GEOG1005

GEOG1005 Map use, Reading and Interpretation

Semester 2, 2024-2025
Lab 1: Mapping with ArcGIS PRO
Due: 23:59PM 1 Week after your registered Lab (Check Moodle for your groups due time)
In this first lab exercise you will work with data about a assigned Hong Kong District (please
check your assigned district on the course Moodle), and you will locate population data of this
district that can be used for this lab assignment. The assigned District and the data you download
will serve as the foundation for the labs that follow this semester. To begin this lab you will need
to extract population data by sub-unit for your assigned District for the years 2001 to 2021 (by
decade). The Hong Kong Census is the best source of this information. If anything looks slightly
strange to you with this dataset that is because we have used generalization processes to unify the
data across the census years.
Start:
1. To begin, you need to open a new project in ArcGIS Pro. You will need to sign in. First
select you ArcGIS organization URL as hkugeog. Next, please check for your assigned
ArcGIS Pro account information on the Course Moodle.
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2. Open ArcGIS Pro and select New – Blank Templates – Map, and select a folder you
where you want to save your work. Make sure you choose somewhere you
remember and you can access again! Make sure you do not save your project to
your desktop! Choose a folder in your file explorer!

3. Next, enter the name for your project and select ok:
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4. The initial look of your project will look like this:

5. Now we will create a base map of your District with District boundaries. The following
example uses the whole of Hong Kong. Please follow the steps and work on your
assigned District.

6. From the ‘Map’ Tab in the Ribbon please select ‘Add Data’ to add the shapefile of your
District:
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7. Find the shapefile data you saved in your computer. Click Ok:

8. You will now be able to see your District on the map:

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9. In this lab, you will visualize the 2021 population of your District.
Now, right-click on your District layer in the table of contents on the left panel and select
symbology and you will see a new window pop up in the place of your right hand panel
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!Helpful Note! – If you have somehow closed a important pane or lost your needed view,
navigate to the View tab in the ribbon and select “Reset Panes” and choose the deault option.

10. Under “Primary symbology”, please choose “Graduated Colours” in the dropdown menu:
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11. Now, you will be able to see some changes on your screen. All the counties in your
District are color coded based on the default value filed “Pop_01”. Now we want to
change our visualizing field to “Pop_21” – this is the population data for year 2021.
Simple click the dropdown menu next to “Field”.
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!!Helpful Note!! If your legend labels look like this, with lots of decimal points. Please navigate
to the Advanced Symbology Tab of the Symbology pane and select your Rounding for Decimal
places to be 0.

12. For this first lab you are not required to change any other features in Symbology. We will
play with those in the next two labs. But feel free to pick a colour rank that you prefer
under “colour scheme”, however, make sure it is legible and appropriate. The default
classification method and number of classes is Natural Breaks (Jenks) and 5, you can
leave it as it is.
Please continue to the next page
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13. Now, it’s time to create a map and export it as a jpeg file.
First you will need to create a new Layout View. In your ribbon find “Insert” and select
“New Layout”. In the dropdown menu, you can choose either portrait layout or landscape
layout – please make sure to consider this step in line with the shape of your district!

14. Now you will see a blank layout showing on your ArcGIS Pro. You will need to put your
map here. Click “Map Frame” under Insert and choose the map you just created.
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15. After clicking your map it appears that nothing happens but you will notice that your
cursor has now become a cross. Please left press your mouse along the dashed line, and
keep pressing and moving (hold click and move simultaneously) your cursor from the
upper left corner to the bottom right corner of your canvas. After your map will show up
on your layout!
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16. Now let’s make your map look more professional! Please note that the Layout view is
under a different environment and the Ribbon UI will look slightly different than in Map
view. Under Layout, you need to active your map (Layout – Activate) to adjust the map
size and location (see screenshot). However, make sure that your map does not look too
small (concentrate in the middle of the canvas) or too large (almost reaching the
margin line).

17. Now you can use your mouse to adjust the map size and framing by using the inputs from
the image below

!Make sure that you exit the Activate mode using the “Close Activation” button in the Layout
tab when finished, as you cannot perform any other actions before choosing this option!
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18. Ok, after these steps your map should look in a better shape

Please continue to the next page:

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19. The next step is to add the following map elements: legend, north arrow, scale bar,
and your name! We will implement this step also in Layout view, under Insert tab. Let’s
start with the easier ones: North Arrow and Scale Bar. In the dropdown menu, you can
choose any style that you like. After you pick your north arrow, drag and draw on your
canvas. Normally you put your North Awwo at the corner of your map. Do the same for
the scale bar. Now you should have these two elements on your mpa. Try your best to
line up these two elelmtns. You can also on snapping (in the red circle below) for help in
alignment.

Please continue to the next page:

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20. At this stage also feel free to uncheck your base map if you don’t want to show them:

21. Now let’s insert the Legend – Same as above, after clicking on Legend under Insert tab,
drag and draw on the canvas. However, for now, the wording in the legend is not quite
meaningful. We need to reword these. To achieve this goal, we can simply change the
layer name and heading in the table of content on your left panel. To change the layer
name “STPIG_18DCD” you can double-click which will bring up a new text box. To
change the group heading name “Pop_01” you can triple-click which will allow you to
edit the display text.
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22. To adjust the other items in your legend, please double click your Legend layer in your
Content panel on the left. A new Legend ‘element’ panel will appear in your ArcGIS Pro
right panel. From here you can change the font and text size. They are under Text
Symbol. You can also fill a background colour for the legend by clicking the Legend
dropdown menu. Especially helpful if you are using a base map. This map is yours, so the
choices are yours aswell! They just need to be based on cartographic theory and design!
If you want more granular detail used the dropdown option at the top to specifically
select and edit different groups of text and appearance.

23. The next step is to write your name on your map. Adding text is again under the Insert
tab:
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24. Drag a rectangle at the lower corner of your canvas. You will also see a Text window on
your right panel to adjust font and size. Don’t forget to click Apply after you pick your
font and size. Make sure to include your name and UID!

25. Now you have finished your first map! Let’s export to a jpeg file. Go to Share – Export
Layout in the Ribbon. Then a ‘Export Layout’ window will show up on your right. You
can now decide your file type. The default type is PDF. Please change it to JPEG so that
you can insert it into your worksheet. Make sure you save it under a file path that you are
aware of! Give it a name, for example, “YourName_GEOG1005_Lab1.jpg” Make sure
its 300 DPI for image resolution
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26. After you have finished and exported your map. Please save your Lab 1 project.

27. Please navigate to where your project is saved in your file explorer. To easily navigate
here, please select the Project Tab in the Ribbon. From there select Open, find your
Project, right-click and select ‘Show in File Explorer’.
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Please continue to next page:

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28. In the project folder you will find the .aprx file, this is what you need to open and access
your project again, but all files in this project folder are needed so make sure you keep all
of them safe and together.

!!Helpful Note!! If you would like to access your project from another location outside of this lab
please follow these steps.
First close and save your ArcGIS Project, next navigate to the top-level folder of your project.

Right click on the folder and select the “compress to” option. This option may appear to be
worded differently based on your system. Make sure to compress the folder to a ZIP File.
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You will now have a .ZIP file of your project, you can email this to yourself using Outlook
Web. If you move this file to another device and de-compress it you can open the .aprx file
again and access your project. From your HKU Outlook you can also place this .zip file in
your HKU cloud storage for easy access.

Lab Finished

Please complete the Lab 1 Worksheet by making a map of

your District’s 2021 population using proper cartographic
principles and design. The Lab 1 Worksheet is available
on the Course Moodle. Submit it to the Course Moodle
submission point by 23:59PM 1 Week After Lab (Check
Moodle for your session’s due time)