GIS I Lab 4 - Vector Analysis with ArcGis

Goal:

The goal of this lab was to use different geoprocessing tools within ArcGIS to find the best bear habitat for a particular study area in Marquette County, Michigan.

Background:

The Michigan DNR wanted to know what lands they own that are the best suitable habitat for black bears. There were certain criteria that had to be met to find the most ideal habitat locations.

Methods:

There was data provided that showed where the study area was located and the different features within it. A certain number of bears were being mapped and their locations were given in an excel file. In order to map this data, it needed to be imported into ArcGis as an event theme. Once the data were imported, it could then be exported as a feature class and added to the geodatabase. Once the bear locations were on the map, it was then necessary to put all the other necessary on the map for easier viewing and analysis.

 The assignment called for the top three habitats, based on bear locations, to be separated from the other land types. For this data to be obtained, the locations had to be spatially joined with the land cover types. Once the three habitats were found, a new feature class was made in order for the data to be analyzed with other data.

Biologists believed that bears may spend a fair amount of their time near streams. In order to find out if this was a true hypothesis, a 500 meter buffer was made around all the streams in the study area.  Once this buffer was made, it needed to be dissolved to make it easier to understand. This dissolved result needed to be clipped with the bear locations to find the number of bears near streams. The hypothesis turned out to be correct; 72% of the black bears that were being tracked were recorded within 500 meters of a stream. 

The next step was to find suitable bear habitat based on the stream buffer and bear locations. In order to do this, a feature class had to be created for the top three habitat types for the tracked bears. Once this was made, it was then necessary to intersect that feature class with the stream buffer. This result would give us the best habitat within 500 meters of a stream. Once these feature classes were intersected a dissolve was needed to make for continuous polygons rather than small individual polygons making up one larger feature.

The Michigan DNR then wanted to know what land that they owned that would fall into these areas of desired bear habitat. The DNR management feature class needed to be clipped with the study area in order to eliminate unnecessary data from the map. Once that data was clipped, it then needed to be dissolved to eliminate internal boundaries within the data. This dissolved result then needed to be intersected with the best bear habitat. The result from the intersect was the best bear habitat on DNR managed land.

Results:

The results of this map show the best black bear habitat for the Michigan DNR to improve. This assignment allowed for ArcGIS to be used in a real life situation to solve a real world problem.

This is a map of the results that were found while researching ideal black bear habitat. The map on the left shows the ideal habitat locations. The map on the right shows the study area and the different land cover types associated with the area.

This is a data flow model that was used to find the ideal bear habitat for the Michigan DNR.

 Source: Michigan Geographic Data Library

GIS I Lab 1: Base Data

Introduction:

The goal of this lab was to become familiar with using a GPS unit in the field. The objectives were to create a geodatabase prior to going to the field. The geodatabase that was created was deployed to the GPS unit being used, a Trimble Juno in order to collect the necessary information from around campus. Once the data was collected, it was necessary to export the data back onto the computer in order to make a map that would make sense to the viewer.

Methods:

The first step in completing this assignment was to make a folder for all of the information to be stored. Once the folder was, a new geodatabase was created in order to keep all the data in one place. After the geodatabase was created, new feature classes had to be created for the different features that were going to be mapped around campus. The first feature was simply, point. The coordinate system was set to NAD 1983 HARN Wisconsin TM meters and the tolerance and database configuration were left to the default settings. We added a field to this feature named “type” and set it to text, but left all the default field properties. Once those steps were completed, the first point feature class was created. It was then necessary to do the same steps to make a polygon and line feature class. These feature classes would be used in the field as the final product. The assignment then called for three more feature classes to be created. These were the practice points, lines and polygons. These feature classes were used while experimenting with the GPS unit to see how it worked. Once navigating through the different features of the GPS became easier, those practice points were no longer used in data collection.

In order to see what we were mapping and where we were on campus from an aerial photo, I was necessary to get that information onto the GPS unit. The first step was to import the shapefile of the campus buildings into the geodatabase. Once that was completed, we needed an aerial photo of campus. That image was imported into the geodatabase that we were going to use for mapping the different features around campus.

After all the features were created and images imported, the next step was to put them all into ArcMap. The only thing that showed up on the map was the aerial photo of campus and the different digitized buildings. Since some features were created for practice and others for actual use, it was necessary to symbolize them accordingly. They were symbolized based upon color so they would not get mixed up while in the field collecting data.

After all the features were symbolized and everything was put into ArcMap, it was then necessary to open up ArcPad Data Manager. Once ArcPad was opened, we had to get our data ready for ArcPad. Within the action menu, the background layer format had to be changed to an AXF layer and the background layer editing had to be changed to editing allowed. Without making sure the layers were checked out they could not ever be set to copyout. Once the data was ready to be deployed, it was necessary to save an .apm file to a desired location otherwise it would not allow for the map to be shown in ArcPad.

After all the data has been deployed, the next step is to transfer the data onto the Juno GPS. Once the GPS was connected to the computer, the folder that was created at the very beginning needed to be transferred to the GPS memory card. After all the data was transferred, the GPS was set to go start mapping the desired features of campus.

Following the collection of the campus features data, the data then needed to be transferred back onto the computer to be mapped in ArcMap.  Once the GPS was connected to the computer, ArcPad Data Manager needed to be accessed once again.  Navigating to the folder with the .axf file, it showed all the features that were collected. In this table, point, line and polygon were checked to be checked into the map. The reason only these features were included in the map is because they were the final product while mapping on campus. Once all the features were in ArcMap the next step was to build a map that made sense to the viewer and was easy to read. 

Results:

Figure 3.1 shows the results from taking the GPS around different parts of campus. Different areas that were included in the mapping were light poles, trees, the walking bridge and some grassy areas in the campus mall.

Sources: 

GPS data collected by: Matt Brueske

W:\geog\CHupy\geog335_s14\lab\lab3