GIS I LAB 5: Choice Project

Introduction: 

With this lab I wanted to map the ideal land in Eau Claire County to build a community greenhouse on. The product will show the agricultural land, within 5 miles of a k-12 school, and within 100 yards of a major road. I would hope to show this map to a town committee that would be interested in pursuing a neighborhood garden.  I would use this information to choose which towns to speak with. I can also use this as a starting point to further my selection for greenhouse locations, for example, if more criteria become important in deciding which land could sustain a greenhouse, I could continue improving this map.

Data Sources: 

I got my data from our 2009-07-13_EauClaire geodatabase and from the City of Eau Claire Geodatabase. I manipulated zoning boundaries data, reality property information, school locations, major road maps, and county boundaries data to get to my conclusions. A concern I have about my data has to do with the school locations that I used. I set a single Buffer around any school in Eau Claire County. Maybe separating these schools into elementary, middle, and high school and then setting a buffer around those locations individually would have been a better choice for this data. This would allow me to choose a location where there are a variety of school levels within a close range. Instead of maybe running into an issue where I choose a land plot that only has one school near it versus a land plot that is close to many schools, therefor allowing more schools easy access to the greenhouse as a learning space.

Methods: 

Using the Join, Buffer, Erase, and Intersect tools, I was able to answer the question, where is the best land plot in Eau Claire County to build a community greenhouse? I had available to me, Realtor Property, Parcels in Eau Claire County, School Locations from 2013-14, and the Major Roads throughout the county. I was able to come up with all the suitable areas for the greenhouse in Eau Claire County. 

Results: 

My result was a map of the agricultural land, within 5 miles of a k-12 school, and within 100 yards of a major road in Eau Claire County.

Evaluation: 

I enjoyed the freedom of this project. I found it a lot easier to construct my map when I knew what the final product should be, from the beginning. This made choosing what tools and settings to use to get to the end product much easier because I knew what I needed to accomplish to get there. I would love if I could have spent more time on this project. If we had 2 weeks rather than just one then we could have developed our projects more. Otherwise, I thought this was a wonderful application of the work I have been doing all semester.

GIS I LAB 4: Vector Analysis with ArcGIS

Goal:

Use various tools in ArcGIS to determine suitable habitat for Bears in Marquette County, MI based on varying criteria gathered in varying techniques.

Objectives:

• Make a map showing the locations of Black bears in Marquette County.
• Using the locations provided, find the land cover in which bears frequent the most.
• Determine if stream location is an important criteria to consider for bear habitat. 
• To find suitable bear habitat in Marquette County based on two criteria.
• Find all areas of suitable bear habitat within areas managed by the Michigan DNR.
• Then illuminate the land close to Urban Areas.
• Create a map showing Suitable Bear Habitat.
• Make a data Flow Model of the steps used to obtain the end results.

Background:

Students apply past knowledge of techniques taught throughout this course in a Real world example of determining where the ideal Bear Habitat for Bears would be in Marquette County, MI. 

Methods:

In order to obtain the data necessary to begin our lab students needed to create event themes from X Y coordinates that were in a non- spatial database.

The data we gathered was the exported as a feature class. This data was locations of Bears in Marquette County, MI. Next we wanted to Detirmine what type of habitat was supporting these bears sighted in the county. To do this, students manipulated the Landcover layer to show the type of cover the bears preferred. Using a spatial operation and the Union tool, students were able to create a layer of the location of the top three Landcover types that bears prefer.

The next task was to determine if stream location was an important habitat characteristic for the bears in Marquette County.  More than 30% of the bear locations were within 500 meters of a stream which biologists consider to be an important characteristic. So, students used the Buffer tool on the stream layer in order to make a layer of the land in Marquette county that is within 500 meters of a stream. By dissolving these areas together and intersecting them with the Popular landcover for bears layer, you have the locations suitable for Bear Habitat in Marquette County.

Another characteristic for Bear habitat was then added, the political boundries of the DNR Management lands. The intersect tool was used to add the DNR land layer to the current Bear Habitat Layer that students created. Using Dissolve the locations all joined together to show a layer of the suitable Bear Habitat inside of DNR Managed Land.

Students then made a layer of the urban areas in Marquette County by selecting all the Urban Areas in the Landcover layer and adding a 5 km Buffer around them.

The Erase Tool was used with the layer of the suitable Bear Habitat inside of DNR Managed Land and the layer just created.

Lastly, students had to create a cartographically pleasing map of their final products.

Results:

Students results were a map of all the Land suitable for Bear Habitat inside of Marquette County, MI. Further, the locations of Land suitable for Bear Habitat inside DNR Managed land at least 5 km from an Urban Area in Marquette County, MI. 

Figures:

 
  

Sources:

Landcover is from USGS NLCD
http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/nlcd/metadata/nlcdshp.html
DNR management units
http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/spatialdatalibrary/metadata/wildlife_mgmt_units.htm
Streams
http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/framework/metadata/Marquette.html

GIS I LAB 3: Downloading GIS Data

Goal and Background:

The objective of the lab was for the students to complete the following 6 skills:

1.     Download 2010 Census data (total population) from the US Census Bureau.
2.     Download a shapefile of the 2010 Census boundaries from the US Census Bureau.
3.     Join the downloaded data to the Census shapefile.
4.     Map the data.
5.     Download and map a variable of your choice.
6.     Build a layout with both maps.

7.     Post to blogger about our lab.

Methods:

First students had to Downloaded 2010 Census Data:

On the U.S. Census Bureau students downloaded the Total Population data for all the counties in Wisconsin. Then we extracted the files from the zipped file.  Then we opened the data in ArcMap.

Next we downloaded the shapefile for the WI census data. Again we extracted the files from the zipped file.

The next objective was to join the data together, we did this by opening the tables we downloaded and extracted and joined them together with the joining tool. Then we added a field into the table and used the field calculator to import the long integers from another filed into the new field in order to categorize that long integer so it could be used as a qualitative symbol on the map. Thus creating a map of the total population per Wisconsin counties.

Students were then asked to create a new map with different data from the U.S. Census Bureau website. I chose the Native American population per Wisconsin county.

Next we built the layout with both the maps, added a title, scale, legend, and north arrow.

Finally, students were asked to post a blog to blogger.  

Results: 

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 2010

My Thoughts on ArcGIS Online Virtual Training:

By: Anna Smith

 

ArcGIS Virtual Training was a unique experience that I found to be extremely helpful. Although the textbook tutorials and exercises are very good at applying your knowledge to real world examples, I find the Virtual Training ensures a good overall understanding of a subject. With the use of video examples, multiple choice questions through-out the tutorials, and review quizzes Virtual Training is an excellent resource for learning new GIS techniques.

 

In comparison to textbook training I believe the Online Virtual Training left me feeling more confident in my knowledge of the technique taught. The video example was helpful in showing the direction you were heading in. Seeing what is expected of you in the beginning was helpful throughout the creation process of the tutorials. Also the immediate feedback on the multiple choice, and fill in the blank questions were extremely helpful. This helped catch misunderstandings right away, instead of further down the line, which is sometimes the case with the textbook tutorials. Lastly, the quizzes at the end of the tutorials asked application questions that were excellent for clarification. The questions highlighted the main take-aways from that specific technique and provided instant feedback. Virtual Training is a wonderful tool for GIS training.

GIS I LAB 1: BASE DATA

Goal and Background:

During this lab students were supposed to familiarize themselves with spatial data sets used in public land management, administration, and land use and create Base Maps for the City’s Confluence Project.

This involves…

·       Exploring and answering questions about various data sets of the City and County of Eau Claire, WI.

·       Digitizing the proposed site of the City’s Confluence Project.

·       Learning about the Public Land Survey System.

·       Creating a legal description of the parcels of land involved in the Confluence Project and generating a short report describing the site.

·       And finally, building a layout of the major thematic feature classes.

Methods: 

A folder connection to W:\CHupy\geog335_f13\labwork\lab1\ was necessary for the creation of each map.

First, students created a Civil Divisions Map. This map consisted of a world imagery Basemap, the boundary line of Eau Claire County, the civil divisions within the county and an outline of the projected site of the Confluence project. By increasing the transparency of the Civil Divisions Data we were able to clearly see where the projected site fell in association to the civil divisions but also where the site was on the world imagery Basemap. This map can be used effectively as a locator Map for the City’s Confluence Project.

Secondly, students created a Census Boundaries Map. This map consisted of a world imagery Basemap, tract boundaries, Block Groups of the population per square mile in Eau Claire, and an outline of the projected site of the Confluence Project. By using different colors to represent different population groups you are able to see how the population density varies across the City of Eau Claire and into the site of the Confluence Project. By making the Block Groups more transparent you are also about to see the underlying Basemap for further reference to the actual topography of the city.

Thirdly, students created a Public Land Surveying Systems (PLSS) map. This map consisted of a world imagery Basemap, Quarter Quarter segments of land parcels, and an outline of the projected site of the Confluence Project. The map would be very useful as a locator map for the site of the Confluence project as it shows the PLSS Quarter Quarter segment that the sit e falls into.

Fourthly, students created Parcel Data map. This map consisted of a world imagery Basemap, parcel outlines of each property in Eau Claire, and an outline of the projected site of the Confluence Project. This is effective at showing exactly which parcel of land is being discussed with the Confluence Project and the Parcels surrounding that may come into play throughout the execution of this major city project.

Fifthly, students created a Zoning Areas map. This map consisted of a world imagery Basemap, the different zoning areas in Eau Claire, and an outline of the projected site of the Confluence Project. The zoning data classifies areas by their most prominent use of land parcels. It explains if an area is industrial vs. commercial etc. This is useful to see whether the Confluence Project would fit well into the area it has been projected to be constructed in. By making the zoning areas more transparent it’s very easy to see the zoning areas in relation to the actual city.

Lastly, students created a Voting Districts map. This map consisted of a world imagery Basemap, the voting districts of Eau Claire, and an outline of the projected site of the Confluence Project. This allows you to very clearly see the separate voting districts surrounding the site of the Confluence project. By making the voting districts more transparent and the number of each district bold, it is very easy to match the bold district number to the actual city and site of the project.

Results:

Sources:

City of Eau Claire and Eau Claire County 2013

W:\CHupy\geog335_f13\labwork\lab1\