Geography 291: Geospatial Analysis with Desktop GIS

Chapter 9

First two sections went really well and they seemed very straightforward. I had a hard time finding the “Travel Settings group” in 9-3. I searched for it in the search bar and looked around and couldn’t find it. The picture in the book looked really cool so I was disappointed I couldn’t find it. The rest of the chapter was simple and I was able to finish it with no problems

Chapter 10

This was the longest section for me. I really had to muscle through the first two sections. When I got to the third I couldn’t get the ModelBuilder to work for me. I tried to skip that section but after that I think I was flustered and I just couldn’t figure out any of the other sections. I might revisit this one next week if I am stuck on the final and want to take a brain break.

Chapter 11

This one introduced 3D modeling which was very exciting. I didn’t run into any issues in this section. I had a hard time finding some of the panes because the tutorial assumed that I already knew. I wish I had taken notes or remembered where the different sections were. I had to use the search function a lot and sometimes that made it very clunky. Overall it was not too bad and I feel like I learned a lot in this chapter and through the whole book

Chapter 9

 

Chapter 9 was pretty simple and straightforward as it focused on spatial analysis and combining and interrupting data based on different locations. I ran into some issues finding some of the newer functions it asked me to use but I eventually was able to find them and continue on with the chapter.

 

Chapter 10

 

 For 10-1 I did not have the LandUse_Pgh file in my Chapter10.gdb so I couldn’t finish this tutorial. I am not sure why I am missing some of the downloaded data. This has been happening throughout these tutorials. 10-2 was straightforward and I was able to get through it pretty easy but 10-3 was difficult for me when I got to the point when you have to enter some expressions in the raster calculator and that did not work for me. I think I did a step wrong before that but I don’t know how to fix it. 

 

Chapter 11

 

This chapter focused on all things 3D in ArcGIS. I had some issues just because of the nature of the use of 3D but nothing too crazy. It is very cool to see things from this point of view, especially while using the program in exclusively 2D the past 3 weeks. 3D GIS is a bit daunting but these tutorials made it much simpler and easier to navigate and understand. 

Chapter 9

In this chapter, four spatial analytical methods were covered including buffers, service areas, facility location models, and clustering. The tutorials helped me understand how to use buffers for proximity analysis by running the pairwise buffer tool and multiple ring buffers. I was able to create service areas of facilities for calibrating a gravity model and locate facilities using ArcGIS Network Analyst. This chapter also taught me how to perform cluster analysis to explore multidimensional data.

Chapter 10

The tutorials had users process raster datasets to extract and symbolize maps and create hillshade maps. I learned how to make a kernel density map, or a heat map, as well as how to build a raster-based risk index model. It also required me to build a model for automatically creating risk indices. Throughout this chapter, I learned a lot about raster layers compared to vector features which we had been using previously. I found it useful when it taught me how to transform vector feature classes into raster datasets that could be visualized.

Chapter 11

In this chapter I found it useful that the tutorial had us explore global scenes and taught me how to design, visualize communicate, and analyze them. The tutorials also had me create local scenes, TIN surfaces, and z_enabled features from this I learned the difference between global and local scenes. It allowed me to create 3D buildings from the lidar data so that I could work with the 3D features. I also used procedural rules and multipatch models but the parts I found most interesting, useful, and fun were creating the trees and the animation.

9.1- Made first buffer easily. Done. 

9.2- Liked this one because I compared 9.1 and 9.2 together. 

9.3- Got to step 6 but couldn’t complete the tutorial because I couldn’t find the travel settings group button. I looked it up on google and the search bar on GIS. 

9.4- I got all the little green dots on the screen. (INCOMPLETE)

9.5- I liked changing the names and colors of the dots. I was able to do this one. 

 

10.1- Done. Saw the map shift colors and got different dimensions. 

10.2- Tried. Got done with the first part then couldn’t find the correct layer to symbolize. I tried every layer but couldn’t find one layer with all of the correct things to put in.

10.3- I tried entering the code into the raster calculator and double checked it but it didn’t work. I just entered the names and numbers, but it didn’t really work for the rest of the tutorial. So I just moved on to chapter 11. 

 

11.1- I liked playing with the different keys and changing the layout of the map. 

11.2- Followed the book but some of my map was cut off. Probably a small mistake I made. But I was able to finish this tutorial. 

11.3- Favorite tutorial yet. Made the trees. 

11.4- The first part of this looked cool with the little dots making up the buildings. I also liked creating the bridge. 

11.5- Done. Interesting to see the different layers in both buildings. 

11.6- Struggled a little bit but finished. I liked looking at the street view. 

11.7- Making the short animation was really cool because you got a mini tour of the city. 

 

Chapter 9

9.1: This was just using the clustering tool, very easy.

9.2: The first half of the tutorial was very straightforward and easy but when using the spatial tool I was having trouble using the output field.

9.3: I had the same issues as 9.2, the spatial tool was hard to navigate, I am not sure if updating the software will fix it or not.

9.4: This part was very similar to the rest of the chapter with just changing the map to be able to read it better.

9.5: This part was very straight forward, just changing the symbols names and indicators.

Chapter 10

10.1: This was the longest tutorial of the chapter but it was very easy to follow after the first part which I had difficulty with. This section does involve a few new tools.

10.2: This tutorial was very easy, just introducing new tools to get familiar with. I am not super familiar with the singular tool or clustering tool yet but these sections have definitely helped.

10.3: This section proved to be very long and gave me some difficulty with the coding. I could not figure out how to connect the raster calculator to everything else.

Chapter 11

11.1: This tutorial introduced the 3d view for the map, was very short and easy to follow. 

11.2: This tutorial is very easy to follow. It is very similar to 11.1. 

11.3: The use of the 3d features are very cool. The section was again very similar to the last two. 

11.4: This section was cool building things but my outcome did not look like the books so I am sure something went wrong.

11.5: The slider tool on this tutorial was very interesting, this was a very interesting tutorial to use. 

11.6: The street 3d view was very interesting and I enjoyed doing it.

11.7: This section tied the chapter together, it was definitely hard at first but I learned a lot. 

 

9-1 : I was able to follow this tutorial perfectly fine, but I’m not really sure what it means.

9-2: Same as the previous tutorial.

9-3: I got a couple error messages when I tried right click UseRate and clicked Calculate Field. I’m assuming it’s because I typed in the expression wrong, maybe I put spaces when I shouldn’t have. I believe this inhibited me from making a scatterplot, as when I typed in the X and Y axis fields, there was no button to apply or even in the Edit tab i wasn’t able to save. So I was unable to completely finish the project.

9-4: I thought this tutorial was really interesting. The lines connecting pools and demand points are a fun way of visualizing on a map.

9-5: I liked the background of this tutorial. Mapping crimes, especially violent ones, are really important and its cool to see in real time how you can define the data to make it more understandable.

10-1: I don’t have “LandUse_Pgh” in my files, only “LandUse_Pgh.tif”. So, I have the land use for a good distance around pittsburgh instead of just the city itself. Actually, another time I tried to find it in the geoprocessing pane it was there. Sometimes files just don’t show up for me. I also don’t have NED_Pittsburgh, just NED. In the end, my tutorial looks just like the one from the book, except the Pittsburgh outline disappeared somewhere along the way and everything I did to the map didn’t just go inside the Pittsburgh limits.

10-2: I thought that this tutorial was interesting. Learning how to make a heat map seems pretty cool.

10-3: This tutorial was really long for me. I was able to do it all though, except for the fact that the poverty index model goes outside the Pittsburgh borders. Not sure why that happens to me so much. This was really complicated but seems useful.

11-1: It was fun playing around on this tutorial. The exploration was interesting.

11-2: Similar to the last tutorial.

11-3: I don’t see the “Get Z From View” button. I also don’t have the cute trees the book has but it is a fun tool to know.

11-4: This tutorial was also interesting to do. Creating the buildings out of thin air was cool. I definitely messed up somewhere along the way though because I didn’t get the proper sightline at the end.

11-5: Not too sure how many uses these tools have, other than scale I guess.

11-6:  This tutorial was super fun. The end product, the Smithfield street 3D, was cool to explore and the little planters, trash cans, and fire hydrants were cute.

11-7:Ok this one was cool. This chapter in general showed a lot of little things to make the viewing and creating experience more fun. It is taking a very long time to export the movie though which is a little annoying since it is only a draft and not that long in length.

9.1 – I thought we had learned how to use the buffer tool before, maybe I just remember reading about it or just seeing it in a different chapter’s tutorial. 

9.2 – I think this section is really cool. It’s really helpful to be able to select within a buffer to help narrow down data more. 

• I don’t think i was able to do the section section of this tutorial properly, I was not able to find the output fields or merge rule part of the spatial join tool, I did my best to find what seemed equivalent but it does not look right 

9.3 – My Polygons_Tags_Pop attribute able did not have a name section, so I did what I could following it but my stuff is a little wanky. 

9.4 – This section was the easiest to do because the book actually was following along nicely with the software. I also think it is cool that we can locate facilities so easily.

9.5 –  I think knowing how to analyze and use clusters will be very helpful in the future of my GIS career.

10.1 – I really enjoyed this section, it’s cool to be able to create stereotypical features I used to think of when I thought about mapping. 

10.2 – When I ran my symbology pane for heart attack density it didn’t stay within the area and went to the whole map and I am not sure why.

10.3 – I was not able to get multiple parts of this section to work, and the sections followed off of each other so I was not able to complete the entire section. 

• My FHHChildren field was not able to be made correctly
• I could not calculate ZFHHCHld = (!FHHChildren! – 45.2) / 66.8 because it said FHHChildren did not exist 
• the kernel density tool would not drag into multiple areas on my screen, and because of that I was not able to complete the rest of this section

11.1 – This section was fun to play around with, 3d renditions are really cool and I’m excited to work with them now 

11.2 – I don’t really understand the difference between local view and global view. 

• I followed the directions for the symbology and it didn’t look the same

11.3 – I think the trees are cute and I will like putting 3d objects in later projects

11.4 – This section was challenging in a good way, it was rewarding to see my buildings pop up. 

11.5 – Using scale is more simple than I thought it would be.

11.6 – Creating the building was interesting, but I feel like turning on a street layer just to see planters was sort of pointless. 

11.7 – This section was the most interesting from the book – I had no clue GIS could be used for things like this.

NOTE: internet was not being nice to me when I uploaded this, so there are no pictures of progress right now. I will add those ASAP when BishopNet agrees with me

 

Gassert week 5

 

Ch.4

 

4.1: Just an intro to the geodatabase files. Relatively easy to follow along with this.

 

4.2: Still learning how to use the contents panes correctly. If you make a mistake, it’s very difficult to try and go back to fix it. The book did not match up with the software, making the calculations wrong.

 

4.3: “Attribute queries” that label what and when of something, time/date/day, and people. The SQL button is used to show the criteria selected.

 

4.4: Intro to the aggregation of the data with spatial joints. I was able to figure this out pretty easy.

 

4.5: We sort of did this in the week 4 tutorials, adding shapes to show data. This was familiar.

 

4.6: This also felt similar to an earlier tutorial from week 4. Was easier to do this now that I recognized the instructions and the software.

 

Ch. 5

 

5.1: Used coordinates to look at a map projection. I didn’t know that the lines on this kind of map was called a graticule.

 

5.2: Used similar setup to look at a map of the US rather than the whole world. 

 

5.3: Sort of similar to the previous two examples, except this was more specific to a smaller area.

 

5.4: Showed how to use vector data. Showed how to utilize X,Y coordinates and how to add it to the map.

 

5.5: Calculating stuff is not my strongsuit. I decided to try and come back to this and 5.6 later.

 

5.6: I did come back to this and 5.5 and my brain stopped working.

 

Ch.6

 

6.1: Used the “pairwise dissolve tool” to generate groups. 

 

6.2: Used the clip tool to select a specific area. Pretty self explanatory.

 

6.3: Not sure if there was a book discrepancy, but this didn’t work right. There was an error message (which others seemed to encounter too).

 

6.4: Used append tool to merge data

 

6.5: Showed more depth to the merge data part and how it can be used to show streets in divisions.

 

6.6: Merged data from tables. Fairly quick and simple.

 

6.7: Used the intersection tool. Pretty easy to follow along on the application.

 

Ch. 7

 

7.1: This shows how to edit features and shapes on a map. I feel like this could have been in an earlier tutorial rather than now. I wish I had this knowledge a week or two ago.

 

7.2: Same as 7.1, I wish I knew how to create feature classes myself sooner in more straightforward words.

 

7.3: This took a hot minute to load for me, but it eventually worked. 

 

7.4: REALLY didn’t want to load. I think the connection was bad today or something. I’d like to come back and try it again to see if it works on a day it’s not storming.

 

Ch. 8

 

8.1: Seeing this chapter was only two sections was so relieving. The book tells you what tool does what and why it’s there, which I wish the book did way before now. This gave details about how to use geocoding with zip codes.

 

8.2: This made slightly less sense than 8.1, but I figured out that it wants me to use geocoding for street addresses.

Chapter 9: 

• 9.1– Straightforward. I understood the applications. 
• 9.2– Pretty easy and straightforward, similar to the 9.1 application. 
• 9.3– In this tutorial I was having trouble changing the color of the polygons to the chips colors. I ended up changing them to a blue variation but didn’t understand where to find the needed color scheme. Once I got the calculate field in the polygon table I kept getting an error message and I don’t know what was going wrong. I couldn’t figure out how to continue once I got the error message. 
• 9.4– Easy tutorial. I understood the steps and application. 
• 9.5– I understood the contents of this tutorial. 

Chapter 10: 

• 10.1– Straightforward and easy to understand. 
• 10.2– When I put the symbology information in my map it had different colors than the book stated. This tutorial wasn’t too bad once I found where certain tools and applications were. 
• 10.3– Straightforward until. I got confused once I had to put in the expressions for the raster calculator. Therefore, I had to stop because I got confused and couldn’t figure out how to continue.
• 

Chapter 11: 

• 11.1– This tutorial was really cool to see the 3D dimensions and how to move the map in different ways. 
• 11.2– This was straightforward and I understood the process. It was interesting to see different layer colors. 
• 11.3– The create features tool wasn’t working and I wasn’t sure what was happening. Because of this I wasn’t able to fully complete the section. 
• 11.4–  Towards the end I couldn’t find the bridges in the created features. I was able to finish the tutorial but by the end portion my line of sight wouldn’t become 3D and I couldn’t figure out how to change that. 
• 11.5– This tutorial went smoothly and was really cool to see the scaling aspect. 
• 11.6– This tutorial was going smoothly until I got the symbology pane. I was struggling to find this information. I was able to complete the rest of the tutorial. 
• 11.7– This was easy to understand and  really cool to see the animations. 

Delaware Data

• Survey– This is a shape file that combines data from the recorder’s office and the map department. It was stated that the points on the map illustrate the survey plats.
• MSAG– This data is known as the master street address guide. This data illustrates the 28 different political jurisdictions. This is used to find and analyze boundaries. 
• Parcel– This is data for the cadastral parcel lines in Delaware. These are represented by polygons. 
• Precinct– This data illustrates the voting precincts that are compiled by the county auditor’s office. Data is updated as needed. 
• Condo– This data shows all the condominiums in Delaware that are illustrated by polygons.
• Address Point– This data has all the certified addresses in Delaware. This data helps with emergency response, accident reporting and more. 
• Annexation– This is the annexation and conforming boundaries. This data goes back from 1853. 
• Tax District– This data shows all the tax districts that are determined by the Auditor’s Real Estate Office. Data is updated on a need basis and published monthly.  
• GPS– This file has data from 1991-1997 for the GPS monuments. 
• School District– This data shows the school districts in Delaware. The data comes from the Delaware County Auditor parcel records.
• Zip Code– This shape file has all the zip codes in Delaware County. This shape file is published monthly to provide up to date information. 
• Municipality– This is all of the municipalities in Delaware County. 
• Subdivision– This data contains subdivisions and condos that are in Delaware County. Data is published monthly and updated daily. 
• Building Outline 2021– This data has all of the building structures and was updated in 2021 and again in April 2023. 
• Delaware County E911 Data– This data is to help with the emergency response and accident reporting for Delaware County. This data shows the coordinates in relations to 911 agencies. 
• Township– This data is the 19 different townships that are in Delaware which are updated on a need-basis. 
• Recorded Document– This data is compiled of various information from surveys to boundaries and housing classification. This data is published monthly with weekly changes.
• Farm Lots– This shows all the farm lots for the US Military and the Virginia Military Survey Districts. 
• PLSS– This is the Public Land Survey System which shows the US Military and Virginia Military Survey Districts and certain boundaries. 
• Dedicated ROW– This data has the right of way information within Delaware County.
• Hydrology– This data shows the major waterways in Delaware County.
• 

Chapter 9

9-1 This tutorial was fairly simple and straightforward. I was glad that I was successfully able to add the buffers and tables in this tutorial since I had issues with it in some of the previous tutorials.

9-2 I had no issues with the first half of the tutorial. I think the multiple ring buffers were easy to apply and seemed to cut down the amount of work you’d have to do to create multiple buffers of varying distances from the same subject. However, when using the Spatial Join tool I was unable to find the ‘output fields’ option, which meant the results of running the tool were not what I was supposed to get.

9-3 Once again, the first half of the tutorial went smoothly but I ended up stuck at the same point as in tutorial 9-2. I retried several times to use the Spatial Join tools, following the instructions on the book, but I was never provided with an option to ‘output fields’ and therefore also not a ‘merge rule’ setting. I compared my screen to ones online and mine was missing an entire input box, which was supposed to be located under the fields category.

9-4 This tutorial went pretty quickly and was easy to understand the process of. The end results look professional and clean, so I could see it being used for many different types of projects.

9-5 I was able to do this tutorial without many issues. I think the clusters and labeling groups is pretty similar to processes that were in previous tutorials. It also seems like it could be a pretty good tool to know how to use in the future.

Chapter 10

10-1 This tutorial was lengthy but easy for me to understand, despite the initial tutorial screen being a bit overwhelming at first. I was able to follow along all the different parts and think that the book did a great job of teaching how to use many different tools and visual effects in a singular tutorial.

10-2 Similar to 10-1, I think this tutorial was fairly easy to follow. I did get a little lost with the purpose of some of these tools or what they meant, but I’m sure that I’d be able to gain understanding by looking through the tutorial again.

10-3 I encountered one issue when doing the ‘calculate field’ option for the PittsburghBlkGroups table, as it sent me a warning sign after I ran it and left the ZFHHChld column as all ‘null’. I believe it may have been an issue with entering the information below the Fields List, but I’m not sure how I’d fix it. However, this didn’t seem to impact the rest of this tutorial because I was able to follow the rest of the directions smoothly. I think it was a good introduction to the complex ModeBuilder tool, which seems very useful.

Chapter 11

11-1 This tutorial helped me learn how to navigate the map in a 3-D view, which was really neat to look at. It was a fairly short and simple tutorial.

11-2 I also didn’t run into any major issues for this tutorial. Once again I find the 3-D maps entertaining, and this one only being a manipulable slice of land was fun to work with.

11-3 This tutorial was also short and simple. The ability to add 3-D features is both cool and useful, along with being relatively simple to implement. I could see using this for planning placement of objects or for visualization purposes on the map.

11-4 This tutorial took a bit longer than the other ones from chapter 11, but it also held a lot of information about using and manipulating rasters and 3-D models of buildings. It was very cool to see the model build itself up and the city unfold from a dataset. I didn’t have any major issues or concerns when completing this tutorial.

11-5 I didn’t have any issues with this tutorial and was able to understand it pretty well. I think the slider feature to navigate between floors was probably my favorite feature highlighted in this tutorial, but I can see how visually interesting and useful all the other parts of this tutorial are too.

11-6 The only issue I had with this tutorial was that my building was stuck appearing very short (it looked like the roof was the first and only floor) despite typing in the settings exactly as the book said. Everything else both appeared and functioned properly and the building manipulation features are pretty interesting. Before doing this chapter I was unaware that ArcGIS had this many options for building appearance and placement.

11-7 The animation and movie feature is very cool- it’s something that I never would have expected to be able to do directly in the GIS program. The animation was also surprisingly smooth between frames (I was expecting a slideshow) and very easy to create.