EVSC 362/562 :
Geographic Information System Methods
(Introduction to GIS)
Summer 2008
.............
David Richardson, Instructor
Cheney Shreve , Teaching Assistant
Full Course Description, Structure, and Policies
Be sure to check the Announcements FREQUENTLY
to see if any glitches in the homework instructions have been found and fixed!!!
Goto:
Announcements
Lecture Notes
Homework Assignments
Tenative Weekly Syllabus / Lecture Notes
WEEK ONE - (readings/tutorials: gtkArcGIS ch.1-8,18-19 + Lo&Yeung ch.1,3)
WEEK TWO - (readings/tutorials: gtkArcGIS ch.14-16,9,13 + Lo&Yeung ch.6,2)
WEEK THREE - (readings/tutorials: gtkArcGIS ch.10-12 + Lo&Yeung ch.5
excluding section 5.3)
WEEK FOUR - (readings/tutorials: Lo&Yeung ch.4,5.3 )
Homework Projects and Supplemental Exercises
- Homework Project #1:
Exploring the GIS data of UVA's three biological field stations
(BEF, MLBS, VCR-LTER)
View as a HTML or
MS Word document.
Homework Project #2:
Data Editing 101: Bringing CAD-based survey plat data into ArcGIS:
an example from MLBS
View as a HTML or
MS Word document.
- Contains detailed instructions for fine detail editing with ArcMap and workstation Arcedit,
adding attribute data,
combining coverages, defining the projection and reprojecting it
into different projections.
- Homework Data
Note: it may take a few minutes to download the data. Please be patient.
-
MLBS Plat Data
Homework Project #3:
Patterns of Early Forest Succession in an Abandoned Old Field:
The Role of Facilitation or Inhibition by Grasses (BEF)
View as a HTML or
MS Word document.
Note: it may take a few minutes to download the data. Please be patient.
-
BEF Old Field Data
Homework Project #4:
Potential Habitat Analysis and Conservation Area Selection Analysis
for Four Salamander Species in the MLBS Study Region
View as a HTML or
MS Word document.
Note: it may take a few minutes to download the data. Please be patient.
-
MLBS Salamnader Habitat Data
Homework Project #5:
Habitat Preference of Colonial Nesting Birds on Northern Hog Island (VCR-LTER): 1976-1978
View as a HTML or
MS Word document.
Note: it may take a few minutes to download the data. Please be patient.
-
N. Hog Bird Data
Data Dictionaries
containing metadata for the GIS datasets used for homework projects
(see homework instructions for addional details):
Announcements
Date: June 22th:
|
One last (?) Homework #3 note:
When you are calculating the amount of x-shift and y-shift needed to fix the badcontours data, you want
to calculate the AVERAGE x- and y-offset, not the sum/total (as originally listed in the example template
table for doing the calculation).
|
|
Date: June 20th:
|
Using Project and Define Projection Tools on Badcontour data
In the instructions, I give an example of the info that would be changed to shift the bad contour lines,
but if you want to use the Project and Define Projection tools in ArcGIS, you will need to first convert
the badcontours coverage to a shapefile. After that, since the dialog looks a little different than what
I have typed in the instructions, you can follow the following more explicit instructions below:
After you have calculated the amount of x-shift and y-shift needed to fix the badcountours lines, you can use the Data Management >
Projections > Project and Define Projection tools in ArcGIS that you have already used, rather than using the ArcInfo commands or the
tools under Coverage Tools. BUT you will first need to convert the badcontours coverage into a shapefile (using the Export Data procedure).
Then, when you start the Project Tool, after choosing the new BAD shapefile (“badcontour1, as an example”), it will automatically read the
existing input coordinate system. Name the new output shapefile (something like goodcontour1). Then click the side button to choose the
output coordinate system. Choose it to be the same as the existing badcontours shapefile by using the IMPORT option, but then BEFORE
hitting apply or ok, hit MODIFY where you can then go in and edit the parameters… ALL you need to edit the False_Easting and
False_Northing values by the amount of shift you determined you need (ex. need to shift the lines east by 200m? then add 200m to
the False_Easting value). Then hit OK to accept the modifications, and OK again to use that as the output coordinate info, and a final
OK to execute the Project tool.
What you see on the screen once you add this new data to the map will not LOOK like it has moved at all, because ArcMAP is
reprojecting the modified data on the fly, and the correction is contained in the projection info now. But, if you use the Define Projection
tool on the “goodcontour1” shapefile (and yes, it has a projection already defined, that’s what we are going to change!), where you go in
and modify the False_Easting and False_Northing info back to the way it was before you added on the shift, and apply and run the tool,
THEN ArcGIS will no longer know anything about any kind of extra shift to recorrect for on the fly. Instead, we will have forced it to
assume the coordinates in the file are true (which they now are) and so it will draw the lines in the locations we have shifted them to!
|
|
Date: June 20th:
|
Problem: Can’t find: “ArcToolBox > Coverage Tools”
The “Coverage Tools” is installed when ArcInfo Workstation is installed,
BUT it is not automatically added to the list of Toolsets in the ArcToolBox
window in either ArcMap or ArcCatalog. And until it is, even trying to open
the tool from the “Generate Tool” entry in the ArcHelp documentation fails.
Luckily, as long as you are working on a machine that has ArcInfo Workstation
installed on it, this is fairly easy to do. (Not every library machine has
ArcInfo Workstation on it, at least not the ones near the various circulation
desks… the ones in the various ITC lab parts of the libraries all seem to!)
Open ArcMap or ArcCatalog. Open the ArcToolBox.
Right click on “ArcToolBox”, choose “Add Toolbox”.
Look in the “c:\arcgis\arcexe9x\toolboxes” folder.
Select “Coverage Tools”, click “Open”.
Waa-Laa! You can now access the Coverage Tools, including the GENERATE tool you need for
step#1 of Section1: Data Prep in the third homework exercise.
Note: if you have installed ArcGIS on your own computer (including ArcInfo Workstation),
you’ll have to look in wherever you installed the program if you changed the default installation path.
Once you have added the Coverage Tools to the ArcToolBox, right click on ArcToolBox > Save Settings > to Default.
This way Coverage Tools will automatically loaded when you open ArcToolBox in the future (hopefully, if
ITC machines will accept your settings).
|
|
Date: June 18th:
|
One more thing:
#3) When you try to display the DOQQ image in ArcView 3.2, you first have to turn on the MrSID Image Support
extension (under FILE > EXTENSIONS > MrSID Image Support). Then, when you add data (themes) to the map,
make sure you are looking for type IMAGE and not FEATURE to see and select the DOQQ so if can be viewed.
|
|
Date: June 18th:
|
Just a few things to note so far about problem spots in Homework#2 that a number of people have had come
up and ways to work around them:
#1) After having made all the necessary edits to the lines of the 8 buildings in the first
part of the exercise, if you have any trouble getting the Integrate tool to work, you can
use the Data_Management > Feature > Feature_to_Polygon tool instead. Just be SURE that you
go under the Environmental Settings and disable the Output_M_Values and disable the
Output_Z_Values settings, as we want the type of shape created to be plain Polygons and not
Polygon_ZMs.
If somehow instead of working with personal geodatabase layers up til this point you are
working with shapefiles, you will probably HAVE to use the above mentioned tool instead.
#2) If you have created a shapefile instead of a geodatabase layer in the above #1 step,
then you will not have an automatically created "Shape_Area" attribute created in the
attribute table - because shapefiles do not store topology and do not automatically create
this attribute item in every shapefile. Instead, YOU will have to add a new field (in
addition to the three you add per instructions) called AREA, then use the "calculate
geometry" option mentioned in the homework to calculate the area. Only then will you be
able to calculate your SQFT1 field such that SQFT1 = AREA * 10.76etc.
|
|
Date: June 12th:
As stated in class today, the first homework assignment due date has been extended until
Monday (6/16) at 4pm.
|
|
Date: June 12th:
Cheney's TA help session hours are posted below. Location is in the Scholar's Lab in
Alderman Library. Times or days may change later if necessary, but we will try to keep to these.
Remember that if no one shows up
during the first hour, she is free to leave and do anything more productive, so if
you plan on showing up but can not make it during the first hour, please email her by 4pm
(cms9kq@virginia.edu) to let her know to stick around
so that she'll still be available to help you.
Thu 6/11 4-8 PM
|
Tue 6/17 4-6 PM
Wed 6/18 4-8 PM
|
Mon 6/23 4-6 PM
Tue 6/24 4-8 PM
|
Mon 6/30 4-8 PM
|
|
|
Date: June 11th:
Remember that on Friday we are meeting in Alderman Library in the Scholar's Lab on the 4th Floor
for a tour/guest lecture by Chris Gist, a GIS specialist for the Scholar's Lab (and by extention
for all of UVA as well). We will be meeting in the attached classroom at the back of the Scholar's
Lab, and Chris will start his talk at 8:15am. Alderman opens at 8:00am, so you can not enter until then.
|
|
Date: May 1st:
*** Course Description ***
21117 EVSC 362 (Section 1)
2104B EVSC 562 (Section 1)
Geographic Information System Methods [3]
0800 to 1015. June 10 to July 8 MTWRF in Wilson 308
David Lee Richardson
Prerequisites: Basic computer skills essential (experience with word processing,
spreadsheets, file-transfer programs like FTP or UVA's HomeDir).
Introduces the basic concepts and methodology underlying GIS with a focus on hands-on
experience and exercises meant to get students competent and able to use GIS in their own
work. Creation, manipulation, and mapping of vector and raster datasets using ArcGIS,
with examples and homework projects drawn from issues pertinent to environmental
research and natural resources management.
|
|