Introduction to ArcGIS

Reading: “What is ArcGIS?”,

ESRI Press, 2001, pp. 1-25

Acknowledgement: Dr Francisco Olivera developed some of the

slides in this presentation
 ESRI GIS Development
Arc/Info (coverage model) 100,000 licenses
Versions 1-7 from 1980 – 1999 1,000,000 users as of 2001

Arc Macro Language (AML)

ArcGIS (geodatabase model)
Version 8.0, 8.1 from 2000 –
Visual Basic for Applications
ArcView (shapefile model)
Versions 1-3 from 1994 – 1999
Avenue scripting language
 Data Models

• A geographic data
model is a structure Geographic coordinates
for organizing
geospatial data so that
it can be easily stored
and retrieved.
Tabular attributes
 File-based Data Models
Geographic coordinates and attributes
are stored in separate but linked files
Arc
Info
• Coverages • Shapefiles
– Developed for – Developed for
workstation Arc/Info ArcView ~ 1993
~ 1980
– Simpler structure in
– Complex structure,
proprietary format public domain
– Attributes in Info – Attributes in dBase
tables (.dbf) tables
 Storing Data

Coverages Shapefiles

Texas
Texas

Counties
Counties.shp
Counties.shx
Counties.dbf
Evap
Evap.shp
Evap.shx
Evap.dbf
Info
 Storing Data
• Feature datasets
– Stored as Arc/Info coverages or ArcView shapefiles.
– Coverages are stored partially in their own folder and
partially in the common INFO folder. Shapefiles are
stored in three to five files (with
extensions .shp, .shx, .dbf, .sbx and .sbn).
– ArcView recognizes coverages. Arc/Info does not
recognize shapefiles.
– Coverages store common boundaries between polygons only
once, to avoid redundancy. Shapefiles store all the
geometry of each polygon regardless redundancy.
– Coverage features are single lines or single polygons.
Shapefiles allow features to have multiple, disconnected,
intersecting and overlapping components.
 Geodatabase model
• Stores geographic coordinates as one
attribute in a relational database table
• Uses MS Access for “Personal
Geodatabase” (single user)
• Uses Oracle, Sybase, Ingress or other
commercial relational databases for
“Enterprise Geodatabases” (many
simultaneous users)
GIS in an Institutional Setting
ArcGIS Geodatabase
Workspace
Geodatabase
Feature Dataset
Feature Class
Geometric
Network

Relationship
Object Class
 Feature Class
• A feature class is
a collection of
geographic objects
in tabular format
that have the same
behavior and the
same attributes.
 Object Class
• An object class is a collection of
objects in tabular format that
have the same behavior and the
same attributes.
 Relationship
• A relationship is an association or link
between two objects in a database.
• A relationship can exist between spatial
objects (features in feature classes), non-
spatial objects (objects in object classes),
or between spatial and non-spatial
objects.
 Relationship
Relationship between non-spatial objects

Water
Quality
Data

Water
Quality
Parameters
 Relationship
Relationship between spatial and non-spatial objects

Water quality data

(non-spatial)

Measurement station
(spatial)
 Relationship
Relationship between spatial objects

Rivers that lie within

California

Two spatial objects:

rivers and California
 Geodatabase and Feature
Dataset
 A geodatabase is a relational database that
stores geographic information.
 A feature dataset is a collection of feature
classes that share the same spatial
reference frame.
Geodatabase and Feature
Dataset
• Why geodatabases?
To establish and store relationships based on
tabular information.

• Why feature datasets?

To establish and store relationships based on
geographic information.
 Network

• A network is a set of edges

(lines) and junctions
(points) that are
topologically connected to
each other.
• Each edge knows which
junctions are at its endpoints
• Each junction knows which
edges it connects to
 Arc Map
View
and
edit
data Analyze data
(Geoprocessing)

Create maps
 Graphical
previews

View data
(like Windows Explorer)

Arc Catalog

Tables

Metadata
 Arc Toolbox

Map Projections
Our focus
 Levels of ArcGIS
• ArcView – View data and do edits on shape
files and simple personal geodatabases
• ArcEditor – do more complex edits on
enterprise geodatabases
• ArcInfo – the full system, with access to
workstation ArcInfo (i.e. ArcInfo version 7)
as well
 Licenses and Keycodes

License manager keeps track of number of simultaneous

users and limits them to allowable number
ArcGIS Extensions
 Spatial Analyst
• Analysis of land
surface terrain as
a grid
• Key means of
defining
drainage areas
and connectivity
to stream
network
Drainage network for Montgomery, AL
 Grid Datasets

• Cellular-based data structure composed of square

cells of equal size arranged in rows and columns.

• The grid cell size and extension (number of rows

and columns), as well as the value at each cell have
to be stored as part of the grid definition.

Number of columns
Number of columns

Cell size
 Grid Datasets

• Grid datasets
 Geostatistical Analyst
• Interpolation
of points to a
grid using
statistical
correlation
• Produces a Siberia Alaska
standard error
of estimate of
each map
location
Biomass in the Arctic Ocean
 Image Datasets

• Image datasets
 Image Datasets
• Supported image formats:
– ARC Digitized Raster Graphics (ADRG)
– Windows bitmap images (BMP) [.bmp]
– Multiband (BSQ, BIL and BIP) and single band images [.bsq, .bil
and .bip]
– ERDAS [.lan and .gis]
– ESRI Grid datasets
– IMAGINE [.img]
– IMPELL Bitmaps [.rlc]
– Image catalogs
– JPEG [.jpg]
– MrSID [.sid]
– National Image Transfer Format (NITF)
– Sun rasterfiles [.rs, .ras and .sun]
– Tag Image File Format (TIFF) [.tiff, .tif and .tff]
– TIFF/LZW
 3-D Analyst
• Analysis of
land surface
terrain as
triangulated
irregular
network (TIN)
• Visualization in
3-D using Arc
Scene
Stream channel of Pecan Bayou, TX
 TIN Datasets

• TIN datasets

Points and breaklines

from which a TIN is
constructed.