SGO1910Spring 2004
Lab 7Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop Help
In this lab you will be learning to use ArcGIS Desktop Help, which will give you the capacity to do unlimited things with ArcGIS!
The lab assignment involves three tasks that are to be turned in as a report. These tasks involve the following:
1) Creating a shapefile from x,y coordinates;2) Creating a buffer and identifying the kommuner that are included within the buffer;3) Placing a bar graph on your map
Assignment:
You have been hired by Lindblad Expeditions of New York ( to help develop an itinerary for a cruise along the Norwegian coast up to Tromsø this summer. The cruise ship Endeavor starts in Amsterdam and thirteen days later ends up in Tromsø. The basic itinerary is set, but not all of the details have been worked out. You are hired to use your GIS skills to provide a list of potential places to visit between Bergen and Tromsø.
The captain of the ship has forwarded you his docking points for days 7-11 of the journey:
Day 7: Sognefjord: 61º 7’ N and 6º 7’ EDay 8: Nordfjord: 61º 51.5’ N and 6º 37 ‘ EDay 9: Melfjord: 66º 5’ N and 13º 7’ EDay 10: Tysfjord: 68º 12’ N and 16º 14’ EDay 11: Malangen: 69º 30’ N and 18º 4’ E
You need to make a point coverage that includes these geographic coordinates (see Desktop Help for instructions). This coverage will then be overlaid on the kommune boundary map and the coastline map that you will be given in class. You will also be given a file that contains population data for each kommune. You can download these files at
Many of the passengers are elderly, thus cannot walk for great distances. Your job is to provide the expedition leader with a list of potential kommuner to visit duringONE of the five stops. Each kommune should be within 7 km of the docking point (thus accessible by zodiac rafts). The passengers prefer to see “rustic” parts of Norway, therefore the ideal kommune is along the coast or fjords, and has less than 4000 inhabitants. You will need to include information about the population of the surrounding kommuner on your map. In addition, your map should include picture(s) of the kommuner that best satisfy the requirements of Lindblad Expeditions.
The steps that you will take can be summarized as follows:
1) Create a coverage from the five x,y coordinates given to you.2) Convert the coverage into the same projection as your Norway data (this is the tricky part!)3) Choose one point as your focus (zoom in on this). Create a 5 km buffer surrounding the point, and identify the kommuner that fall within that distance. Label the kommuner.4) Select the kommuner within that area with population under 4000. 5) Create a map that shows the area you are focusing on (make sure to label the map so it is clear where in Norway it is). Include pictures from the qualifying kommune(r). (To get pictures, look at the home page for the kommune and save a nice picture as a jpg file)
Finding your way around the Help system
Use the ArcGIS Desktop Help system to find the information you need to complete a specific task or to learn more about GIS concepts.
To get a quick description of a specific feature of the Help system or to learn how to optimize your searches, see Using this Help system.
To learn how to navigate this Help system using keyboard shortcuts, see Using keyboard shortcut keys in ArcGIS Desktop Help (you can jump to this topic by pressing F6, pressing the Tab key until you get to this link, and then pressing Enter).
Example:(from ArcGIS Desktop Help)
Adding x,y coordinate data to a map
In addition to data sources such as a shapefile, you can also add tabular data that contains geographic locations in the form of x,y coordinates to your map.
X,y coordinates describe discrete locations on the earth’s surface such as the location of fire hydrants in a city or the points where soil samples were collected. You can easily collect x,y coordinate data using a global positioning system (GPS) device.
In order to add a table of x,y coordinates to your map, the table must contain two fields—one for the x-coordinate and one for the y-coordinate. The values in the fields may represent any coordinate system and units such as latitude and longitude or meters.
Once you have added the data to your map, the layer behaves like other point feature layers. For instance, you can decide whether or not you want to display it, symbolize it, set the visible scale, or display a subset of features that meet some criteria.
The table on which this layer is defined may introduce some limitations. For example, if the table does not have an ObjectID (such as delimited text files or tables from OLE DB connections), you will not be able to make selections. If the table is editable, you will be able to edit the layer. However, you won't be able to interactively move a point on the map; you must change the coordinates in the table.
How to add a table with x,y coordinates to a map
- Click the Tools menu on the Standard toolbar and click Add XY Data.
- Click the table dropdown arrow and click a table that contains x,y coordinate data. If the table is not on the map, click the Browse button to access it from disk.
- Click the X Field dropdown arrow and click the field containing x-coordinate values.
- Click the Y Field dropdown arrow and click the field containing y-coordinate values.
- Click Edit to define the coordinate system and units represented in the x and y fields. The x,y coordinates will be automatically transformed to match the coordinate system of the data frame.
- Click OK.