GIS Lab Exercise #2 - Intro to ArcView

This lab will introduce you to ArcView, a more 'user friendly' version of Arc/Info. ArcView can be used to display geographical data from various sources, to edit attribute data, to perform basic analysis, and to produce charts and maps. There are various features of ArcView that make it easier to work with, including pull down menus, Graphical User Interface (icon buttons, e.g.), and tables. This lab will give you just a brief introduction, to get a better idea of this programs capabilities you can consult ArcView's extensive on-line help.

Getting Started

1) To get into ArcView, type arcview& at the Unix prompt.

2) Expand the ArcView window by placing your arrow on the lower right corner, press the left mouse button, and drag the window to the size desired.

3) Push the button labeled 'New'. The icons at the top of the window will change and a new window entitled 'View1' will appear.

4) Expand the View1 window.

5) Push the button with this icon  (second one from the left). The 'Add Theme' window will appear, from which you can navigate to search for coverages to load into your View.

6) On the top line, where it says 'Directory', type the directory path: /auto/cache/data/covs

You should see three sub-directories (folders) under the covs directory: cultural, ecoreg, and environ.

 

7) Double click the folder labeled 'cultural'. A list of available coverages (themes) will appear on the left side of the window.

8) Click the left mouse button once on the first coverage (bndry), and then hold down the shift key (on the keyboard) and click the following coverages: c24k, city, and roads. All the selected coverages should be highlighted in black.

 

9) Press the OK button. This will add all selected coverages (themes) to your new view (View1), where they will be listed on the left side of the window.

10) Press the Add Theme button again. This time go to the environ folder (under 'covs') and add the themes: contr and river.

Editing the Legend

             1)  Click once on the check box for the River theme, this will draw the rivers in your view window.

2)  Now double click on the word "River", this will bring up the 'Legend Editor' dialog box. By double clicking on the colored line under the word 'symbol' you will bring up the window below, with which you can edit the fill, color, text, line color, and point or line symbol for the selected theme.

 

3) Select this icon   at the top of the window to bring up the color palette menu.

4) Chose a new color for your river theme (blue, maybe?), and press Apply on the Legend Editor window. The rivers will re-draw on your view window with the new color.

5) Go through the rest of the themes in this view and change colors, line and point symbols, etc. by double clicking the theme you wish to edit .

-Notice that when a theme is selected, a box is drawn around it.This means that it is the "active" theme. This will be important later.  

6) Once your legend has been edited to your liking, draw up the themes by checking the boxes to the left. You will notice that the themes on the top of the legend list are drawn over the themes on the bottom. You can change the order in which themes are drawn by simply 'grabbing' them with your mouse and moving them up or down in the list .

7) Click once on one of your themes, this will highlight the theme by putting a box around it. Now pull down the 'Theme' menu, and chose 'Properties'. The 'Theme Properties' dialog box will pop up. Where it says 'Theme Name:' type in more appropriate (descriptive) names for your themes. Here is a list of what each theme describes: River - all water courses (streams, etc.). Contr - elevation contour lines. Roads - transportation (roads, trails, etc.). City - City boundaries. C24k - index of 1:24,000 quad boundaries. Bndry - Cache county boundary.

Viewing Attribute Data for the Active Theme

1) Make Cities the active theme by clicking (once) on the word "Cities" (or whatever you chose to name this theme). Now you are able to call up attribute data for the individual polygons.

2) Click on the identity icon .  Your mouse arrow should now be a cross with a small 'i' next to it.

3) Place the cross over one of the points in your cities theme and press the left mouse button. A window entitled "Identity Results" will pop up with all of the attribute information for the polygon you chose. For example, here's the result of an identity for Richmond, in the north part of the county ...

Assignment  #1

Use your "identity cursor" (described above) to answer the questions below.

• What is the name of the southern-most city in Cache County?
• What area is given for the City of Logan? (units are meters).
• How many 1:24,000 quad maps are used for Cache county?
• Which 1:24,000 quad map would you need to see the City of Smithfield? (give me the quad name)

 

Close out of the identity results window by pressing the right mouse key in the top border of the window and choosing "dismiss" from the pull down menu.

Using Tables

Open a new view window by pressing the 'New' button.   Press the Add Theme button   and go to the following directory:  

1) To view a table for the active theme, pull down the 'Theme' menu at the top of the ArcView window and choose 'table'. All attribute information for this theme will be displayed.

By choosing an item in the table (by clicking once on it), the corresponding entity (polygon, point, line) in the view window will be highlighted. Clicking on Omsk in the Cities table will highlight that city in yellow in the view window, e.g. You can select many items in a table by holding down the shift key while selecting with the mouse.

-Notice that by clicking the mouse on the top border of the view window and the table window brings up a  different set of icons and menus.  

Building Queries with Tables

1) Once you have brought in the  table for world cities, make the table active (by clicking on it's top border) and run a query on the data in the table by pressing the "Query Builder" button .

2) This is the Query Builder window you should get....

.

We will build a query to see which cities have populations over 3,000,000. First, scroll through the fields and find population, choose it by double clicking on it, it is placed into the query statement in the window below. Next, choose the greater than operator (>). Finally, type in the number 3000000. The query is now complete, push the "New Set" button to run it.

3) After you run your query, push the "promote" button   to move all selected records to the top of the table. Also notice that the number of records selected and the total number of records in the table are displayed in the upper-left of the ArcView window.

4) With these records still selected, build another query to find those countries with a population over 3000000 that are not capital cities. Your Query Builder window should still be up, so delete the old query then find 'Capital' in the Fields list and double click it , click the equal to operator (=), and double click 'N'. Run the query with the selected records ONLY by pressing the "Select From Set" button.

Assignment #2

Using the query builder on the World Cities table, answer the following questions:

• How many cities in Australia have populations over 1,000,000?  List the names of two.
• What city is the capital of Lithuania?
• What is the most populous city? What is its population?
• What city has the lowest population (in the table)? In what country is it located?