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Spatial Analysis

The GIS Process

The GIS Process helps us to make sure we are taking each step that is needed to make sure we are providing good information to decision makers.

A diagram phone the steps in a GIS process including: defining questions, acquing data, quality assurance, analysis, create products, and distribute data.

The critical elements of each step include:

Data Flow

Flow charts like the one above and below are great tools to show just about anyone how our data and processes move from one step to another. The spatial analysis phase of the process consists largely of operations on existing layers that create new layers. Each layer represents a specific type of data. We usually perform operations on one or more layers which generates another, new, layer. The flow chart below shows a simple analysis task that was part of a project to identify the owners of land that bordered the Klamath River. This was a project completed by a GIS student and was used as part of a multi-state effort to restructure the water resources along the river.

A flow chart showing the process to find the area of variuos land sues within 30 meters of the Klamath river

Note that the output from a spatial operation may be spatial (i.e. a new data layer is produced. Or the output may be aspatial (e.g., a single value, or a table).

Here is a YouTube video showing preparing data for analysis in ArcGIS Pro.

This YouTube video will show you how to do the analysis shown in the flow chart above in ArcGIS Pro.

Additional Resources

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