TABLE OF CONTENTS

Obtaining the Tutorial Data

There are three two ways of obtaining the tutorial data. The best option for getting the full GIS project experience is to follow Option 1 and learn how to download and prepare data from online GIS data portals independently. You will also gain exposure to the best GIS data websites for the Houston region.

If you have already completed the Introduction to Data Management tutorial, but did not save a copy of your files or if you would prefer to complete this tutorial first, then you may follow Options 2 or 3. Option 2 is best if you are completing this tutorial in one of our short courses or from the GIS/Data Center and Option 3 is best if you are completing the tutorial from your own computer.

Before beginning the tutorial, you will copy all of the required tutorial data onto your Desktop. Follow the applicable set of instructions below depending on the particular computer you are using.

OPTION 1: Obtaining tutorial data independently online

If you would like to download and prepare the data for this tutorial from scratch, follow the instructions below:

1. Complete the Introduction to GIS Data Management tutorial.

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 Option 1 is best if you are completing this tutorial in one of our short courses or from Fondren Library and Option 2 is best if you are completing the tutorial from your own computer.

Before beginning the tutorial, you will copy all of the required tutorial data onto your Desktop. Follow the applicable set of instructions below depending on the particular computer you are using.

OPTION 1: Accessing tutorial data from Fondren Library using the gistrain profile

If you are completing this tutorial from a public computer in Fondren Library and are logged on using the gistrain profile, follow the instructions below:

1. On the Desktop, click the File Explorer icon Image Added located on the Windows Taskbar at the bottom left corner of the screen.
2. In the 'File Explorer' window, click This PC on left side panel and then navigate to gisdata (\\file-rnas.rice.edu) (R:) > Short_Courses > HIST207 > HIST207_GDC1  
3. To create a personal copy of the tutorial data, drag the Intro_Part1 folder onto the Desktop. 
4. Close all windows.

OPTION 2: Accessing tutorial data

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online using a personal computer

If you are completing this tutorial from a public computer in Fondren Library and are logged on using the gistrain profile, follow personal computer, you will need to download the tutorial data online by following the instructions below:

1. On the Desktop, double-click the Computer icon > gisdata (\\file-rnas.rice.edu) (R:) > Short_Courses > Introduction_to_GIS.
2. To create a personal copy of the tutorial data, drag the Intro folder onto the Desktop.
3. Close all windows.

OPTION 3: Accessing tutorial data online using a personal computer

If you are completing this tutorial from a personal computer, you will need to download the tutorial data online by following the instructions below:

1. Click Intro_Part1.zip above to download the tutorial data.
2. Open the Downloads folder.
3. Right-click Intro_Part1.zip and select Extract All....
4. In the
5. Click Intro.zip above to download the tutorial data.
6. Open the Downloads folder.
7. Right-click Intro.zip and select Extract All....
8. In the 'Extract Compressed (Zipped) Folders' window, accept the default location into the Downloads folder.
9. Uncheck Show extracted files when complete.
10. Click Extract.
11. Directly within the Downloads folder, drag the Intro_Part1 folder onto your Desktop.

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1. On the Desktop, double-click your Intro_Part1 folder to open it.
2. Double-click the Intro.aprx file _Part1 ArcGIS Project File (blue icon) to open the existing project in ArcGIS Pro.
   
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3. 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. 

The ribbon runs horizontally across the top of the ArcGIS Pro interface. Tools (buttons) are organized into tabs along the ribbon.

1. On the ribbon, click the Insert On the ribbon, click the Insert tab.
2. In the Project group, click the New Map button.
   
   

You will notice that a new map Map view opens in the main section of ArcGIS Pro.

The panel on the left side of ArcGIS Pro is called the Contents pane. After creating a new map, the Contents pane now displays the default Map Map title and automatically adds the Topographic basemap layer to the map.

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1. In the Catalog pane, under the Maps section, right-click Map and select Rename.
2. Type "Super NeighborhoodsHouston History" and hit Enter.

Saving a Project

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Managing Maps

Browsing Existing Data

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1. In the Catalog pane, click the arrow to expand the Databases section.
2. Click the arrow to expand the Intro_Part1.gdb geodatabase.

Adding Data to a Map

1. Right-click the CensusCOH_2010HISTORIC_By_SuperNeighborhoodDISTRICTS feature class and select Add To Current Map.
2. An alternative method of adding data to a map is to click and hold the Major_Roads feature Rivers feature class and drag and drop it into the Super Neighborhoods map viewthe Houston History Map view.
3. Repeat either of the above two methods to add COH_HISTORIC_SITESLANDMARKS to the Houston History Map view.
4. Above the ribbon, on the Quick Access toolbar, click the Save button.

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 layers 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.

1.  In the Contents pane, right-click the Major_RoadsRivers layer name and select Symbology to open the Symbology pane on the right.
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Notice that the 'Primary symbology' defaults to Single Symbol. With this type of symbology, all features in that particular layer will be assigned the same symbol.

1. For 'Symbol', click the colored line symbol to switch to Format Line Symbol mode.
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2. Within Format Line Symbol mode, click the Properties tab.
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3. For 'Color', use the drop-down menu to select Black.Cretan Blue. The rivers on the map should now all be blue and easily visible.
4. At the bottom of the Symbology pane, click Apply.

The freeways on the map should now all be black and easily visible on top of the basemap. The 'Format Symbol' mode of the Symbology tab can also be accessed directly via the small layer symbol (instead of beneath the layer name ) in the Contents pane.

1. In the Contents pane on the left, click the colored rectangle symbol beneath the CensusCOH_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer HISTORIC_DISTRICTS layer name.
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2. For 'Color', use the drop-down menu to select Mango.
   
   
   
   
3. For 'Outline color', use the drop-down menu to select Gray 50%.
4. At the bottom of the Symbology pane, click Apply.

The super neighborhood polygons are now easy to distinguish from both the basemap and the freeways. In addition, the borders of the super neighborhoods are clear and easy to differentiate from the freeways.

Navigating the Project

Navigating the Contents Pane

1. Repeat either of the above two methods to change the symbology of COH_HISTORIC_SITESLANDMARKS to: 'Color' = Burnt Umber and 'Size' = 5 pt.
2. Your three layers should now look like the below image.
   
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3. Above the ribbon, on the Quick Access toolbar, click the Save button.

Navigating the Project

Navigating the Contents Pane

At the top of the Contents 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'.

When this button is selected, the order in which the layers are listed corresponds to the order in which the layers are visually stacked in the Map view. To test how the drawing order works, you will reorder the layers.

1. In the Contents pane, click and hold the CensusCOH_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer HISTORIC_DISTRICTS layer name and drag and drop it above the MajorCOH_HISTORIC_RoadsSITESLANDMARKS layer.

You will notice that, in the Map view, the CensusCOH_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer HISTORIC_DISTRICTS layer is now drawn in on top of the MajorCOH_HISTORIC_RoadsSITESLANDMARKS layer, meaning that freeways historic sites are only visible in areas not covered by a super neighborhoodhistoric district. It is possible to add transparency to the super neighborhood historic district layer or to symbolize it with a bold outline and a hollow fill, but, in general, it is best to have polygon layers at the bottom of the drawing order, so we will return the layers to their previous order.

1. In the Contents pane, click and hold the CensusCOH_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer HISTORIC_DISTRICTS layer name and drag and drop it beneath the Major_Roads layer, but above the Topographic basemapRivers layer.
   
   

The check boxes to the left of each layer name toggle the visibility of each layer.

1. Uncheck the Major_RoadsRivers layer to turn off its visibility in the map Map view.
2. Check the Major_RoadsRivers layer to turn its visibility back on in the map Map view.

Navigating the Map

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view

You will now learn how to navigate the Map view by panning, zooming, and using spatial bookmarks.

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To pan the map:

1. Within the map Map view, click and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse and release.

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1. In the Contents pane, right-click the CensusCOH_2010HISTORIC_By_SuperNeighborhoodDISTRICTS layer name and select Zoom To Layer.

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1. On the Map tab, in the the Navigate group, click the Bookmarks button and select New Bookmark....
   
   
   
   
2. In the 'Create Bookmark' window, for 'Name:', type "Houston Historic Districts" and click OK.
3. To test the bookmark, use panning and zooming to change the extent of the map.
4. Again, click the Bookmarks button and this time select the Houston Historic Districts bookmark to return to that extent.

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Exploring Data in the Map

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view

Selecting Features Manually

Selecting Features Manually from the Map

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view

1. On the Map tab, in the Selection group, click the Select button.
   
   
   
   
2. In the map Map view, click on any neighborhoodhistoric district to select it.

The selected neighborhood historic district will be outlined in cyan.

1. Drag a box to select multiple adjacent neighborhoods.historic districts. This will also select any historic sites/landmarks your box intersects.
2. Hold downHold down Shift and click any non-selected neighborhood to historic district to add additional non-adjacent neighborhoods historic districts to the selection.
3. Hold down Ctrl and click any selected neighborhood to historic district to deselect neighborhoods.

When you are finished using a selection, it is important to clear the selected features, because the majority of tools in ArcGIS Pro only run on selected features. Therefore, if you run a tool anticipating that you will be processing all features in a particular layer and you inadvertently left some features selected from a previous process, only those selected features will be processed, which will lead to unexpected results.

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1. On the Map tab, in the Navigate group, click the Explore button.
   
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Selecting Features Manually from the Table View

1. In the Contents pane, right-click the CensusCOH_2010HISTORIC_By_SuperNeighborhoodDISTRICTS layer name and select Attribute Table.
   
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A table view now appears docked beneath your map Map view. Each row, or record, in your table corresponds to exactly one super neighborhood historic district polygon on the map. Each column, or field, in your table represents a variable describing the super neighborhoodshistoric districts.

Every geodatabase feature class has two to four default fields, which cannot be edited or deleted. The leftmost OBJECTID field is a unique ID that is automatically numbered from 1 to the total number of features at the time of creation. In this particular case, the field is called OBJECTID_1, because there was a preexisting OBJECTID field at the time this data was imported to geodatabase format by the City of Houston. The Shape field indicates whether the feature geometry contains points, lines, or polygons.

1. In the table view, use the scroll bar at the bottom to scroll to the far right of the table.

The other two default fields are the last Shape_Length and Shape_The other two default fields are the last Shape_Length and Shape_Area fields which contain the perimeter and area of the super neighborhoodshistoric districts, respectively. A line feature class will only contain the Shape_Length field and a point feature class will not contain either field. The units of these fields correspond to the units of the projection in which the data coordinates are stored.

1. In the Contents pane on the left, double-click the CensusCOH_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer HISTORIC_DISTRICTS layer name.
2. In the 'Layer Properties' window, in the left column, click the third tab, Source tab.
3. At the bottom of the window, click to expand the Spatial Reference section.
4. Use the scroll bar on the right to scroll to the bottom of the metadata.

Within the Spatial Reference section, notice that the geographic coordinate system is GCS WGS 1984 and that no projected coordinate system is listed. Therefore, the layer is unprojected, meaning the data coordinates are located on the three-dimensional surface of the globe and you can see the Angular Unit is listed as Degrees (or decimal degrees.) Therefore, the Shape_Length field is displaying decimal degrees and the Shape_Area field is displaying square decimal degrees, which is why the numbers are so low. Before measuring distance or area, the data layer should be projected onto a two-dimensional surface. The resulting projection will have a Linear Unit, such as feet or meters. The process of projecting is further covered in the Introduction to Coordinate Systems and Projections course.

1. Close the 'Layer Properties' window.

As indicated by the layer name, the majority of the remaining fields contain 2010 census data that was aggregated to the super neighborhood level by the City of Houston, since that is not a geographic unit at which the Census Bureau provides data.

1. Double-click the 'NameIn the attribute table, double-click the 'NAME' field header to sort the neighborhoods historic districts alphabetically.
2. To select a neighborhood historic district from the table, click the gray square to the far left of each row.
3. To select an adjacent section of records, hold down Shift and select a record below or above the currently selected record to automatically select all records in between.
4. To add or remove individual records from the selection, hold down Ctrl and select another record.

Notice in the bottom left corner of the CensusCOH_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood attribute HISTORIC_DISTRICTS attribute table, it indicates the number out of 88 22 table records (and corresponding map features) that are currently selected.

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The two buttons to the left allow you to toggle between 'Show all records' and 'Show selected records'.

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Note that if 'Show selected records' is active and no records are currently selected, the table view will appear empty. Toggle back to 'Show all records' to view the table.

1. At the top of the CensusCOH_2010_By_SuperNeighbrhood table HISTORIC_DISTRICTS table view, click the Clear button.
   
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2. Close the attribute table.
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Symbolizing Layers By Attributes

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Selecting Features Programatically

Selecting Features By Attributes 

1. In the Contents paneribbon, right-click the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer name and select Symbology.
2. Use the primary 'Symbology' drop-down menu to select Graduated Colors.
3. 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.

The map view now displays a choropleth map, where the darker colors represent higher numbers of vacant housing units. In studying the map, it appears as if the most vacant housing is in southwest Houston outside the Loop. While this is true according to raw counts per neighborhood, there could be differences in the neighborhoods that are unaccounted for in this symbology. Now you will try normalizing by the area of the neighborhood.

1. Use the 'Normalization' drop-down menu to scroll to the bottom and select the last Shape_Area field.

As discussed in the Introduction to GIS Data Management course, the projection of the census layer is WGS 1984. Therefore, the layer is unprojected and the coordinates are stored in angular units of decimal degrees. Therefore, the Shape_area field is displaying square decimal degrees and the map is displaying number of vacant housing units per square decimal degree. This is a somewhat incomprehesible unit, however, the values are still proportional to how they would be in a different unit and the relative coloring on the map remains correct. If you wanted to make a map that displays vacant housing units per square mile, then you would add a new field to the attribute table and use the calculate 

projecting is further covered in the Introduction to Coordinate Systems and Projections course.

Notice that according to the density of vacant housing units, the greatest amount of vacant housing units appear to be both inside and outside the loop along 59.

1. Use the 'Normalization' drop-down menu to select the SUM_HU100 field.

The map is now displaying the number of vacant housing units divided by the total number of housing units, or the percent vacant housing units. While all three methods of symbolizing the vacant housing units are techically corect This is probably the most common

1. On the lower half of the Symbology pane, click the Histogram tab.

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Discuss and test classification methods.

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1. Use the 'Method" drop-down menu to select Equal Interval.
2. Use the 'Method" drop-down menu to select Quantile.

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Discuss and test number of classes.

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1. Use the 'Classes' drop-down menu to select 20.
2. Use the 'Classes' drop-down menu to select 4.

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Discuss and test color schemes.

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Adding Layer Transparency

1. Ensure that the Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer is selected.
2. In the ribbon, click the Feature Layer contextual Appearance tab.
3. In the Effects group, slide the Layer Transparency slider or type "50" and hit Enter.

Symbolizing Layers By Category

1. Use the primary 'Symbology' drop-down menu to select Unique Values.
2. Use the 'Field 1' drop-down menu to select Name.
3. In the Contents pane, collapse the Census_2010_By_Superneighborhood symbology.

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zoom into neighborhood, go to explore button, click on neighborhood to find out neighborhood name.

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Selecting Features Programatically

Selecting Features By Attributes

1.  click the Map tab.
2. In the Selection group, click the Select By Attributes button to open the Select Layer By Attribute tool in the Geoprocessing pane.
   
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3. In the Geoprocessing pane, ensure the COH_HISTORIC_DISTRICTS layers is selected in the 'Layer Name or Table View' input.
4. Click the Add Clause button.
5. Use the drop-down menus to build the following expression: NAME is Equal to 'Main Street/Market Square Historic District' and click the Add button.
6. Ensure your Geoprocessing pane appears identical to that below and click Run. You will see that one historic district, named "Main Street/Market Square Historic District" is now selected.
   
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7. On the the Map tab, in the Selection group, click the Clear button to clear the selected features.

Selecting Features By Location 

1. In the Selection group, click the Select By Location button to open the Select Layer By Attribute tool in the Geoprocessing pane. 
   
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2. Select features from COH_HISTORIC_DISTRICTS that intersect Major_Rivers. Ensure your Geoprocessing pane appears identical to that below and click Run.

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Exporting Selected Features  

To create a new layer with just our historic district of interest we need to export this selected feature.

1. In the Contents pane, right-click the COH_HISTORIC_DISTRICTS layer name and select Data > Export Features.
2. In the Geoprocessing pane, click the 'Output Feature Class' field to edit the name. Replace "COH_HISTORIC_DISTRICTS_CopyF" with "MainStreet_MarketSquare". Ensure that you leave everything in the file path through Intro_Part1.gdb\. Click Run.

3. On the the Map tab, in the Selection group, click the Clear button to clear the selected features.

4. Select features from COH_HISTORIC_SITESLANDMARKS that intersect MainStreet_MarketSquare.
5. 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.
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6. In the Geoprocessing pane, click the Add Clause button.
7. Use the drop-down menus to build the following expression: Name is Equal to 'YOUR_NEIGHBORHOOD_NAME' and click the Add button.
8. Ensure your Geoprocessing pane appears similar to that below and and click Run.
   

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2. In the Contents pane, right-click the Census the COH_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood layer name and select Data > HISTORIC_SITESLANDMARKS layer name and select Data > Export Features.
3. In the Geoprocessing pane, click the  the 'Output Feature Class' field to edit the name. ReplaceCensus "COH_2010HISTORIC_BySITESLANDMARKS_SuperNeighbor with "MyNeighborhood" with "Historic_Sites_At_Risk". Ensure that you leave everything in the file path through Intro.gdb\.

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1. _Part1.gdb\. 
2. Click Run.

3. On the the Map tab, in the Selection group, click the Clear button to clear the selected features.

4. Above the ribbon, on the Quick Access toolbar, click the Save button.

Presenting and Sharing Maps

Creating a New Map 

Now we will create a map of the bus stops and bus routes within your neighborhoodhistoric district at risk of flooding due to proximity of a river. 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. 

1. On the ribbon, click the Insert tab.
2. In the Project group, click the New Map button.
3. At the bottom of the Geoprocessing pane, click the  the Catalog pane  pane tab. 
4. Rename My Neighborhood and add MyNeighborhoods, BusStops and BusRoutes.

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1. the new map "Historic District Flood Risk" and add Historic_Sites_At_Risk, MainStreet_MarketSquare and Major_Rivers to this map.
2. Update the symbology for the Historic_Sites_At_Risk, MainStreet_MarketSquare and Major_Rivers layers as desired.
3. Above the ribbon, on the Quick Access toolbar, click the Save button.

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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.

1. On the ribbon, click the Insert tab.
2. Click In the Project group, click the New Layout button.
3. If you wanted to create a custom image size for insertion into a report or presentation, you could select Custom pages size... at At the bottom of the options, but for a full page layout, options panel, select Letter 8.5" x 11" at the top left of the optionsleft. A new tab will open in your Map view, called Layout.
4. From the Insert tab, in the Map Frames group, click the drop down arrow on the Map Frame icon and choose the Historic District Flood Risk map frame. 
   
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5. Above the ribbon, on the Quick Access toolbar, click the Save button.
   
   

More tips for creating a layout are covered in the Map Layouts for Publication short course.

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1. On the ribbon, click the Share tab.
2. Click In the Export group, click the Layout button with a green arrow.
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3. On the left, click the Desktop folder.
4. Double-click the Intro folder.

Discuss export file types and resolutions.

1. _Part1 folder
2. For 'Resolution (DPI)', type "300".
3. Click Click Export.
4. Above the ribbon, on the Quick Access toolbar, click the Save button.
5. Close ArcGIS Pro.

 To continue learning intermediate topics, refer to the courses in the other ArcGIS Pro Series.