Introduction to ArcGIS

Now the real fun starts…

Lecture prepared by Gary Weaver

ArcView??ArcGIS???ArcInfo? Phew, I’m

not the only one …

GIS? What’s that?

What is Arc?What is Arc?

• ESRI - Environmental Systems Research Institute• ArcInfo - original version - powerful, but not very user

f i dl ( d li )friendly (command line)• ArcView - yet another version, easier to use (GUI), but not

as powerful, primarily for map makingas powerful, primarily for map making• ArcGIS - Combines both earlier versions - powerful and

easier to use. Includes:– ArcMap– ArcCatalog– ArcToolbox

ArcGIS• ArcMap - functions like ArcView

GUI– GUI– Layout presentation– Simple analyses

Arcmap.lnk

S p e a a yses

• ArcCatalog– Navigating and managing geographic datag g g g g g p– Explore data– Copy, move delete data

ArcCatalog.lnk

• ArcToolbox– Coverage processing and analysis functions

ArcToolbox.lnk– Geoprocessing functions

ArcToolbox.lnk

What can you model?What can you model?• Land• Elevation• Climate Zones• Forests• Primary Productivity• Political Zones• Environmental Hazards• You are limited by:

– Your own creativity– DATA

How do you model them?How do you model them?

• Layers - collections of like data - as manyLayers - collections of like data - as many as you want

Features (Vectors) shape and size– Features (Vectors) - shape and size• polygon - area data• point - citiespoint cities• line - boundaries, rivers

– Surfaces (Rasters) - numeric values rather than ( )shapes

• elevation, slope, temperature, images

Features• GIS uses coordinate systems to represent location

of a featureof a feature– Coordinate system is a grid system with an x-axis and a

y-axis. The origin is where the axes intersect. Feature y glocations are measured in distances from the origin.

• GIS uses scale to represent the size of a feature on a map and the size of the corresponding places in the world

• GIS links features to information using tables -attributes of the feature

E h f t ’ i f ti i d d i– Each feature’s information is recorded in a row– Each column is a category of information (attributes)

Features

• Have spatial relationships– which ones are nearest - are incidences ofwhich ones are nearest are incidences of

cancer closer to an environmental harzard?– which ones touch - do plants that exude p

chemicals have competing plants that are within their rooting zone?

– which ones cross - do competing carnivores have overlapping home ranges?

ArcGISArcGIS• Coveragesg

– have topology• contains the spatial relationships between adjacent

polygon of neighboring features

• Shapefiles– do not have topology

• Geoprocessingp g– coverage selection and analysis

ArcGIS Functionality (ie, what you get when you pay for…)

A Vi• ArcView– create, edit personal geodatabases and

h filshapefiles– create high quality maps, graphs, and reports– geographic query and analysis– create, apply attribute domains– create, edit simple annotation– geocode addresses

ArcGIS FunctionalityArcGIS Functionality

• ArcEditor– Create, edit, and manage coveragesCreate, edit, and manage coverages– Create, edit subtypes and relationship classes– Create edit custom featuresCreate, edit custom features– Build geodatabases

Create edit geometric networks– Create, edit geometric networks– Create and edit feature-linked annotation

• geodatabases with behavior• geodatabases with behavior

ArcGIS FunctionalityArcGIS Functionality

• ArcInfo– Create, edit, analyze coveragesCreate, edit, analyze coverages – Run AML programs from ArcToolbox– Convert from multiple GIS data formats intoConvert from multiple GIS data formats into

coverage format– Use the geoprocessing server to performUse the geoprocessing server to perform

ArcToolbox operation on a designated computer (servers)

ArcGIS ExtensionsArcGIS Extensions

• Spatial AnalystSpatial Analyst– Raster

3D A l t• 3D Analyst– TIN, viewshed

• Geostatistical Analyst– surfaces– interpolation

ArcGIS Components

• ArcCatalog

• ArcToolbox

• ArcMap

ArcCatalog• File Manager

• Geocoding

ArcCatalogArcCatalog.lnkArcCatalog.lnk

• Previewing Data

ArcToolboxArcToolbox lnk ArcToolbox lnkArcToolbox• We will use Toolbox for projections

ArcToolbox.lnk ArcToolbox.lnk

• Permanent Changes to Coverages

• Importing data

•Manipulating tables

•Much, much more,

ArcMap Arcmap.lnkArcmap.lnk

• We will be focusing on Map– Data ViewData View

– Layout ViewLayout View

Simple analyses– Simple analyses

Table of Contents

• Layer Control– Data Frames

• Bolded name indicates active frame

– Layers within the framesy• Display / Source tabs• Visibility• Layer Order• Other layer controls are in tool bars

Table of ContentsTable of Contents

• Right click on Data frame to control:• Right click on Data frame to control:– name– labels– coordinate system– order

• Right click on Layer to control:• Right click on Layer to control:– properties

• name• datasource• selection attributes• symbologysymbology

– open attribute table

Data View

• Map Window• Zoom

P• Pan• Select• Find• Find• Information

Layout View

Layout ViewLayout View

• Switch to by View - Layout view or by the page symbol on the bottom left of the window

• Each Frame in the Data View is represented by a Frame in the Layout View

• Control page properties under the File Menu• When looking for required elements, start with the

insert menu