Lab 5: The Music Festival, Part 1 - Acquiring Data

Introduction

The Tobler Music Group is looking at planning a music festival in Humboldt County. It is your job to gather all of the data, and ultimately select a final location and provide a preliminary environmental assessment of the site. In, "The Music Festival, Part 1 – Acquiring Data," you will navigate through GIS data portals and gather the data you will need to complete Labs 6 and 7.

Learning Outcomes

• Find, acquire, and evaluate data (raster and vector) from the world wide web.
• Evaluate appropriate use of data through metadata and visual inspection.
• Acquire data from Humboldt County Web GIS, USDA NRCS, EarthExplorer USGS, and the National Wetlands Inventory.

Walk Through: Downloading data for Humboldt County

1. Create a Folder Structure for your data.

If you need a reminder on how to setup a Folder Structure, revisit Lab 1: Dream Island.

Humboldt County's Planning Division collects and develops GIS data and software for the initial purpose of supporting the General Plan Update. The goals of the division have expanded to meet the GIS needs of federal, state, and local agencies. This data is readily available for free download through the Humboldt County GIS Data Download web page. The data comes in both raster and vector formats.

2. Navigate to Google in your web browser and search Humboldt County GIS.
3. Click on the "Maps & GIS Data" entry in the search results.
4. Take a moment to read through the Disclaimer and Data Projection sections to become familiar with the data available.
5. Click on the "data download page" link.
6. Hold down Ctrl and F. A search window will pop up in the bottom left hand corner when using Firefox:

7. Type Land Ownership in the search field, under Parcels, right-click Shapefile and "Save Link As..." into the Originals folder. Click on Metadata and read about the dataset.

8. Un-Zip the downloaded file in the Originals folder.
9. Complete a QAQC Form for this dataset

Skill Drill 1: Repeat Above for Additional Data sets

10. Repeat this process for Zoning (which contains zoning codes), Humboldt County GIS Roadway Center line, Cell Tower Locations, and Humboldt County.
11. Normally, you would fill out QAQC forms for each of the layers. To save time in lab, only fill out the QAQC form for one of the Humboldt County layers.
12. Add these layers to the report mentioned in the "Turn-in" section.

Walk Through: Other Download Sites

Humbolt County Zoning Code Definitions

13. Navigate to Google again and search Humboldt County Code Zoning.
14. Click on the link shown here and use the Ctrl+F trick to search Principal Zones. Skim through the zoning codes to obtain a better understanding of the acronyms in the Zoning shapefile attribute table.

Question 2: What zone is your home located in? If you need a refresher, see lab 4!

Rivers and Streams Shapefile

USDA NRCS Geospatial Data Gateway (GDG) is a national database which provides environmental and natural resources raster or vector data. This data is free when downloaded directly from the web, but can also be shipped via CD or DVD at a price.

We'll access the GDG to obtain a shapefile with the streams and rivers for California that is part of the Natoinal Hydrologic Database (NHD).

15. Navigate to Google and enter USDA NRCS GIS and select the link shown below:

16. Select Order by Country/Counties in the lower right hand corner of the website:

17. From the drop down menu select California
18. Highlight Humboldt in the list that appears and click the right arrow.
19. Click Submit Selected Counties.
20. Scroll through the available options to familiarize yourself with the data available through the Geospatial Data Gateway.
21. Click on the blue identify icon to read a more in depth description of the data:

22. Check the hydrography dataset and click "Continue" when finished.
23. Select the ESRI Shape format:

24. Select UTM Zone 10 NAD83 as the Projection for this shapefile:

25. Select "FTP" as the order delivery method.

This will ultimately provide a download link to your email address. Data obtained in this format takes longer to obtain and requires processing.

26. Once you have finished filling in your personal information, click "Continue".
27. Click Place Order in the left hand panel:

28. You can either wait for the order to complete or check your email for a message indicating your order is ready.

LandSat Images from the USGS

U.S. Geological Survey's EarthExplorer is a service that allows you to search and download active and passive remote sensing data, as well as cartographic products obtained through USGS at the national level. This service provides a Google Map interface to select your area of interest and preview the data available for bulk downloading.

29. Navigate to Google and search EarthExplorer USGS. Click on the link shown below:

30. Under the Address/Place tab, type in Humboldt County and select the option that becomes available:

31. Click on the "Data Sets" tab.
32. Expand the LandSat Archive and select L8 OLI/TIRS to obtain the most recent satellite imagery from LandSat 8:

33. Click on the blue identify icon (one with an "i" in it) to obtain additional information on the dataset.
34. Leave Additional Criteria at default settings and click on Results at the bottom of the page.
35. Navigate through the Data Set and select the satellite image that would work best as a basemap for Humboldt County.

You do not want a basemap that has extensive cloud cover interference!

36. Select Download Options:

37. From Download Options, select LandsatLook images with Geographic Reference:

The other options are not relevant for the purpose of this lab, but keep them in mind for the future.

38. Click on the Download download button that is not grayed out. Be sure to save this to your Originals folder.

Wetlands

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory is a comprehensive database that provides vector data on the Nation's wetlands and deepwater habitats.

39. Navigate again to Google and search National Wetlands Inventory. Select Download Data from the search results:

40. Follow the directions and read the sections labeled: Disclaimer, Data Limitations, Exclusions and Precautions, and the Wetlands Geodatabase Under Caution.

Note that there are two methods for downloading wetlands data - for this lab, we will use the Wetlands Mapper.

41. Select the Wetlands Mapper option:

42. Once this option has been selected, go to "Step 3" and Click here to Open the Wetlands Mapper:

43. Read and accept the terms and conditions.
44. Under Tools, select Download Data by State from the drop-down menu:

45. Right click on the shapefile and save the data to your originals folder.

If this takes too long, you can also obtain the file from the "X" drive.

Walk through: Creating Maps for Reports

Maps that appear in reports are much simpler than maps that appear on walls. Follow the instructions below to create professional maps for reports.

Setup Map Size

First, we want to setup ArcMap to create maps that are the appropriate size for reports.

1. Download and open the Report Template.
2. In ArcMap, select "Layout View" from the "View" menu.
3. Select "File -> Page and Print Setup".
4. For the "Map Page Size", enter "6" for the "Width" and "4" for the "Height".
5. Right click on the map area and select "Properties"
6. In the "Size and Position" tab, enter 6 for the "Width" and 4 for the "Height".

Map Layout

Next, setup your layers appropriately.

1. Right lick on "Layers" and select "Properties"
2. In the "Frame" tab, change the "Background" color to a nice light blue.
3. Click "OK" and you'll see that you've made the entire background blue.
4. We don't want Humboldt County to look like an island so load the "States" layers from the "X" drive.
5. Add the "Humboldt County" shapefile. and give it a good color.
6. Add the Roadway Center Line shapefile and symbolize it appropriately.

Adding Map Elements

Now, we'll add the appropriate map elements. This is a small map for a report so all we need is a north arrow, scale bar, and a legend.

1. Select "Insert -> Legend".
2. Only the county and the roads need to appear in our legend so remove any other layers by clicking on them and clicking the left arrow ("<")
3. Click "Next >".
4. We NEVER need the word "Legend" to appear in a legend, so remove it.
5. Click "Next >".
6. Select a "Border" for the legend.
7. Select a good "Background" color (white is OK).
8. Click "Next >".
9. We need to change the symbology of the legend but we'll do that after we've created the legend so just click "Next".
10. Click "Finish".
11. The names in the legend are probably still the names of the files and this is not appropriate for a professional map. Click on the labels in the "Table of Contents" and change the names to something that is appropriate (i.e. "Humboldt County", "Roads").
12. Select "Insert -> North Arrow"
13. Select a nice arrow that does not have "holes" and click "OK"
14. Select "Insert -> Scale Bar"
15. Select a nice scale bar and click "OK".
16. If you selected a north arrow with "holes" the map will show through. Right click on the scale bar and select "Properties" to fix this.
    1. In the "Format" tab, click on "Symbol 2".
    2. Change the "Fill Color" to white and click "OK"
    3. Click "OK".
17. You may also need to change the settings to make the numbers look good in the scale bar. One approach is to:
    1. Right click on the scale bar and select "Properties".
       1. In the "Scale and "Units" tab, select "Adjust number of divisions"
       2. Change the "Division value:" so the numbers are spaced out.
       3. Click "OK".

Bringing the Map into MS-Word

The next step is to get the map out of ArcMap and into MS-Word in a way that keeps the map of high quality and makes it easy to use in MS-Word.

1. Select "File -> Export Map".
2. Select "JPEG" as the type.
3. In the "General" tab, make sure the "Resolution" is set to at least 300 dpi, as high as 600 dpi.
4. In the "Format" tab, make sure the "JPEG Quality" is set to "Max".
5. Give the file a good name and save it into your "3_Finals" folder.
6. Open MS-Word and open the report template.
7. Click on "Insert -> Picture".
8. Browse to the image and click "Insert"
9. Center the image
10. Below the image, add a caption something like "Figure 1. Roads of Humboldt County (Source: Humboldt County, NAD 83 Datum, California State Plane Zone I)."

You may notice that ArcMap is not very consistent about placing neat lines around maps. Use MS-Word to create these for you instead:

1. Right click on the picture and select "Format Picture..."
2. Click on the "fill bucket" icon
3. Click on "Line"
4. Make sure the "Solid Line" radio button is selected
5. Click on the "fill bucket" icon next to "Line Color:" and select black
6. You can also change the "Line Width:" to make the line thicker

If ArcMap has a neat line, you may want to turn it off:

1. In "Layout View", right click on the map and select "Properties..."
2. Select the "Frame" tab
3. For the "Border", select "None"
4. Now, when you export the map, it will not contain a frame

Note: You do not have to repeat all the steps above for each map in a report. Just change the layers that are visible, check the names and position of items, and export the new map.

Summary of Data Download Links

• Humboldt County Planning and Building Department Data Download web page.
• United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service Geospatial Data Gateway.
• United States Geological Survey EarthExplorer.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory Data Download.

In Lab Turn-In

At the end of the lab, please turn at least two QAQC Forms one from Humboldt County and one from another web site.

Take Home Turn-In

Turn in a simple report that contains:

• A table with each of the layers
• An appropriate number of maps to show each of the layers you obtained. If the layers work well together, you can combine them into one map. Other layers, like the LandSat layers, will probably have to appear alone on a map.

A download link for a sample template for the report is below:

Report Template