Geography 291: Geospatial Analysis with Desktop GIS

Chapter 4

4.1 I had a little trouble when I was inputting my data because I couldn’t see my contents tab. Eventually I figured it out and was able to open the tab. Because I tried so many times to import the data, I had to delete a few files that were duplicates. 

4.2 I had a small issue with calculating the GEOIDNum column. The book says that the expression should read “GEOIDNum = !GEOID10!” but when the system created it, the “10” did not autofill, so I wrote it in myself. This gave me an error so I just took out the 10 and it worked fine. I also had a small issue when calculating the TractName but it was a quick fix. I just had to click “Apply” instead of “Ok.”

4.3 I had to go back and redo work a few times in this section. I don’t know if it was me, or if the directions were unclear, but I kept messing up.

 

4.4  This section was very easy for me. It was quick and simple.

4.5 This section was also pretty quick and easy. I tried to figure out how to increase the point size of the burglaries by neighborhood because they seemed too small to be useful… but I couldn’t figure out how to change the size. 

4.6 I almost immediately got stuck in this section. Once I went to the fields design view, I wasn’t able to edit the field to add any new fields (this was instruction from the “Your Turn” part). I couldn’t figure out how to add a field so I just moved on. The rest of the section went fine.

Chapter 5

5.1 The first thing I noticed about the world map was the lack of great lakes in the US 🙁 There are SO many different map projections!!!

5.2 I am surprised again at how many different map projections there are. When I clicked on different projections within Continental, North America, it would always load very slowly and look like the below image for a few seconds before fully processing. 

5.3 This whole section went pretty smoothly until the “Your Turn” section. Those are hard for me sometimes just because of the lack of detail. I got through it eventually though.

5.4 This section was fine. My favorite part was taking the color out of the NYSchoolDistricts Polygon.

5.5 This section was a bit frustrating. I couldn’t figure out which columns to keep (they did not match up to what the book said). After asking Krygier, he was able to share what Liberty found (thank goodness) and then it was no problem. After that, this section didn’t really get any easier. I had trouble using the Calculate Field tool and kept getting an error when I would run it.  

5.6  When I zoomed in and out, it took a while for the data to fill the page. It was very slow. It was fun to play with the other files in the Atlas. The “old timey labels” were cool. The later part of this section felt a little difficult because it wasn’t as specific with the directions, but I guess it made me figure it out and learn more. 

Chapter 6

6.1 This part went smoothly. At the end, when I had to symbolize the ManhattanFireBattalions with graduated colors, I was confused for a minute because I forgot how to change from single symbol to graduate colors. Then I remembered and it was fine. I couldn’t figure out the very last part, though; labeling the battalions. 

6.2 This section was not fun.

6.3 This part was nice and short and easy. I did have a little trouble with the “Your Turn” section though.

6.4 Loved this section. It was so simple and quick!

6.5 This was also a pretty straightforward section.

6.6 This section was fine. I forgot how to join the fields for a minute, but then I remembered.

6.7 It was cool to be able to use two maps and investigate how they relate to each other. 

Chapter 7

7.1 This section was fine. It was easy to play around with the edit tool to match the building up correctly. I didn’t have any problems until using the split tool. Mine looked a bit different than the books and I’m not sure if it worked. I think I did it right though because the next section went smoothly.

7.2 Doing the your turn section, I couldn’t figure out how to place the bus stop symbols. It took a minute of clicking around, but eventually I found it.

7.3 It was cool to see the shapes get smoothed out. I anticipate being able to use this tool in the future.

7.4 This part was very cool. Matching the edges up in order to make the figure smaller was cool.

Chapter 8

8.1 I forgot to save my file right away so the original file is gone. Oops! I liked this section though. While I completed it all ok, I feel like I might have not fully understood this section. 

8.2 This section was also a bit confusing and I’m not sure if I fully comprehended it. Yay I’m done!

Chapter 4

4-1 This tutorial had a different start than the others, which at first confused I was able to gain understanding pretty quickly. I got stuck for a while but then was able to figure out my mistakes after I started it over.

4-2 Similar issues to tutorial 1; I had to restart due to the tribute tables missing information and some other minor issues that added up pretty quickly. However, after restarting I was able to retrace my steps and figure out where I went wrong.

4-3 This tutorial was much easier than the first two and used some concepts that I was familiar with from previous tutorials. I think overall it went very smoothly.

4-4 This tutorial was really short and simple. It was fun seeing the information displayed in an easy-to-read manner.

4-5 Similar to 4-4, this tutorial built upon previously mentioned concepts and I found it to be pretty easy and comprehensible.

4-6 I ended up getting stuck on this one simply because my data tab was missing and I couldn’t access the features that I needed to complete the fields for the UCRHierarchyCode table. Most likely it was a mistake on my part, but I wasn’t able to figure out where I went wrong.

Chapter 5

5-1 This tutorial was really short and simple- I had no issues and thought that seeing the different world projections was interesting.

5-2 I was able to complete this tutorial without any issues. It was very similar to the 5-1 tutorial but did help make the point that the projections only made a massive difference on a global scale and not nearly as much on a continental or regional scale.

5-3 This tutorial also went smoothly. I was a little confused about the lack of instructions on how to ‘add tracts’ until I realized that I actually remembered how to from a previous tutorial. It was pretty uplifting to see that I remembered and was able to execute the task with so little description (even if it wasn’t a very large task).

5-4 While I was able to navigate through some issues regarding not being able to locate files, I did get stuck because I could not locate the ‘Display XY Data ‘ under the right-click options for the libraries table.However, I was able to do the part after it (converting the KML file to a feature) without any trouble.

5-5 I was able to add most of the files (CountySubdivisions, MinnesotaTracts, and the HennepinWater ones) but the BikeWorkData never showed up in my census folder after I extracted it in the same way I did the others. This confused me because I had no issues with the other ones, but the BikeData one was missing.

5-6 The masking ability was really cool. The contrast between the county and the surrounding areas made it easy to focus on patterns present within Hennepin. However, later on in the tutorial, I had the same issue as I did in the last one where my file wasn’t in the place where I extracted it.

Chapter 6

6-1 At first I was a little uncertain that I was doing this tutorial correctly, but then when I compared my results with the one the book provides as an example I realized that I was actually on the right track.

6-2 This tutorial was pretty straightforward and I was able to work through it smoothly until the very end, during which I couldn’t figure out how to save the the streets for the ‘select by location’ section as the “UpperWestSideStreetsForGeocoding”

6-3 This tutorial was a short and simple way to explain how to use the merge tool. I found it very helpful and understood it very clearly with no issues.

6-4 Similar to 6-3, this tutorial is short and an easy-to-understand way to teach the functions and purpose of the ‘append’ tool.

6-5 I could see how the tool that this tutorial focused on, the Pairwise Intersect Tool, could be useful. Like the previous two, this tutorial was short and simple and I found it pretty comprehensive.

6-6 This tutorial went decently smoothly until the very end. I realized that I’ve had issues joining tables in the past tutorials that demanded it, so I’ll have to do further investigation as to why this is a recurring problem for me. However, other than the issues I ran into I found this tutorial pretty informative.

6-7 I didn’t run into any major concerns during this tutorial. I was able to navigate pretty accurately when comparing to the book and my tables were matched and organized in the same way.

Chapter 7

7-1 This tutorial went smoothly and was actually a little fun. Moving the outlines of the buildings onto their actual shape/location was like a puzzle. It was also a really efficient way to get familiar with new features while still being interesting.

7-2 This tutorial was a little bit more time consuming, but did a good job outlining the creation, manipulation, and deleting of polygons. I was able to create the polygons and feature classes pretty easily and I think the book did a good job at walking you through it with images.

7-3 This tutorial was short and simple. I had no issues with it and could see how this tool could be used to make information more presentable, clean, and professional-looking.

7-4 Besides my building being a bit further than the study area buildings baseman in comparison to the tutorial, I was still able to follow along all the steps and get a result that I’m pretty satisfied with.

Chapter 8

8-1 The only issue that I had with this tutorial was that at the very end the collect events tool sent the message “Collect Events failed”. I compared my input and output to what the book stated and they matched exactly, so I was a little confused as to where I went wrong.

8-2 Other than a few minor mistakes, I think the final tutorial for chapter 8 went pretty well. My circles representing the attendees appear a little clunky, but I think that they still get the message across and are close enough to what the book illustrates.

Chapter 4-  This chapter dealt a lot with incorporating databases and data tables into ArcGIS Pro. This was the first chapter where we created our own map at the beginning instead of starting with one of the templates and preset data/feature classes. I think that creating the folder connections was slightly confusing and that I may have messed this part up slightly because my map did not look quite the same as the picture in the book. I think this part of the book is helpful because it teaches you how to import data sets and isolate variables to look at data easily. The first part of this chapter also showed me how to join a feature class attribute table with a data table. Once you join these two, you can then calculate the sums, and in the tutorial, I was able to calculate the percentage of the population that is less than 20 years old. Again, I think this is a really efficient way of isolating certain portions of the dataset that are more relevant to what you may be interested in. The ending of the second tutorial was slightly confusing, as it was coding in Python, which I have very little experience with, but I tried my best and followed the book closely to perform these actions. Some of the commands and buttons that the book mentioned were not in my Contents pane, so some of the tutorials were a little difficult. Also, this chapter went over how to make a date-range selection query and how to save it and use it later. This action selects certain points that fall within the date range specified. I also created a query for crime types, which selected only certain types of crime from the entire dataset. The queries can be used for a multitude of things, and the book even went over how to search for a specific person who committed a crime based on specific attributes. This chapter also built on knowledge from a previous tutorial and had me make a choropleth map, which I had to turn back a few chapters to remind myself how. I also reviewed how to make graduated symbols on a map. 

Chapter 5- This chapter went over map projections and different coordinate systems. Some of the tutorials were pretty short and just went over basic actions like how to change the coordinate systems, so this chapter went by pretty fast. Also, many of these tutorials went over how to use government databases to download geospatial data into ArcGIS and then project the data on the map. I was able to extract the raster features for Hennepin County and display land use and water features (although I think my screenshot of this map may have been left behind on one of the computers in the lab). As many other people have mentioned, the 5-5 and 5-6 tutorials were a bit messed up, and I was actually able to locate the correct columns in the Excel spreadsheet, but for some reason, my spreadsheet would not import correctly and display in ArcGIS, so I’m not sure what was going on. One thing I have noticed as I’m moving through these tutorials is that ArcGIS Pro updates very frequently, but the textbooks are not able to keep up with these updates quick enough, so many times the directions do not entirely match the locations and names of commands on ArcGIS. Other than the hiccup with the database, I was able to move through chapter 5 well. 

Chapter 6- Chapter 6 took a little time because I had to be really particular when manipulating the data to dissolve the block groups. Chapter 6 overall went a little more in-depth about the variety of tools available on ArcGIS Pro, like the Pairwise Dissolve tool, Clip, and some others to either combine or clip certain parts of the map to study them better. I was having trouble with some of the steps in Chapter 6-2, in the Your Turn section where we had to use the Select by Location tool to find where Manhattan Streets intersected with another layer. I think I played around with all of the options in the Select By Location section to the point where it at least looked like the picture in the book, and that was the closest I could get. Also, this chapter went over how to merge feature classes, and I was able to merge the bodies of water within New York City and all the waterfront parks in New York City. Another tool that I learned to use in this chapter was the Union tool, and I was able to calculate the total areas and acreage selected using this tool. Overall, I think this chapter was a little challenging, but it gave me a better understanding of some of the geoprocessing tools in ArcGIS Pro. 

Chapter 7- I actually really enjoyed the content in chapter 7, so this chapter seemed to move by really fast for me. This chapter went over some cartography skills and how to edit polygon features so that they fit the basemap better. Sometimes, the building polygons are not quite in the right spot, so you have to manually select them and move them to be in the right spot. Other times, you have to add vertices or rotate the polygon so that it fits well. I was having a little bit of trouble with the vertex points when I had to cut out some of the polygons in a U-shaped building, and the points weren’t placing initially, but I got it after repetitively clicking for a while. Also, sometimes polygons can be in one big massive shape over 2 different buildings, so you have to manually split the polygon and go into the attribute tables to add in the two specific names of the buildings. This chapter let us practice creating a feature class again, then we got to actually create polygons over oddly shaped parking lots. Cartography tools like the Smoothing Tolerance were also used to smooth the edges of grassy areas and ponds/lakes when the edges are a bit harsher than they are in real life. I had a bit of trouble rotating the building in chapter 7-4, but I was able to do the rest of the tutorial where I classified the layers.

Chapter 8- This chapter was very short and only had two tutorials that were both pretty easy. This chapter mainly went over geocoding and we were working with very large sets of data. Essentially, this chapter went over how to rematch addresses from a datasheet. I was surprised that it had data in Ohio too! Again, there’s not much to write about in this chapter other than the tutorials were pretty easy to understand and we were able to work with some ZIP codes and manipulate the symbology again.

Chapter 4

• 4.1-4.2: Incredibly confusing and frustrating, there were too many different instructions to browse to different folders that I didn’t even know existed or was extremely difficult to navigate this part Could not complete these parts as they all act as one part and towards the end of 4.1, the gdb files stopped displaying properly or were corrupted and I was unable to find the cause and didn’t want to restart after attempting to solve the problem for about three hours.
• 4.3: Still long and too many things to keep track of, but I was able to get an idea of creating data ranges. This part of the chapter also broke around ¾ of the way through though and despite doing what the instructions said verbatim, the attributes table was not displaying the correct numbers.
• 4.4: Short and to the point, a nice refresher from the other ones. I had forgotten how to make colored maps though so I had to relearn that part quickly.
• 4.5: Easy to do, but I still don’t have a clue what a ‘centroid’ is given that the book doesn’t attempt to make any of the definitions in layman’s terms.
• 4.6: Discusses joining different datasets for use in tables. Again not entirely sure what that entails but I got it done somehow.

Chapter 5:

• 5.1: Discusses different coordinate systems used over time and how to change the appearance of a map based on the circumstances.
• 5.2: Very short, not entirely sure what changed by switching to the Albers equal area projection.
• 5.3: It is very interesting to see the opaque white layer over the actual map and watching where things such as roads and rivers intersect on the covering layer.
• 5.4: Adding the X/Y data was almost impossible as it’s listed elsewhere from what it says in the book. Seeing the completed overlay was interesting though.
• 5.5: Discusses adding US census data to a table. Unable to finish as some of the listed excel files in the book did not exist in the file.
• 5.6: While using the raster data to create a legend of land use in the US was interesting, like several other chapter tutorials, this one also did not work as the Raster file was too large for the program to handle, even when extracting it from Living Atlas like the textbook instructed.

Chapter 6

• 6.1: Not particularly interesting nor did I really understand what the section was trying to teach me.
• 6.2: The select feature and seeing the outlined blue zones was interesting, but I did get stuck at the end when it wanted me to ‘select intersecting streets’.
• 6.3: It is cool, if not somewhat satisfying, to be able to merge the individual water sections into one layer.
• 6.4: Short and to the point, I understand adding data to the attributes data as shown.
• 6.5: Another straightforward section in which I felt for the most part that I knew what was going on.
• 6.6: Aside from a small issue when joining the table, this section went fairly smoothly.
• 6.7: Very straight to the point, though I’m not entirely sure what changed or happened in this section.

Chapter 7

• 7.1: Short, straightforward, and easy to understand. Cool to be able to pick up a ‘location’ and move/rotate its outline to match with the structure.
• 7.2: Took a long time to figure out since there is no transparency slider but also making an outline isn’t as simple as connecting points as it creates an area for you so that required some trial and error. The snapping tool also did not match perfectly with the streets and only made straight lines.
• 7.3: Very short and easy, not much else to say.
• 7.4: Took me way too long to figure out what I was doing with the linking but I got there. Also side note but the shown building has an uncanny resemblance to Stuy Hall.

Chapter 8

• 8.1: Had a couple of bumps getting to do what it wanted me to do but otherwise all was fairly straightforward. Interesting to see just how much data there actually is. Adding zip code dots to the map was also kinda cool as well as zooming out and seeing the overall map with all the red dots and clusters.
• 8.2: Followed on and expanded on some of what was done in the previous section. Again, lots of data to work with that makes it a little confusing. Not entirely sure what I did as it all felt somewhat like a repeat of 8.1

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.