeferencing the parcel.tif raster scanned map involves selecting control points on the image
(source) that can be referenced to the real-world geographic or projected coordinate system(target).
This can be done in two main ways:
1. If you have another, coincident GIS layer (e.g. streets) that already has a coordinate system
defined, you can match up selected locations (control points) on the scanned raster with
the corresponding locations in that GIS layer.
2. If you do not have another GIS layer, you can use a GPS to find the coordinates of the
selected locations in the field and then input those coordinates for matching points in the
scanned raster.
In this exercise we will use second option and the required GPS coordinates are already available.
You will use five control points thathave been preselected (see image below).
Zoom into the first point (X1 in the image above). To georeference
the image, click on the "Addcontrol points" button on the
georeferencing toolbar. Your mouse pointer will turn
intocrosshairs.

Place the crosshairs on the intersection of the two lines.

When you left-click the mouse button, you will set the
X and Y coordinates for your source data. When you
move the mouse off of that point, it will have a line
connected to the point on the source, scanned map.
If you had a reference GIS layer (such as the streets data mentioned above) you would simply
zoom to the reference layer and click on the corresponding location. The coordinate information
for both of these points would then be added to the "link table", which lists all of the control points
and their correct referenced location.
Since you do not have a reference GIS layer, you must
manually input GPS data that has been gathered for you.
After clicking on the first control point, right-click and
select "Input X and Y."
This will open a window for you to enter the GPS x,y
coordinates for that control point. For each of the control
points, you will enter California State Plane coordinate
data using the following table:

As you enter the data, the raster will automatically move to fit the new coordinates. If the raster

moves offscreen, click on the Full Extent tool on the main toolbar to shift the display to the
raster's new location. Continue to digitize and enter GPS coordinates for all five control points.
This window shows you the control point number (e.g., Link 1, etc.), the source coordinates, the
GPS State Plane map coordinates (target), and the residual error of the georeferencing equation.
Notice that the equation is using a 1st Order Polynomial, also called an Affine transformation. This
is the least-complicated transformation and can perform translation, scaling and rotation of our
raster image. The parameters for the transformation equation are estimated from your digitized
points and the associated GPS coordinates. If there are errors in your point selection on the screen
(source coordinates) or in the GPS measurements (e.g., from range errors), then the transformation
will be less accurate. The residual gives you an idea of how much error each point contributes to
the overall transformation equation.

Save your table to an ASCII text file with the Save button in the Link Table window. Pick an
appropriate file name, with your last name first (e.g., links.txt). Click OK.
On the Georeferencing toolbar, click on Georeferencing → Update Georeferencing to save the
parcels.tif raster's new, georeferenced coordinate system. Open the parcels.tif properties from the
TOC to answer the following questions:

Task # 3: Digitization
Now that you have a base image that has been georeferenced, you can digitize your parcel polygons
from it and they will be in the correct coordinate system.This lab will only touch the basics of
digitzation with these tools, and you are strongly encouraged to experiment on your own and read
the ArcGIS help to learn more about its digitization capabilities.
Add the parcels feature class from your geodatabase. Turn it on in the TOC and be sure it is on
top of the raster.
For digitization, you will need the Editor Toolbar. You can
get this toolbar by clicking the button on the Editor Toolbar
select Editor → Start editing.
You should see a new Create Features window appear on
the right of ArcMap with your parcels polygon layer
displayed. For the digitization process, it is useful to make
the polygon hollow with a bright and thick border. In this
screenshot, the parcels layer has been symbolized with a
red outline width of 2. The parcels seen in the Create
Feature windows has been imported as a “feature
template”, which provides automatic symbolization for
any features that you decide to digitize. If you have many
feature classes in the TOC, you would have multiple
feature templates, with their corresponding symbology,
from which you could digitize new features. In our case,
we only have one layer in the TOC, and so there is just one
type of feature template.

Notice that there is a bottom window called Construction

Tools. If needed, use the middle handle between the
windows to make the Construction Tools window tall
enough to show all six available tools, as shown in the
screenshot above.
To digitize a polygon for one parcel, first zoom in to the first parcel (parcel #20) in the upper left
corner of the scanned raster. Click on the “Polygon” construction tool Notice that in
the Editor Toolbar, a series of buttons are now available for “segment construction”.

The default segment construction method is “Straight Segment”. Note that all of these segment
construction buttons were unavailable (gray colored) before you select a feature construction
tool – in this case, you selected Polygon.
With the Straight Segment tool selected, digitize a polygon by clicking in succession on the upper-
left corner, the upper-right corner, and the lower-right corner of the parcel. Notice that a triangular
polygon has been created based on these 3
points.
Finally double-click on the lower-left
corner of the parcel (below the diagonal of
the triangle) to finish the polygon. Doing
this will automatically snap the nodes. You
should see a completed polygon with a
cyan (light-blue) highlight color and
possibly a fill color if you chose not to
make the polygon have a hollow fill.
While you are digitizing, it is a good idea to periodically save your edits (Editor →Save
edits).
The feature has a cyan outline because it is selected. You can deselect the feature by selecting the
Edit Tool and clicking anywhere on the display. You can also use this tool to select any
polygon that has already been digitized. Once selected, the polygon can be deleted by pressing the
Delete button on your keyboard. An existing polygon feature can also be edited (e.g., move, delete
and add vertices) by double-clicking the desired polygon.

Select your polygon, if it isn’t already selected, and enter its attribute information by clicking
on the Attributes button on the Editor Toolbar. The Assessor Parcel Number (APN) for
each polygon will take the form: 52-015-parcel#, where parcel# is the number in the circle inside
each polygon.
For example, the APN is 52-015-20
for the first digitized polygon. We will
leave the Cost and Acres attributes
Null for now. Notice that the
attributes have full descriptions. For
example, APN is described as
“Assessor parcel number”. Also
notice that the character length
allowed for APN is 15, as noted in the
bottom of the Attributes window
while entering a value for APN. The
full descriptions and length were set
by you when you created the parcels
feature class. See screenshot on the
right.
You now need to digitize the other parcel polygons. At this point it is helpful to unpin the
Attributes window, by clicking the pin symbol in the upper-right of the window. You should now
click on the hidden Create Features window.
You could digitize the adjacent polygons with the Polygon construction tool, the same way you
did the first polygon. However, no matter how careful you are, the edges would not exactly match
and you would create "slivers".
To create polygons without slivers and have planar topology, change the construction tool to “Auto
Complete Polygon” . The Auto Complete Polygon construction tool will allow you to join
new polygons to existing polygons so that they share borders without you having to digitize them
multiple times. To make the process of joining polygons you should turn on the “snapping” of
features.

Go to the Editor → Snapping → Snapping Toolbar. From the

Snapping Toolbar, select the End, Vertex, and Edge boxes
(Point is already selected by default). This will automatically
"snap" the digitizing cursor to existing features.

Click the Snapping menu on this toolbar and make sure that there
is a check next to “Use Snapping” – we want to use snapping
properties.

With the Autocomplete Polygon feature construction tool selected, you digitize the remaining
polygons (the ones that are closed and that have small numbers within circles). Since you are
using Auto Complete Polygon you must start and end on the vertex, edge, or end of an
existing polygon (this is where snapping is particularly helpful). As you digitize each polygon,
you can enter the APN attribute as you did for the first polygon. If you prefer, you can enter the
APN information for all of the polygons after you have finished digitizing. In this case, you would
selected each polygon with the Edit Tool , then use the Attribute button .

On parts of the map where there are curves in the polygon that you
are digitizing, you can use the Arc Segment Tool. You do this the
first time by clicking the pop-up button in the floating Feature
Construction Toolbar that appears when you digitize. Then select
the Arc Segment tool See screenshot at right. From a starting
vertex, click a mid-point for the arc, and then click a terminating
vertex.
When you have digitized your arc segment, go back to
the Straight Segment tool to finish your polygon.
You can switch between tools as you digitize a polygon.
When digitizing a linear section, use the Straight
Segment tool, and then when you get to the curve, select
the Arc Segment Tool and then digitize the curved part
of the feature.

Note that Construction Tool window follows you when you digitize. You can click it and drag it
out of the way, which is sometimes necessary. Also, all of the segment construction tools found
in this floating window are also available in the Editor toolbar.

These tools are only available when

you select a feature construction tool
in the Create Features window (e.g.,
Autocomplete Polygon, Polygon,
etc). So at times you may have to
pop up the Create Features windows
to reselect the feature construction
tool. It takes time to get used to all
the options available to you as you
digitize features. Experiment and
settle on a method that works best
for you. At right, see a screenshot of
what your digitized parcels should
look like. If you did not already
assign APNs to the polygons, do so
now. Be sure to save your edits!!

Be sure to open your attribute table for parcels

and verify that every polygon feature has an
APN value. See screenshot below. Your
object IDs and order will not match, as they are
dependent on the order in which you digitize
polygons; however, you should have the same
range of APN codes as shown in the
screenshot. If you do not, then resolve the
problem before going forward in the lab.
Task # 4: Calculation of Attributes
There are still two fields that do not have attributes -- Cost and Acres. The georeferenced data are
in feet (State Plane projection), so the Shape_Area calculation that is automatically computed for
the polygons will be in square feet. There are 43560 square feet in an acre. You can use this
information to calculate the acreage for each of the polygons. Make sure that no records are
selected in the parcels feature class (on the main ArcMap menu click on Selection → Clear Selected
Features).
 Calculate the Acres (alias "Size of parcel") based on the Shape_Area attribute. This entails
using the Field Calculator. Alternatively, you could use the Calculate Geometry tool.
 Property value is based on size of parcel and is $300,000 per acre. Use the Field Calculator
to perform this calculation in the Land Value field. Save your edits to the table: Editor
Toolbar → Stop Editing.

Task # 5: Digitize a Basic Pipe Network

Now you have to digitize the pipes that will connect to
each parcel and form a water network. Turn off the
parcels feature class in the TOC. Add the pipes feature
class from the Utilities feature dataset. Turn on pipes in
the TOC.

Change the symbology for the different kinds of pipes

(Line Type field). When you select a symbol for editing,
in the Symbol Selector there is an option for Style
References. From this you can select from a wide variety
of themed symbol sets -- including Water/Wastewater.
Also, you can turn off the "All other values" class by unchecking its box in the Symbology tab.
An example of symbology for the pipe types is shown here.
Start by selecting Editor → Start Editing. The Create Features
window should appear on the right. In this case, there are multiple
symbols in pipes to choose from, and before you can see these pipe
types as templates for digitization, you have to create a “template”
for the layer. You do this by clicking the Organize Templates
button in the Create Features window.

Select New Template, which then opens a

Create New Template Wizard window.
Check Water pipe. Be sure parcels is
unchecked (we already have a template for
parcels from earlier in the lab). Click Next.
Be sure all of the Water pipe classes are
checked, as shown in the screenshot below.

Now click Finish. Close the Organize Feature

Templates window. There should now be three
types of water pipes to choose from in the
Create Features window, and they have
acquired the symbology that you set in the
TOC.

Click on your desired water pipe template, and then use the Line
construction tool to digitize your pipes. Be sure to save your digitized
pipes as you go along. The only rules guiding your design are:

 Main pipes can only run down the middle of streets. (You can consider the blank area at
the top of the scanned map to be a street.)
 Each parcel must have at least one house water line
 There should be no "unknown" pipe types when you are done digitizing

An example of a digitized network is shown in the screenshot below. Your network does not need
to look like this example.

When you are satisfied with your pipe network, stop editing with Editor → Stop Editing.