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This course will teach you how to download, evaluate, and prepare GIS data from public online sources and set up a project in ArcGIS Pro.
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Obtaining Tutorial Data
The best option for getting the full GIS project experience is to download data from online GIS data portals. You will also gain exposure to the best GIS data websites for the Houston region.
Obtaining tutorial data from source websites
If you choose to download the tutorial data from the source websites and practice finding and obtaining data from online sources, follow these instructions:
COHGIS Open Data Portal
The COHGIS (City of Houston GIS) Open Data Portal website provides over 100 data sets including administrative boundaries, amenity locations, transportation routes, crime, and flooding. For this tutorial, we will download population and housing data from the 2010 census, which has been aggregated to super neighborhood boundaries.
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- In the 'Find' box, type "census 2010 by super neighborhood" and press Enter.
- Click Census 2010 By SuperNeighborhood, as shown below.
- In the top right, click Download > Shapefile.
H-GAC GIS Datasets
The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is the 13-county Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Houston region. Federal legislation requires that an MPO be designated for each urbanized area with a population greater than 50,000 people (as established by the U.S. Census Bureau) in order to conduct long-range metropolitan transportation planning and be eligible for Federal funding for transportation projects. Their mission to carry out metropolitan transportation planning means that MPOs are a great source of data on topics such as demographics, employment, land use, transportation, and environmental conditions and most of these topics are well-suited towards GIS analysis.
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- Using a web browser, search for "h-gac gis" and select the result as shown below or go directly to: http://www.h-gac.com/rds/gis-data/gis-datasets.aspx.
- Under the Dataset Categories section, click the Hydrologic button to filter the results by subject.
- Under the Datasets section, click Major Rivers.
- Click Download Dataset.
- Click the blue Download button.
- Back on the H-GAC portal, under the Dataset Categories section, click the Water Quality button.
- Under the Datasets section, click Wastewater Outfalls.
- Click Download Dataset.
- Click the blue Download button.
HCAD
Though it is not used in this course, the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) Public Data is another great online source that provides similar data such as highways, utilities, and water districts and is available at: http://pdata.hcad.org/GIS/index.html
Preparing the Downloaded Data for ArcGIS Pro
Once you have downloaded the Super Neighborhoods from COHGIS and the Wastewater Outfalls and Major Rivers from H-GAC, you will be able to find the data files in your Downloads folder. You will see that all the files are zipped, meaning they contain compressed files of data within them (you can tell a file is zipped when the file type column reads “Compressed (zipped) Folder”). You will need to unzip the folders to be able to see the data inside them. To do that:
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Your data is in a file folder in its decompressed format and ready to be brought into ArcGIS Pro.
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Creating a New Project in ArcGIS Pro
- From the Start menu, launch ArcGIS Pro.
- When ArcGIS Pro opens, under the Create a new project section, click the Blank project template.
- In the 'Create a New Project' window, for Name, type "CEVE101".
- For Location, click the Browse... button to the right.
- In the 'Select a folder to store the project.' window, click Computer in the left column and click Desktop in the right column and click OK.
- ClickOK once again.
- Maximize the ArcGIS Pro application window.
Creating a New Map
A map is a project item used to display and work with geographic data in two dimensions. The first step to visualizing any data is creating a new map.
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- In the Catalog pane, under the Maps section, right-click Map and select Rename.
- Type "Wastewater Outfalls" and hit Enter.
Saving a Project
Any time you create a new project item, such as a map or a layout, or any time you spend time adjusting the symbology of your map layers, it is a good idea to save your project.
- Above the ribbon, on the Quick Access toolbar, click the Save button.
Managing GIS Data
- In the Catalog pane on the right, expand Folders > CEVE101 > CEVE101.gdb
- Right-click Folders and select Add Folder Connection.
- In the left column click Computer. In the right column, click Downloads and click OK.
- In the Catalog pane, expand Downloads.
- Fully expand all folders and geodatabases in the Downloads folder.
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Examining GIS Data Coordinate systems
Importing and exporting data in the project geodatabase
Importing (copying) Geodatabase Feature Classes into the project geodatabase
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Disconnecting from your Downloads folder
Adding Data to a Map
- Right-click the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood feature class and select Add To Current Map.
- An alternative method of adding data to a map is to click and hold the Major_Rivers feature class and drag and drop it into the Super Neighborhoods map view.
- Repeat either method to add Wastewater_Outfalls to the map view.
Symbolizing Layers with a Single Symbol
It is early in the project to be deciding upon symbology, however, when layers are added to a map, ArcGIS Pro assigns then a random color symbol. Sometimes the colors are very faint and difficult to see on top of the basemap or the colors of multiple layers are very similar to each other and difficult to distinguish. To ensure that everyone can easily see the layers we are working with, we will adjust the basic symbology.
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The super neighborhood polygons are now easy to distinguish from both the basemap and the rivers. In addition, the borders of the super neighborhoods are clear and easy to differentiate from the freeways.
Navigating the Project
Navigating the Contents Pane
At the top of the Contents pane, there is a series of seven buttons. By default, the leftmost button is selected: List by Drawing Order.
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- Uncheck the Major_Roads layer to turn off its visibility in the map view.
- Check the Major_Roads layer to turn its visibility back on in the map view.
Navigating the Map View
You will now learn how to navigate the Map view by panning, zooming, and using spatial bookmarks.
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- On the Map tab, in the the Navigate group, click the Bookmarks button and select New Bookmark....
- In the 'Create Bookmark' window, for 'Name:', type "Houston" and click OK.
- To test the bookmark, use panning and zooming to change the extent of the map.
- Again, click the Bookmarks button and this time select the Houston bookmark to return to that extent.
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Exploring Data in the Map View
Selecting Features Manually
Selecting Features Manually from the Map View
- On the Map tab, in the Selection group, click the Select button.
- In the map view, click on any neighborhood to select it.
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- On the Map tab, in the Navigate group, click the Explore button.
Selecting Features Manually from the Table View
- In the Contents pane, right-click the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer name and select Attribute Table.
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- At the top of the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighbrhood table view, click the Clear button.
- Close the attribute table.
Symbolizing Layers By Attributes
Symbolizing Layers By Quantity
- In the Contents pane, right-click the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer name and select Symbology.
- Use the primary 'Symbology' drop-down menu to select Graduated Colors.
- Use the 'Field' drop-down menu to scroll down sixth from the bottom and select the SUM_Vacant field. This field stores the number of vacant housing units within each neighborhood.
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Adding Layer Transparency
- Ensure that the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer is selected.
- In the ribbon, click the Feature Layer contextual Appearance tab.
- In the Effects group, slide the Layer Transparency slider or type "50" and hit Enter.
Symbolizing Layers By Category
- Use the primary 'Symbology' drop-down menu to select Unique Values.
- Use the 'Field 1' drop-down menu to select Name.
- In the Contents pane, collapse the Census_2010_By_Superneighborhood symbology.
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Selecting Features Programatically
Selecting Features By Attributes
- In the ribbon, click the Map tab.
- In the Selection group, click the Select By Attributes button to open the Select Layer By Attribute tool in the Geoprocessing pane.
- In the Geoprocessing pane, click the Add Clause button.
- Use the drop-down menus to build the following expression: Name is Equal to 'YOUR_NEIGHBORHOOD_NAME' and click the Add button.
- Ensure your Geoprocessing pane appears similar to that below and click Run.
Exporting Selected Features
- In the Contents pane, right-click the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer name and select Data > Export Features.
- In the Geoprocessing pane, click the 'Output Feature Class' field to edit the name. Replace Census_2010_By_SuperNeighbor with "MyNeighborhood". Ensure that you leave everything in the file path through Intro.gdb\.
Selecting Features By Location
Now we will create a map of the bus stops and bus routes within your neighborhood. We could continue to do our mapping within the existing map, but, since we are now focusing on different thematic layers in a different geographic extent, this could be a good time to create a second map within our project.
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- In the Selection group, click the Select By Location button to open the Select Layer By Attribute tool in the Geoprocessing pane. Select bus stops within neighborhood.
- Select bus routes within 100 ft of bus stop in neighborhood.
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Presenting and Sharing Maps
Creating a Layout
Once you are finished with your analysis, you may want to create a map that is suitable for adding to a report, presentation, or sharing with others who don't have access to ArcGIS software.
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More tips for creating a layout are covered in the Map Layouts for Publication short course.
Exporting a Layout
- On the ribbon, click the Share tab.
- Click the Export Layout button.
- On the left, click the Desktop folder.
- Double-click the Intro folder.
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