EXERCISE 5: INTRODUCTION TO ARCVIEWS SPATIAL ANALYST

READINGS:
Laboratory Exercise V.
Errors in GIS, UTM, Soils Handouts.
MATERIALS: Lab manual, pencil, Madison County Data (provided).
OBJECTIVES: After completing this ArcView exercise, students should be able to:
Create a new view in ArcView and add event themes.
Use the Spatial Analyst to buffer event themes.
Reclassify a grid using the Spatial Analyst.
Convert a Grid friction layer to an ArcView shapefile.
Use map algebra to combine (overlay) grids to derive areas of suitability.
INTRODUCTION
Today we will look at ArcViews raster capabilities using the Spatial Analyst Extension.
ArcView is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is designed to be a front-end GIS for ARC /
INFO (vector format), yet with some GIS analysis capabilities of its own; one of which is the
ability to create a cost surface / friction layer using the raster data model. Although not a true
GIS in the strictest form of the definition; ArcView, in many ways, can function as a standalone system with moderate GIS functionality. In the next two labs we will be focusing on the
raster capabilities of ArcView and in the latter part of the semester, we may revisit this software
to look at its stronger vector components.
PROBLEM
Once again we are going to do a site selection for suitability similar to the paper mill
exercise in Labs 2 and 3. This time, however, we will be working entirely in ArcView. To
select an optimum location for new construction in Madison County, we want a location that
meets the following criteria:

Within 1/4th of a mile from a road

Outside of any city limit
At least 1/8th of a mile away from a river
Within 2 miles of an existing utility

To meet the desired objective, you will need the following data themes provided in
c:\geo315\lab5

Roads.shp
Streams.shp
Mad_county.shp
Utility.shp
City_bndies.shp
Floodzones.shp

PROCEDURES
Complete the cascading process to produce a final layer of suitability. Name the
intermediate themes/grids accordingly. (e.g. Streambuff; CityGrid). It may be helpful to follow
the flowchart for Labs 2 and 3 since these are similar in nature.
Data Input
Open a New View in ArcView.
Add the needed themes to the View by either hitting the '
Plus'button on the Icon Panel or
choosing Add Theme from the View pull-down menu.
Repeat this process for each theme or hold down the Shift key while selecting them.
Double click on the '
Road.shp'theme in the View Legend Window, this allows you to edit
the symbols.
Double Click on the actual symbol and change the color to gray by selecting paint brush,
then choose to Apply this from the Legend Editor.
Repeat this process making the streams blue and the utilities red.
Projection Units

Next lets make sure our map units are in the same scale we want to calculate.

Go under View and Select Properties.

For both the map and distance units select feet and then click OK.

Road Buffer

Select the Roads.shp theme in the legend of View1 (it will become raised/blocked out).

From the Analysis menu, select Find Distance (ArcView'

s Buffer Command).

For the Output Grid Extent, choose Same as Roads.

In the CellSize field make sure the units are in feet and enter 132 (this is 1/40th of a mile grid
cells).

NOTE: Remember we want 1/4th mile but we want the resolution of our analysis to
always be finer than our answer, so we will recode this to aggregate them to 1/4th mile
later.

Make sure you hit '

Enter'after entering the cell size before clicking OK.

When Distance to 'Roads.shp' appears, select it as the Active Theme.

Choose Reclassify from the Analysis menu.

Classify this theme into two (2) categories [Acceptable / Unacceptable] with no decimals.

You now have 2 categories of data. Select the first field under Old Values and enter 0 1320 [1/4th mile].

For the second Old Value enter 1320 - [Max] (whatever the max value currently is), and click OK.

NOTE: Make sure you hit '

Enter'after entering data into each field before clicking OK.

Double Click on Reclass of Distance to Roads and the thematic colors - green for 1(Acceptable)
and red for 0 (Unacceptable) and Apply these changes.

Rename Reclass of Distance to Roads to 'RoadRecode' by selecting Theme Properties.

Select Distance to Roads and Delete this theme under the Edit menu.

Utility Buffer
Follow the same procedure for the Utilities as you did for the roads except:

When you recode (reclassify) you want 10560 feet for 2 miles.

Rename this grid UtilityRecode.

Stream Buffer
Follow the Same Procedure for the Streams as you did for the Roads except:
When you recode (reclassify) you want 660 feet for 1/8th of a mile.
When recoding remember the SUITABLE area is reversed; we want to stay away from streams.
Name the resulting grid StreamRecode.

Outside City Limits / Floodplains

We want to be outside of both the city limits and floodzone so we will handle this by
converting the themes (vector) to grids (raster) and recoding them into suitable/unsuitable areas.
Normally we would do this (as well as all of the analysis) using a Polygon / Polygon Topological
Overlay. Since ArcView cannot handle this, we must '
fool'it into giving us the answer by using the
Map Calculator to compute all of those areas where all of the suitable characteristics exist. Then we
create a new grid (raster) to depict this.

Select the City Bndies shapefile in the View Legend.

From the Theme menu, select Convert to Grid.

Call the new grid CityGrid and save it under your name in the directory.

Make the Output Grid Extent Same as City_Bndies.shp.

Use the same grid cell size as before, 132 feet, and be sure to hit '
Enter'before clicking '
OK'
.

For the Conversion Field select Place Name

Select No to join attribute to feature.

Select Yes to add to view.

Now make CityGrid the active theme and Reclassify (recode) it from under the Analysis menu.

Choose to reclassify into two (2) classes. Make all of the cities one class (unsuitable) and give No
Data (outside of the city limits) suitable.

Double Click on Reclass of CityGrid and change the thematic colors to green (suitable) and red
(Unsuitable).

Repeat the process for Floodzone.shp and select the Floozone_I item as Conversion Field

See how well the conversion works by dragging the feature above its recode and turning them on.

ANALYSIS
As previously mentioned, ArcView does not allow a full-fledged polygon/polygon overlay, but
since we are working with the Spatial Analyst and grid cells (rasters), we can use Boolean Operators
to find the Joint Occurrence of all of our criteria and output it as an answer grid (MapCalculation 1).

From the Analysis menu, select Map Calculator. All of the eligible grids will appear for analysis.

Enter each into the calculator with the appropriate Boolean Operator to calculate Joint
Occurrences.
Remember we want to be:

Within 1/4th of a mile from a road.

Outside of any city limit.

Outside of any floodzone

At least 1/8th of a mile away from a river.

Within 2 Miles of an existing utility.

LAB CREDIT
Diagram the Cascading Process involved in todays lab. Include all of the original and
derived data layers, as well as the generic GIS analysis carried out. Turn it in by the end of class.