Geography 291: Geospatial Analysis with Desktop GIS

Chapter 1 Introducing ArcGIS: Navigation, symbolizing, labeling, 2D / 3D Maps

1.1 

 Feature Class: The basic building block for displaying graphic features on a map. They are vector data with corresponding attributes for each feature.

Raster Dataset: A major type of spatial data that creates a raster, an image made up of pixels. A good example is satellite imagery.

File geodatabase: A folder with the extension .gdp that stores feature classes, raster datasets, and other related files.
Basemap: A layer that helps orient users to a location. Additional feature classes are placed on top of a basemap to provide specific information for visualization, analysis, or problem solving. 

1.2 

• You can search for features using attribute values, such as the name of a street. 
• Some feature classes can be set to be seen only when zoomed to a certain scale
• You can access preset locations and scales using spatial bookmarks
• You can read the attribute data of any feature by clicking the feature to show a pop up

1.3

• Attributes allow you to search for useful information and mapped features
• You can change the order of attribute columns in a table, change the names, see the data type of attributes, delete attributes, and make only certain attributes visible in the Fields of View menu
• Press and hold shift with the selection tool on to select any subset of points. Hold shift and click to select one more multiple, hold control to deselect. 
• The summary statistics tool can compute maximum, minimum, mean, and SD and writes the results on a new table

1.4

• Symbols of feature classes can be changed by color, size, and shape
• Features can be labeled with different fonts with added halos for improved readability
• The contrast in population density within an urban area is difficult to appreciate using color symbology. 3D makes an impressive difference.

Chapter 2: 3D maps, dot density maps, visibility ranges, point symbols, symbolizing maps

2.1 

• Thematic map: Consists of a subject layer or layers placed in spatial context with other layers, such as streets and political boundaries. TO choose layers for a thematic map, ask the questions “What layer or layers are needed to represent the subject” and “what spatial context layers are needed to orient map users to recognize locations and patterns of subject features?”. Often, but not always, the subject of thematic maps are vector layers (points, lines, or polygons)
• An overall goal of thematic maps is to make the subject prominent while placing spatial context layers in the background
• Lighter colors help reduce distraction and clutter, especially with border colors

2.2 

• Two forms of text in ArcGIS are labels and pop-ups.
• Functions for labeling are a little spread out between different tabs and access points, a little confusing to remember where all are located.

2.3

• A definition query cam limit the features displayed to a desired subset of the larger collection, based on the values in the feature attribute table
• A definition query is different from “Select By Attribute (ch.1)” because it is used to filter the features of a layer rather than select a temporary subset to work with. They both have a similar SQL (Structured Query Language) interface
• Find Definition Query under right clicking the feature and selecting properties
• Using an ‘Or’ connector makes a compound condition, so any record satisfying one of the two simple conditions will be displayed. If ‘and’ was used instead, no records would be selected because a facility cannot have more than one code value. 
• Different shapes for symbology are important for users with color blindness or still being able to be distinguishable in black and white  copies 
• Figure features are brightly colored and ground features are shades of grey

2.4

• Numeric elements attributes should be broken into relatively few classes of roughly 3-9. 
• To symbolize map features, you need only the sex of maximum values for the class, called break points. The minimum value is included in the class, but the maximum goes in the next classification. 
• A choropleth map uses color in polygons to represent numeric attribute values, generally increasing in darkness of color where  shade would represent increasing value. 
• Classification methods are used to display choropleth maps, and the default method is Natural Breaks (Jenks), which uses an algorithm to cluster values of the numeric attributes into groups, with boundaries of the groups (break points) defining classes
• The Quantile method is easily understood and provides information about the shape of a distribution. It breaks a distribution into classes, each with the same percentage of data points. For example, quantiles with 4 classes each have 25% of the data observations
• Other methods are the Defined Interval Method (uniform distribution with easily read numbers for break points) and the Geometric Interval method (increasing width interval distribution of break points)
• Many attributes have skewed distribution
• To make a 3D map, select feature layer, go to extrusion group, type, then base height. 

2.5

• Graduated and proportional point symbols: Proportionally sized point symbols can display data such as a larger symbol indicating a larger data value

2.6

• Chropleth maps of normalized population data have different uses from those of choropleth maps of population
• Dividing a segment of the population by the total population to provide info about the makeup of an area = Normalizing
• Density maps can also be normalized. Dividing population and other variables by their polygon areas, yielding a measure of spatial concentration.
• Geometric Interval Method works well for representing the long tails of distributions skewed to the right, but the breakpoints aren’t easily read
• Comparing a symbology layer through import layer and swipe to compare features can allow a quick visual comparison between datasets 

2.7

• Dot density maps can denote quantitative values. An advantage over choropleth maps is that more than one variable can be displayed at the same time using different colored dots

2.8

• GIS uses visibility ranges to automatically turn layers and labeling on and of, depending on zoom level
• Map scale: The ratio of the distance between one point and another on your screen divided by the distance between the same two points in inches on the ground
• Map scale is unitless, as a ratio that divides units. Therefore, you can use any distance unit
• Scale is counterintuitive, similar to SAV ratios. The large number is actually a smaller scale, and the smaller is actually larger. 
• Large scale shows feature labels turned on when zoomed in, and off when out. Features can also be turned off when zoomed in. 
• Features and labels can have different visibility ranges to reduce clutter

Chapter 3: Maps for End Users: Building map layouts and charts, sharing maps on ARCGIS Online, use MapViewer in ArcGIS Online, Story Maps/Dashboards

3.1 

• If making a report, it’s better to keep tables and maps as stand alone figures so they are separate and your layout is simple and clear
• Right click a layout figure, click properties, under elements and placement size, you can change the sizing to be the same as other figures or resize a figure. Under layout, then Map, use Full Extent to make the figure properly fit the new sizing. 
• Right click on the ruler to add a guide to place figures at the same boundary lines, and then drag them to the guide boundary lines to ‘snap’ them in place
• ArcGIS will automatically generate and design a legend. Can be found under Insert -> map surrounds -> legend

3.2

• To share/publish a map online, you must change a property of the map. You must also have a basemap layer. Right click the map under contents, click properties and then under general, make sure the ‘allow assignment of unique numeric IDs for web sharing…” is checked
• You can modify map settings on the arcgis website

3.3

• ArcGIS story maps allows you to create stories that include web based interactive maps, text, images, videos, and other content

Chapter 4:

4.1 – I do not have this section

4.2 – I do not have this section

4.3 –  Had a difficult time with this section, it kept saying invalid syntax and I am not sure what was wrong.

4.4 –  This tutorial was very short and made it incredibly easy to follow.

4.5 – Very easy to understand.

4.6 – Easiest tutorial to follow, the hierarchy table was interesting.

 

Chapter 5:

5.1 – This map was very interesting because it is different from what we have been making and is now a curved map.

5.2 – This section had many coordinates on the map. 

5.3 – This section is easy as I feel it is just to get used to the coordinates. 

5.4 – This section kept failing, and the tutorial was very confusing. 

5.5 – I had troubles with this section, the excel sheet was not working and downloading the tiger files gave me trouble.

5.6 – This section was easy,

 

Chapter 6:

6.1 – This section was very easy. It got me used to the attribute tables again.

6.2 – Had difficulty with the outlining part of the section and was unable to figure out how to get the rest of the blocks 

6.3 – Section was not difficult, all I had to do was search for the merge tool

6.4 -I am having an issue inserting the input dataset, I think the data in 6.2 I had trouble with was supposed to be saved and put into this section.

6.5 –  This section was very easy and I did not have any issues 

6.6 – I was having trouble with the tract layers.

 

Chapter 7:

7.1 –  This section was easy, selecting buildings was easy but splitting the last one posed a challenge.

7.2 – The tutorial was easy and had no issues.

7.3 –  This section was very easy as the only thing to do was the smooth polygon tool.

7.4 – This section was very lengthy but I was able to figure it out. 

 

Chapter 8:

8.1 – Was very simple to follow 

8.2 – My end result did not look like the photo in the book but it was very close.

Chapter 4

 

I had some issues with chapter 4. For some reason tutorials 4-1 and 4-2 did not get downloaded to the flashdrive I have all my work on so I was unable to do them. I am not sure why but this also occurred in the previous part as well. However, I was able to do the rest of the tutorials. In these I had to do filtering and linking some of data and carrying out attribute queries. I also carried out a spatial join of the burglary data along with using some more symbology. I had some issues with the last tutorial when creating a joined table however as I kept on saying I could not before the join due to the fact there was nothing to join so I am not sure what I did wrong. 

 

Chapter 5

 

The first two tutorials in the chapter went smoothly as it was just adjusting the map and the format it is viewed in. The third tutorial was also pretty straightforward in manipulating coordinate systems. However on 5-4 I had issues as when I went to go for the export features tool and went to change the output feature class, I did not have CouncilDistricts saved in my Chapter5.gdb for some reason. I am not sure what is going on with somethings not being saved or downloaded onto my flash drive but because of this I was unable to finish 5-4. I had issues again with the last two tutorials as well. I don’t think I was saving or extracting the data correctly from the outside sources. This led me to have issues importing that data into the maps.

 

Chapter 6

 

Chapter 6 was one of the longer chapters just based on how manyt tutorials there were, not so much of the content or how long they took. This chapter focused on geoprocessing which had me use various different tools to process, merge, and manage some of the data. For the most part these tutorials went smooth but often had little hiccups toward the send of sections with running some functions or joining data. However it was interesting to look at New York City again as I used to live there. 

 

Chapter 7

 

This chapter was fairly short and had us manipulating and digitizing some of the landmarks on maps. Most of this chapter was straightforward but there were areas that confusing and left me stuck when trying to mess with some of the layers and features.

 

Chapter 8

 

Short chapter talking about geocoding. In this chapter we messed with some stuff using zipcodes in various areas. I am not entirely sure what was happing however but the tutorials were straightforward besides in a few areas I had issues with but not too bad.

 

4-1: For the section “Use database utilities in the catalog pane”, I was unable to do the copy and paste sections from part 2 and 3, paste just wasn’t showing up for me. I was able to finish the rest of the section, and since it asked you to delete everything at the end, it ultimately didn’t matter.

 Screenshot (22).png

4-2: Tracts was not in my contents page for some reason. I ended up going to the catalog pane, to folders, and right clicking tracks to add it t0 the map. Showed up on my contents page then. Hope that’s right. Actually, for delete unneeded columns, my table did not end up looking like the one in the book, instead of fully deleting even though I clicked it all the unneeded columns were just in a lighter gray. Because of this, I was completely unable to finish the section. And it was a long section.

 Screenshot (23).png

4-3: After I was doing the section correctly, I opened the crime offenses attribute table and when there should’ve been 444 remaining features, there was still 3924. My SQL expression looked like the one in the book, so I do not know why this happened. At the end of the tutorial, I ended up with two people instead of just one too.

 Screenshot (24).png

4-4: This was a short tutorial and one I was able to do 100% successfully, thank god.

4-5: This tutorial was also short and I had no problems with.

4-6: Same as the last 2 tutorials. The latter half of the 4 tutorials were a lot easier than the first half.

5-1: I had no idea there were around 5200 projected coordinate systems and over 100 map projections. How would you even know what’s best for what you’re trying to do?

5-2: Again, there are so many coordinate systems and map projections.

5-3: This one was interesting. I don’t really understand why I was changing the projected coordinate systems and why this matters so much.

5-4: CouncilDistricts was not in my Chapter5,gbd, so I used municipalities because it seemed close enough. I also did not have libraries in it.

 Screenshot (28).png

5-5: This tutorial is really confusing. Column JK, which I was supposed to keep, was not the same as what the book said it should be- it was females not living in a place. And there was no column SE at all, so I was unable to do this section. When moving to the next section, I was unable to find most of the census shapefiles and I am not sure why. Because I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do the next section. So I pretty much was unable to do this entire tutorial except downloading the data at the beginning.

 Screenshot (30).png

5-6: Eliminating the land use for everything else other than just the county is interesting. Actually looking at the data is really cool though, and seeing the difference in development. Also, ground features wasn’t an option to symbolize the elevated contours layer for me, so I just changed the color to a similar one instead. I am not the biggest fan of the textbook assuming we know how to do everything we previously learned 100% perfect, as I don’t have the best memory.

6-1: This one was fairly easy and makes sense why this would be useful.

6-2: I am unsure of how to export the selected features as UpperWestSideBlockGroups to Chapter6.gdb. Also, I couldn’t find UpperWestSideStreetsForGeocoding, so I couldn’t clip streets either.

 Screenshot (40).png  Screenshot (41).png

6-3: This tutorial seems really useful. Being able to combine all that data and clear up the contents page makes for much easier map readability.

6-4: Pretty much the same as the last tutorial. I have the same thoughts on it too.

6-5: I do not see SUM_Street_Length in my attributes table, only Street_Length. I’m pretty sure I did this section right so I’m not sure why it’s not appearing for me, even when the table is refreshed

 Screenshot (44).png

6-6: I don’t think I joined the tables right at the end. I didn’t really see how I could do it, clicked around and found something called join, but got a lot of null sections. I wish the book could explain in more detail how to do some steps, because even though it’s later on in the book there’s so much information that its hard to remember it all.

 Screenshot (45).png

6-7: I liked the background behind this tutorial. It reminds me that GIS is used for really important and possibly life-changing information, like separating the disabled people in half between 2 fire companies so in the heat of the moment no one gets left behind because of not remembering.

7-1: I don’t know where a constructions toolbar is, so I couldn’t click the add button and move the vertex points of the art building. I had issues with splitting the buildings too, but this is probably just a me thing.

 Screenshot (47).png

7-2: It took me awhile to do this tutorial, as working with these polygons was finicky for me, but I eventually  was able to do everything in the tutorial.

7-3: Well this tutorial was easy. I can understand how smoothing out the polygons can help with viewer comprehension.

7-4: I feel like this is something I would never remember how to do. It looks pretty cool though.

8-1: For me, the rematch addresses pane doesn’t have a “pick from the map button”, so I couldn’t finish the “rematch attendee data by zip code” section. The next section, “symbolize using the collect events tool” didn’t work for me either, as when I tried to run the tool I kept getting “collect events failed” multiple times, even with changing some things up.

 Screenshot (50).png

8-2: My only issue with this tutorial is that the basemap, World Light Gray Canvas Base, didn’t load for some reason. Otherwise this one made sense.

 Screenshot (51).png

Chapter 4
4.1- This tutorial felt pretty simple in comparison to chapter 3, and I was able to complete all the steps easily.
4.2- After calculating the PopYouthUnder20 field, I received a warning and several of the values were labeled as null. I am unsure as to why this happened. This also occurred while calculating the PercentPopYouthUnder20. I believe this might have interfered with the rest of the tutorial.
4.3- I found this one to be pretty easy to understand, but also pretty repetitive.
4.4- I appreciated how short and straightforward this tutorial was.
4.5- I didn’t struggle at all with this tutorial, and found it to be enjoyable.
4.6- I got confused on the “your turn” part of the tutorial, as I was unsure what table it was wanting me to open as the usual attributes table was not an option. Because I was unable to add this new code, I was unable to complete the tutorial.

 

Chapter 5
5-1: This tutorial was very straightforward and easy to follow, and I was able to complete it in just a few minutes.
5-2: This one was pretty much the exact same as the last tutorial, so it only took me a few minutes. However, I noticed that the program seemed to struggle with loading all of the states, as it took about a minute or so to fully refresh.
5-3: I found this one to be relatively boring, as it was mostly just confirming if already existing settings were correct. However, the California UTM map did not load.
5-4: It worked properly.
5-5: The link and download did not work properly, and had a very long waiting time. I was unable to complete this tutorial.
5-6: I was unable to access NLCD, even after verifying that I was logged into ArcGIS Online and restarting the app.

 

Chapter 6
6-1: I got stuck on the “your turn” part, as the Pairwise Dissolve tool kept failing. I am pretty sure I inserted the information correctly, so I am unsure as to why this problem occurred.
6-2 – 6-3: Fairly uneventful and easy to go through. The main part I struggled with was understanding when I needed to search for a file to input, or simply name the field. The book wasn’t very clear on this.
6.4- The book did not clarify which append tool to use, so I had to guesstimate. I think I used the right one in the end.
6.5- I found this one to be fairly easy, and I didn’t encounter any errors.
6.6- I found this chapter to be very repetitive, as it was mostly “Open this table. Now close it”. I did get a bit confused on the joining step, but I was able to figure it out in the end.
6.6- It seems like the tracts layer for the second map was not working.

 

Chapter 7
7.1- I actually found this one to be interesting and a nice change of pace. It was enjoyable to see my actions immediately have an effect on something tangible.
7.2 I was able to complete the work and found it interesting
7.3- This tutorial was easy to follow and only took a few minutes.
7.4- It was really cool to see how the map transferred into the tiny version, though I’m very happy the text had pictures because the wordings were very unclear.

 

Chapter 8
8.1- This tutorial went smoothly, and I found no errors or continuity flaws in the text.
8.2- Everything worked well in this text, and I was able to finish it quickly.

4.1- Couldn’t get the tracts to paste inside of maricopatracts. The paste button was not available. 

4.2- Didn’t do the second step (zoom to layer) but got through half of it before encountering more problems. My tracts table did not look like the one in the book. Then arcgis pro crashed and tracts was lost. 

4.3- My dot map didn’t turn blue. It still stayed multicolored. Got the code correctly. 

4.4- Fully completed. Only one page long 

4.5- Simple. 

4.6- Saw the difference in the hierarchy tables. 

 

***I had problems downloading data.

5.1- Complete. It was cool to see a different perspective on the map. 

5.2-.4- Completed easily. The shorter chapters are easier to understand because there’s not a lot of steps to mess up on. 

5.5- I got the first part downloaded in the folder, but I couldn’t extract the second part from data.census.gov to the folder. It downloaded the table but there was no way to put it inside the folder. 

5.6- I entered the data but it didn’t outline the county. My only options were land use 1 or 2. I added the data for Minneapolis into my drive but when I went into ArcGis Pro it didn’t show up when I hit add data. 

 

6.1- Struggled to find manhattan neighborhood, but found it eventually. Complete. 

6.2- Complete. 

6.3- Easy. Only had to do one thing. 

6.4- Done.

6.5- Done. 

6.6- Complete.  It was cool to see the different areas on the map. 

6.7- This was probably just a me problem, but I couldn’t find fire company 76. 

*This chapter was mamangable. Most of the tutorials were on the shorter side, which makes it easier. 

 

7.1- Little confused about this tutorial. 

7.2-  I made my red parking lot in the middle of a field. And then I drew the red over the parking garage. 

7.3- My map didn’t look exactly like the one in the book, but it was very similar. 

7.4- Got the different shapes and colors to match. Complete. 

 

8.1- Fairly simple. It was nice to see Ohio finally being used in GIS. I liked the street view. 

8.2- Complete. The first thing I did, didn’t change the map at all. So, I probably didn’t do that right. But the end result looked like the photo in the book.

 

4.1 – My youth population gbp did not have a tracks feature class in it but it had cities and PopYouth so I just finished the tutorial using only those two.

4.2 – I don’t like how objectID is also known as fid, it was confusing. Also, my attribute table also did not look like how the book showed.

4.3 – This section was really hard for me to understand, I feel like it took me way longer than it should have.

4.4 – I liked this tutorial because I feel like this will be good to know in the future. 

4.5 – I also liked this tutorial because it will be nice to know in the future. I also find graduated symbols interesting so it was fun to see a new way to use them.

4.6 – This section was interesting because I had to apply my knowledge from the first part of the chapter and it was fun to see what I am able to do with loose instruction.

5.1 – It was interesting to see the different map projections that are used. 

5.2 – This section feels like 5.1, it was also interesting for the same reason. 

5.3 – I liked getting out of the GIS software and going back to the arcgis.com to learn new ways to utilize the website within the software. However, a lot of this section was redundant with just having to check which coordinate system a lot of the different layers were using. 

5.4 – In the contents pane, there was no right click option for Display XY data, instead, i had to use XY Table To Point in Geoprocessing to get the same results 

5.5 – Column JK is “Estimate!!Female!!Workers16yearsandover!!PLACE OF WORK!!Not living in a place – column EG was the right column

• Column SE was not the right one for female, IQ 
• I did up until Join data and create a choropleth map. I could not for the life of me figure out how to export the data into Chapter5.gdb and was not able to continue through the section because of that

5.6 – After downloading the data for Bicycle Count, and converting to points, it says that there is an error for every data point and it won’t let me create a graduated symbol layer because of it.

6.1 – This section is cool because it combines stuff from previous chapters while adding new details to them. 

6.2 – I like the select by location filter, it was really fun to use.

6.3 – The Merge feature tool is really easy to use, but I had a hard time finding it at first and tried to use the wrong Merge tool. 

6.4 – I feel the same way about 6.4 that I do about 6.3. The Append tool really easy to use, but it was hard to find due to the kinds of append tools. 

6.5 – It was cool to see a new type of tool, however, I don’t know in what other context I would be able to use this tool. 

6.6 – This section was interesting, but my Calculate Geometry Attributes tool settings didn’t line up with what the book was saying, but it was close enough where I was able to still figure it out. 

6.7 – I feel like a lot of these sections are doing the same thing, I know they aren’t, however, all of the tools are getting conjoined in my head because of how similar they are and I will have to go back in the book to differentiate between them.  

 

7.1 – I really like the move feature. It’s cool how you are able to just pick up a polygon. 

7.2 – I also liked this section, it was it was simple but definitely useful information to know

7.3 – Smoother features tool adds a better appearance to the map and it is fun to do. However, I don’t like how it makes a new feature instead of just changing the original one. 

7.4 – I have used AutoCAD in the past, and it was interesting to see how it can be used inside of ArcGIS.

8.1 – This section was interesting to see and do because of the amount of data points that it has, it was cool to sort and fix zip codes.

8.2 – I feel similarly about this section and 8.1, it was fun to play around with the different address points. 

Chapter 4: 

• 4.1– This was pretty straightforward and easy to understand. I learned how to create a new project and add necessary data. 
• 4.2– This started off strong but then I couldn’t find how to turn off base maps. I struggled to find the information in the tracts portion of this section. Therefore I just continued on to the next portion. I didn’t understand this tutorial, I think I might have messed something up or didn’t understand the wordings. 
• 4.3– This was a good section and it went smoothly. I felt that I was able to get a grasp of the concepts and what was happening. 
• 4.4– Short and easy. I was able to input the correct attributes and get the correct table. 
• 4.5– Easy to understand and straightforward. My map looked like it was supposed to and I feel confident in my ability to use this type of information. 
• 4.6– This section was easy to understand and wasn’t too difficult. 

Chapter 5: 

• 5.1– This was really cool to see the change from a flat map to a curved map of the world. 
• 5.2– I understood this section. I don’t know if this was just the program but when I would zoom in some of the states would disappear then reappear.
• 5.3– the beginning was easy. However once I got to the California UTM I couldn’t see anything on my screen. 
• 5.4– When I was working on the KML Data I got a notification at    the Geoprocessing layering failed. Not sure what went wrong. 
• 5.5– I struggled with the excel sheet. I couldn’t find the columns that were to be kept. For instance in Column JK it was (Estimate!!Female!!Workers 16 years and over!!..) whereas in the book it stated that Column JK Was (Male!!Estimate!!MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION TO WORK!!Bicycle). I couldn’t Finish this tutorial because I couldn’t get the data correct from the excel sheet resulting in me not being able to download and upload the file to ArcGIS Pro. 
• 5.6–  Straightforward and I understood the process of downloading shape files and inputting them into ArcGIS.

Chapter 6: 

• 6.1– I couldn’t do the pairing dissolve portion with the fire battalion. I am not sure why but It wasn’t running. I understood the process though. 
• 6.2– This wasn’t too difficult, however I did get stuck on the last portion. It wanted to pairwise cut but the correct file wasn’t on the dropdown menu therefore this process couldn’t be completed.
• 6.3– The process I am understanding but when I tried to merge the information for the waterparks, the system wouldn’t run the merge. I am not sure what I did wrong but I followed the previous directions. 
• 6.4– This section wasn’t too bad. I understood the concepts and found this easy to add the information into the attribute table. 
• 6.5–  This section was straightforward and I understood what I was working on.  
• 6.6–  I liked this section and it was going smoothly until the very end where I couldn’t merge the Brooklyn information together properly. 
• 6.7– Straightforward tutorial. I messed up with the running of the tool at the end but I figured out that I needed to select the file from the folder not just the dropdown menu.

Chapter 7: 

• 7.1– This one was easy and straightforward. I understood what was going on. 
• 7.2– This tutorial was going smoothly until I got to the part with the configure toolbar. I looked for it and couldn’t find it therefore I skipped that portion. After that the rest of the tutorial wasn’t too bad. 
• 7.3– Quick and easy. However when it got to your turn section I couldn’t figure out how to save the file into the folder. 
• 7.4– Pretty straightforward. However at the very end I couldn’t transform the building to the smaller version. The transform button didn’t show up. 

Chapter 8: 

• 8.1– I ran into an issue with the properties of the PARegion ZIP. However, after I smoothly got through the majority until getting to the rematching the addresses. I couldn’t figure out how to complete that because when I went through the steps it would just open the attribute table. Once I skipped over that step the rest of the tutorial went smoothly. 
• 8.2– This was straightforward and I understood the concepts.

ArcGIS Pro 3.1

Chapter 1 

I found the previous extent button, which is located in the navigation group, really helpful for jumping back to previous areas you were analyzing. This is a lot easier than trying to move the map around and relocate the area you were in.I also found the bookmark feature beneficial for the same reason. Something I notice about the street when zooming in is that they adjust along the road to the area that you are zooming into. This is helpful because if you are trying to analyze an area that is surrounded by certain streets, then you do not have to keep moving the map over to look at the road name, it automatically adjusts toward that area. I also thought that the shortcut of holding the ctrl key and clicking a checkbox to clear all the feature classes was helpful. The symbology feature, which you get to by right-clicking the feature class is also helpful for adjusting the shape, color, and size of symbols. I think my favorite part of this chapter was being able to convert the map from a 2D map to a 3D map. I think this could potentially be helpful if you needed to know information about the shape of a building or how tall it is compared to other buildings.

Chapter 2

This chapter went over a lot about the abilities and uses of the symbology pane. You can label the villages and rivers by right-clicking the feature classes and selecting labeling properties. This allows you to change symbol characteristics as well as set the values for the symbols. You can also import Symbology by selecting the stacked three lines( options) and clicking Import Symbology. I thought the swipe tool, which can be accessed by clicking the feature class, selecting the feature layer at the top of the screen, and clicking swipe in the compare group. This allows you to view the layer underneath the top layer by clicking and dragging the pointer across the screen. However, you can clear the swipe tool by selecting Explore underneath the map tab. I thought the dot density symbology was an interesting way to display data. I found it interesting that when the dot value was smaller, more dots were made, and when it was larger, there were less dots. I think this is because the dot value is the number of people each dot represents, which would explain why when the dot value is bigger, fewer dots are shown and vice versa.

Chapter 3:

I liked learning how to create a layout and add maps to it. This seems especially helpful to look at two maps side by side. A layout can be made by clicking insert, new layout, and selecting the type and size you want. The maps are added by selecting insert, clicking map frames, and selecting the default of the map you want to add. Then, you just create a box by dragging the mouse across the layout. The maps can be edited by right-clicking and selecting properties, which opens the element tab with map options. I also thought that using the rulers and added guides to help center and align the maps was a clever way to place the maps in line with each other. Legends can also be added to the map by clicking Insert, Legend, and selecting the legend you want. By clicking and dragging the mouse, you can add the legend to the map. I also liked the addition of the bar chart, which I feel could be helpful based on what data you are looking for. The bar chart can be made by clicking the feature class, clicking data at the top of the screen, and then selecting the create chart under the visualize group. Other charts are also available under the Create chart button. The third and fourth sections of this chapter have a lot a beneficial tools and tips for presenting your data as a story map. However, the amount of content in these chapters was very dense. It is definitely something I will want to go back and review again. 

Chapter 1

Once I finally figured out how to download the tutorial I have had a much smoother time working on the assignment. Chapter 1 took me about an hour to complete and I did not have any trouble. I thought the 3D model was really interesting and I really enjoyed being able to manipulate the map to explore how a map can look in 2D vs. 3D. Chapter 1 was pretty short. Once I got it open the manual has been pretty easy to understand and I haven’t had any problems so far.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 was much longer than the first chapter. It introduced me to conditional data and symbology. I feel like the big takeaway from this chapter was being able to edit the map so that it is more clear for the reader. I had a hard time with 2-4. I could not figure out how to do the label layering and I ended up skipping it because the words didn’t match up with the ArcGIS tool. I can feel myself getting more comfortable with the application and even noticed myself working ahead and changing the colors of certain points without being prompted.

Chapter 3

This chapter was my favorite one. I actually ended up deleting 3-1 on accident but when I redid it, it was much faster. As frustrated as I was when it happened, I think having to redo it actually made me more comfortable with the software. 3-2 has us upload to ArcGIS online. I could not sign into the pro version. It repeatedly gave me the popup that I did not have that type of account. I could not complete the rest of chapter three because it ended up locking my account for a certain time. I plan on returning once the time is up and if I still can’t figure it out, ask Dr. Krygier for help. I could sign in the ArcGIS online, it was very odd because I had signed in on ArcGIS Pro yesterday.