Tutorial 1: The Basics of ArcGIS

2-1 Understanding the Availability of GIS Data

Basic Concept and Operation of ArcCatalog

Exercise 1: Start ArcCatalog and Create Folders

1. Click Start > All programs > ArcGIS > ArcCatalog (refer to the left side of the
figure below). The ArcCatalog window will appear.

2. Right-click the C drive > click New > click Folder (refer to the right side of the
figure below). A new folder with the folder name of “New Folder” will be added
into the directory tree.

3. Change the name of the new folder to “GIS_Exercise” using one of the following
methods:

- Click the name box of the folder and make sure the folder name is highlighted.

- Right-click the folder > click Rename.

4. Referring to steps 2 and 3 above, create four (4) sub-folders in the folder
GIS_Exercise, and name them “Database” “Result”, “Temp” and “Maps”,
respectively. Under the folder Database create a folder “My_data”.

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5. Click the Icon for “Connect to Folder” from the ArcCatalog tool bar >

browse to the newly created folder GIS_Exercise > click the OK button. A new
connection will be added to your directory tree.

The above steps are not absolutely necessary for GIS processing, but you might find
these preparations could simplify the procedures.

Exercise 2: Check GIS Data

1. Browse to the folder

C:/EthiopiaArcGIS/Data/Shape. You can find
the contents of the folder appear in the window,
as shown to the right.

2. When you look at data in the Contents View, you might want to know more about
the data. Click on the data, then change expression of the view by clicking on the
tab for Preview. The shape of the data will be shown in the view.

ArcCatalog has three (3) kinds of data views, as shown in the tabs; they are
Contents, Preview and Metadata.

3. In the Preview window, you can use tools such as these to zoom
in, zoom out, pan and set the full extent to view the data in any way you like.

4. Go back to Contents View and select the Shape folder. You can find the default

expression of the ArcCatalog is Details . The Contents window can be

displayed in 4 ways.

5. From the tool bar click the icon for List , and then Large Icons so you can
see the difference of the display.

6. When you click the icon for Thumbnails , you will find several data are
expressed as thumbnails, but many other data are not.

7. If you prefer the expression of thumbnails, you can create them by yourself. Select

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 a GIS data item for which you would like to create a thumbnail, change the data

view from Contents to Preview, and click the Create Thumbnail Tool . Now
when you go back to the Contents View, you should find the icon for general files
has been substituted by a thumbnail.

Exercise 3: Create GeoDB and Components

GeoDB creation can prevent damage to original data and neatly arrange the necessary
GIS data for your work.

1. Right-click the folder

Database that you created
in Exercise_1. Click New
> click Personal
Geodatabase. A new
personal geodatabase
(GeoDB) will be added to
the Database folder.

2. Change the name of the new personal GeoDB to “Ethiopia”.

3. Now create a new data set, Geographic_C, for geographic data under the GeoDB
Ethiopia. To do this:

- Right-click GeoDB Ethiopia > click New > click Feature Dataset. The
New Feature Dataset window will appear.
- Input Geographic_C into the Name textbox.
- Click the Edit... button. Make sure you are viewing the Coordinate
System tab.
- Click the Select... button. The Browse for Coordinate System window
will appear.
- Double-click to expand the folder “Geographic Coordinate Systems”
- Double-click to expand the folder “World”
- Select WGS 1984.prj
- Click the Add button. Check the Name box and be sure it is

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 GCS_WGS_1984.
- Click the OK button > click the OK button.

4. Import shape files with geographic coordinate system.

- Right-click the new dataset of Geographic_C > click Import > click
Feature Class (single). The Feature Class To Feature Class window will
appear.

- Click the Browse button next to the textbox for Input Features >

browse to the folder C:/EthiopiaArcGIS/Data/Shape > select the feature

(shape file) of A_Ababa.shp > click the Add button.

- In the textbox for Output Feature Class Name input the same file name;
in this case A_Ababa.

- Scroll down and select DISABLED in both the optional textboxes of

Output will contain Measure(M) values and output will contain Z
values.

- Click the OK button. The shape file A_Ababa will be imported into your
feature dataset of Geographic_C.

5. Referring to steps 1 & 2, create a new GeoDB for Image.

6. Import raster data into the new GeoDB Image with the following procedure:

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 - Right-click GeoDB Image > click Import > click Raster Datasets...
The Raster to Geodatabase (multiple) window will appear.

- Click the Browse icon next to the textbox for Input rasters >

browse to the folder C:/EthiopiaArcGIS/Data/Image

- Select the image file of Aa_river_base.jpg > click the Add button > then
click OK.

7. Click the View menu > Click Refresh.

8. Expand the GeoDB Image to check that the data import was successful.

9. Create 3 more GeoDB: CountryData, OtherData and Grid&Tin. There is no

need to create a dataset.

10. Import table data into the new GeoDB of OtherData with the following procedure:

- Right-click the new GeoDB OtherData > click Import > click Table
(single). The Table To Table window will appear.

- Click the Browse button next to the textbox of Input Table > browse

to the folder C:/EthiopiaArcGIS/Data/OtherData, select the text format

table of AAs_DrySeason.txt and Add.

- The GeoDB C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/OtherData will be selected

automatically in the textbox of Output table Location.

- Input the same name AAs_DrySeason to the textbox of Output Table

Name.

- Click the OK button.

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 - Select the newly imported table from the directory tree, and click Preview
to check the content of the table you have imported into the GeoDB.

11. Referring to the steps illustrated above, add GIS data into each GeoDB following
the table below.

GeoDB Name Type Source Folder

well_3km.shp shape Data/Shape
roads.shp shape Data/Shape
Ethiopia railway.shp shape Data/Shape
aa_rv_old.shp shape Data/Shape
polygonE shape Data/Shape
Baseline_primary_data_a3.jpg jpg Data/Image
ethiopia.jpg jpg Data/Image
ethiopiaN.jpg jpg Data/Image
Image
geology.jpg jpg Data/Image
map_ethiopia_small.tif tif Data/Image
afoutline.tif tif Data/Image
africa_administrative.shp shape Data/Shape
africa_countries.shp shape Data/Shape
BTPMS shape Data/Shape
cntry_pt.shp shape Data/Shape
nss_gridbase.shp shape Data/Shape
Thana.shp shape Data/Shape
UTM_Zone shape Data/Shape
MrSID_Index shape Data/Shape
OtherData SRTM_Index shape Data/Shape
SA_prj1.shp shape Data/Shape/Prj_E
SA_prj2.shp shape Data/Shape/Prj_E
SA_prj3.shp shape Data/Shape/Prj_E
SA_prj4.shp shape Data/Shape/Prj_E
SA_prj5.shp shape Data/Shape/Prj_E
SA_prj6.shp shape Data/Shape/Prj_E
SA_UTM.shp shape Data/Shape/Prj_E
Africa_rain_station.txt txt Data/OtherData
Remark: the folder Data is under the folder C:/EthiopiaArcGIS

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2-2 The Basics of Map Creation
Basic Concept and Operation of ArcMap
Exercise 1: Opening ArcMap

You can open ArcMap in different ways

1. Start ArcMap from ArcCatalog by clicking the Launch ArcMap button .

2. Referring to the method with which you started ArcCatalog, start ArcMap from
the program list.

3. Close one of the two ArcMap windows.

4. In the ArcMap Start window,

select the radio button for An
existing map > then double-click
Browse for maps in the maps list
box > browse to the folder
C:/EthiopiaArcGIS/Data/Map,
select the file Map1.mxd > click
the Open button. The map will be
shown in ArcMap.

Exercise 2: Different Ways to View the Map

1. There are two view options: Data View and Layout View.

2. Moving around the map in Data View

Zoom, Fixed Zoom In, Fixed Zoom Out, Pan, Full Extent, Go Back to Previous
Extent, Go to Next Extent.

3. There are three ways to show the table of contents: Display, Source and Selection.

4. Check the data contained within the map. Data Frame and Layer
(data under data frame).

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5. Show or hide the content of a data frame (check the plus or minus sign to the left
of the data frame)

6. Displaying different Shortcut menus:

- Shortcut menu for Dataset: Right-click the object dataset

- Shortcut menu for Layer: Right-click the layer

- Shortcut menu for the Tool Bar setting: Right-click anywhere on the tool
bar or the menu bar

7. Zoom to layer. Within this simple map you can find two layers from the dataset
Ethiopia and A_Ababa. However, it may be difficult to locate because the extent of
Addis Ababa is much smaller than Ethiopia. To see Addis Ababa clearly, you can
right-click the layer in the dataset to bring up the shortcut menu of the layer > click
Zoom to layer. Then you will find the layer of Addis Ababa will take the full extent
of your Data View.

8. Show or hide the layer symbol (Check the plus or minus sign to the left of the
layer’s name)

9. You can change the order of the layer by dragging and dropping a layer upward or
downward.

10. Delete unnecessary layers. You can find the layer aa_rv in the data frame of
Ethiopia. Because this layer is of no use for this map creation, you can delete it with
the following procedure:

- Right-click the layer of aa_rv to bring up the shortcut menu of the layer.

- Click Remove.

11. After you have done some editing of your map, you might like to save the result so
that you can use it any time you like. You can do it with the following procedure:

- Click the File menu to access the dropdown menu.

- Select Save if you don’t wish to change the location and name of the map.

- Select Save As if you would like to change the location or name of the
map.

You can try to save the map into your new folder of Maps.

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Exercise 3: Create a New Map

1. There are several ways to create a new map in ArcMap:

- Click the New Map Files icon

- From the File menu, click New > click My Templates > click the OK
button
Tip: If you create a new map from the File menu, you can select a template for your
map layout.

2. After creating a new map, you will find a data frame named Layers has been added
into the Table of Contents. Change its name of the dataset to Africa with the
following procedure:
- Select and click the name of the data frame Layers

- After the name of the data frame is highlighted, input Africa as the new
name for the data frame.

3. Set the coordinate system of the data frame as WGS84 with the following
procedure:
- Right-click the data frame of Africa
- Click Properties....
- Click the Coordinate System tab
- In the Select a coordinate system list, expand the folder Predefined
- Expand the folder Geographic Coordinate Systems
- Expand the folder World
- Click WGS 1984
- Click the OK button

4. Add data into your map. There are 3 ways to add data into your map.
- From the File menu click Add Data

- Right-click the dataset you would like to add data to and select Add Data.

- Click the Add Data icon in the tool bar.

Whatever method you use to add data, an Add data window will appear.

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5. In the Add Data dialog box, browse to the GeoDB
C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/OtherData, which you already created and added
several data items to in the previous exercise. Select the feature class of
Africa_administrative, and then click Add button. The polygon feature of the
Africa administrative boundary will appear in your data frame and Data View.

6. Open the layer’s properties to change its expression. There are two ways to open
the properties of the layer you have added into a map.

- Select the layer and double-click

- Select the layer and right-click it > click Properties....

7. Select the Symbology tab > make sure the Features / Single symbol is selected in
the list under Show:

8. Click the Symbol button in the Symbol partition. The Symbol Selector window
will appear.

9. In the Options section on the right side of the window, click the button for Fill
Color and the the color palette will appear so that you are able to select a color you
like.

10. In the same partition, click the Outline Color button, and the same color palette
will appear to set the outline color.

11. After you change the colors for polygon filling and outline, click the OK button to
go back to the Layer Properties window and then click the Apply button.

12. Move the Layer Properties window elsewhere on the desktop so that you can see
the map (Data View) clearly. Check the result of your color settings. If you would
like to change the colors of the map further, repeat steps 8 to 11 again until you are

satisfied with the color setting．Then close the Layer Properties window.

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13. Now you have created your first very simple map. For convenience to use the map
in further exercises, save the result. There are several ways to save the result map:

- Click the Save icon

- Hold down the Ctrl key and press the S key on the keyboard

- Click the File menu > click Save As...

Whatever method you use, a Save As window will appear to ask you for the
location and name under which to save the map.

14. Browse to the folder C:/GIS_Exercise/Maps, set the name of the map as “Africa”,
and click the Save button.

Exercise 4: Export the Result Map

The simplest way of to export a map result is to save the result as an image file; then
you can use the image in various applications such as MS Word, Excel and so forth.

1. Adjust the Data View to show the area of the map you would like to export. In this
exercise the whole extent of the African continent will be exported so you can
select Full Extent.

2. Change the shape of the

Data View to make it
something similar to the
extent of the map you
would like to export, that
is, to make the margins as
small as possible in all
directions.

3. Click the File menu > click Export Map.... (refer to the left side of the figure
below). The Export Map window will appear.

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4. In the Export Map window, adjust the settings as follows before clicking the Save
button:

- Output location: C:/GIS_Exercise/Result

- Type: jpg

- Name: Africa

- Click the Format tab to make sure the Color Mode is 24-bit True Color

- Click the General tab > changing the Resolution to make the numbers for
both Width and Height around 1000 pixels

- Check the box for Write World File

For the above settings, refer to the right side of the figure above

5. Add the result you have exported into your map, and then check it.

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2-3 Query and Select
Exercise 1: What is there

Using the Identify Tool

1. Open the map Africa you created in the last exercise.

2. Click the Identify Tool in the tool bar, an identify mark

will be attached to the cursor and an Identify Result
window will appear.

3. Put the cursor anywhere on the map and click. The identification result will appear
in the corresponding window showing the attribute data attached to the feature. By
changing the location of the cursor and clicking again, it is possible to view the
attribute data for anywhere in which you are interested.

4. The Identify Results window will not automatically close even after you select
another tool. Therefore, after you have finished identification, you should close the
Identify Results window.

Using the Select Features Tool

1. Click the Select Features Tool in the tool bar; a selection

icon will be attached to the cursor.

2. When you put your cursor on the map and click, a feature will be highlighted to
indicate it has been selected.

3. You can use the Select Feature Tool to draw a rectangle on the map; then all
features contained or that intersect with that rectangle will be selected.

4. You can also select features in different locations by holding down the Shift key
and then clicking the features one by one.

Different from the Identify tool, you can select one or more features with the Select
Features Tool to highlight all the selected features, but the attribute data of those
selected features will not be shown automatically, so you will not yet be able to tell
what is there.

5. In the Table of Contents, right-click the layer from which you have built a
selection > click Open Attribute Table. The attributes table appears.

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 In the bottom of the widow, the number of total features and the number of features
that you have selected are given. However it is still difficult to check all the
selected features.

6. If the current expression setting is All, click the Show Selected button at the
bottom of the window, All selected features will be grouped together in the window
and only selected features will remain in the attribute table.

7. Reshape and replace the attribute table to the left side of the screen so that both the
attribute table and Data View can be seen at the same time. Then, if you change the
selection, you will find the relative data of selected features will change within the
attribute table.

Exercise 2: Selection by Graphics

1. Right-click anywhere on the menu bar or tool bar and the dropdown menu for tool
settings will appear.

2. Select the Draw tool.

3. Place the Draw tool bar somewhere that would be easy for you to use.

4. Click the dropdown arrow next to the drawing tool list and select
a drawing tool, for example the New Line tool.

5. Draw a graphic within the map (Here, it will be a line because

you are using the New Line tool.)

6. Click the Selection menu > click Set Selectable Layer, all layers
in the same dataset will be listed in the Set Selectable Layers window. In this
exercise, we have only one layer in our map, so simply check it and then close the
window.

7. Click the Selection menu once again; then click Select By Graphics. All features
that intersect the line you drew in Step 5 will be highlighted to show the selection
result.

8. You can get the attribute data of the selected features from the attribute table in the
same way you practiced in the last exercise.

9. When you have finished selecting the features and checking the attribute data, you

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 can go back to the map. Click the Select Elements tool , click to select the
graphic you have drawn, and click the delete icon in the tool bar (or click the
Delete key on the keyboard) to erase the graphic to keep your map clear.

10. The selection result will not disappear automatically. There are several ways to
clear the selection.

- Right-click the layer from which you have built the selection > click
Selection > click Clear Selected Features, OR

- Click the Selection menu > click Clear Selected Features, OR

- Open the attribute table > click the Options button > click Clear
Selection.

Exercise 3: Show Map Tips

Sometimes you just want to know what is there, but not select the feature. You can
specify the tips that will enable you to know the attribute for any feature by simply
placing the cursor on it.

1. Open the map of Africa that you have used in the previous exercise.

2. Right-click the layer Africa_administrative, then click Properties... in the

following dropdown menu. The Layer Properties window will open.

3. Click the Display tab in the Layer Properties widow, and then check the box for
“Show Map Tips (uses primary display field)”.

4. Click the Fields tab > click the dropdown arrow next to the Primary Display Field
textbox > select COUNTRY > click the OK button.

5. When you go back to the map and put the Select Element Tool or Identify Tool on
a feature (you don’t need to click on it), the relative data of the feature will appear
automatically in a small box.

Exercise 4: Selection by Location

1. Start ArcMap > open a new map > save it as Temp into the folder
C:/GIS_Exercise/Maps.

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2. Specify the coordinate system of the dataset as WGS1984_UTM zone_37N with
the following procedure:

- Right-click the dataset of Layers

- Click Properties....

- Click the Coordinate System tab

- Expand the folder Predefined

- Expand the folder Projected Coordinate Systems

- Expand the folder Utm

- Expand the folder Wgs 1984

- Select WGS 1984 UTM Zone 37N

- Click the OK button

3. Add the two features well_3km.shp and roads.shp from your GeoDB Ethiopia
into the map.

The two features represent the main road and wells within Addis Ababa.

4. Click the Selection menu > Select By Location

5. In the Select By Location window that appears, click the dropdown arrow next to
the textbox of I want to and check select features from.

6. In “the following layer(s)” feature list box, check the feature well-3km.

7. Leave the box empty for “Only show selectable layers in this list”.

8. Click the dropdown arrow next to the textbox under the heading “that:” and check
“are within a distance of”.

9. Click the dropdown arrow next to the textbox “the features in this layer” and
select roads.

10. Be sure the box is checked for “Apply a buffer to the features in”, and then set
the value for distance to 1, and set Kilometers for unit.

11. Click the Apply button.

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12. Check the selection result in the map.

13. You might want to save the selection result into a new feature so it would be
convenient for you to use this result in other processes. You can right-click the
layer of well_3km > click Data > click Export Data.

14. In the following Export Data dialog box, check the textbox of Export to make
sure it is Selected features.

15. Browse to the folder C:/GIS_Exercise/Result, input the name of the output feature
as “temp”,(a Shapefile) then click the OK button.

16. When the result has finished saving, you will be asked “Do you want to add the
exported data to other map as a layer?” you can click Yes to add and check it.

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Exercise 5: Select by Definition Query

1. Open the map Africa that you have created in the previous exercise.

2. Open the attribute table of the layer Africa_administrative.

3. Scroll to the right until the field COUNTRY is visible within the table > right-click
the field head > click Sort Ascending. You can make sure that the country names in
attribute data of this file are given by their abbreviations and the country of
Ethiopia is designated as ETH.

4. Close the attribute table and then open the Properties of the layer
Africa_administrative > click the Definition Query tab > click the Query
Builder... button, and the Query Builder window will appear.

5. From the field list, double-click the field COUNTRY to add the field name to the
textbox below, “SELECT * FROM Africa_administrative WHERE”.

6. Click the button that shows the equals symbol, then click the button Get Unique
Values. Values within the defined field will appear in the value textbox.

7. Find the value ETH and double-click on it. You will find the query expression has
been completed as [COUNTRY]=`ETH`.

8. Click the OK button to close the Query Builder window and go back to the Layer
Properties window. The query expression has been added into the Definition
Query textbox.

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 Tip: If you are familiar with the query expression creation, it is possible to input the
query expression directly and omit steps 5 to 8.

9. Click the OK button in the Layer Properties window. You can see that all
countries except Ethiopia have disappeared from your map.

10. Using the Zoom In tool to alter the selected features (in this exercise, the entire
area of Ethiopia) to take the full extent of the Data View.

If you find the Zoom In tool is not easy for you to use, you can alter the selected
result to take the full extent of the map with the following procedure:

- Click the Selection Features tool and use it to select all features in the
map, (you can also right-click the layer > click selection > click Select All)

- Right-click the layer > click Selection > click Zoom to Selected Features

Through these definition query procedures above, you have extracted the whole
area of Ethiopia from the base feature of Africa_administrative. Since many of
the later exercises will use the feature of Ethiopia as base data, you should save
the selected result as a new feature which contains only the entire area of Ethiopia.

11. Export the data to create a file of the Ethiopia administrative boundary with the
following procedure:

- Right-click the layer of Africa_administrative

- Click Data

- Click Export Data

- In the textbox for Export, select All features In View extent

- In the next section, Use the same coordinate system as, select either “this
layer’s source data” or “the data frame”, because the coordinate for both
of them is the same as WGS_1984.

- Browse to the folder C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/My_data and specify

the new data name as Ethiopia.shp to save.

- Click the OK button.

- When exporting is finished, you will be asked “Do you want to add the
export data to the map as a layer”, click Yes to add and check it.

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Assignment 1: Data Extraction
1. Use the same data of Africa_administrative to extract the features of your own
country or region to make a new shape file named as your country or region.

2. Save the new shape file into the folder C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/My_data. And
then export the shape file as a feature into the GeoDB
C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/CountryData

3. Use the extracted country or region administrative boundary file and the index
feature of UTM_Zone (in your GeoDB of OtherData) to confirm the UTM zone
number of your country or region.

4. Make a note of the extracted UTM zone for your country. This information will be
used in a later exercise.

5. Use the extracted country or region administrative boundary file and the index file
of MrSID_Index (in your GeoDB of OtherData) to select the MrSID data that
covers your country or region.

6. Export the selected result as MrSID_OOO into the same folder and GeoDB as your
country or region boundary file.

Here, OOO refers to abbreviation of your country or region.

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7. Use the extracted country administrative boundary file and the index file of
SRTM_Index (in your GeoDB of OtherData) to select SRTM data that covers
your country or region.

8. Export the selected result as SRTM_OOO into the same folder and GeoDB as your
country or region boundary file.

Exercise 6: Select Feature or Features from Attribute Data

1. Open a new map, and set the coordinate system of the dataset as WGS_1984. (refer
to the Exercise 3 of Section 2 “Create a New Map”)

2. Add the data of Ethiopia.shp that you created in the last exercise into the map.
Save the map as Ethiopia into the folder C:/GIS_Exercise/Maps.

3. Open the attribute table of the layer Ethiopia.

4. Select a feature in the table by clicking the leftmost cell of a record.

5. Go back to the Data View (map) to see the result of the selection.

6. If you would like to select more than one feature at the same time, you can hold
down the Ctrl key and click the features one after another. Then you can find all
the features you selected will be highlighted in the map.

7. If you would like to deselect one or several features from your selection, you don’t
need to clear all the selected features and repeat the selection one again. You can
hold down the Ctrl key and click the feature that you want to clear from your
selection.

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Exercise 7: Select a Feature by an Indefinite Key Word

If you know the complete spelling of the key word, you can easily find the feature from
a map as you have practiced in extraction of Ethiopia and your country or region’s
feature. If you don’t know the exact key word, you can still perform the selection. For
example, suppose you only know the word “sosa” that is contained in the administrative
unit name, but neither the full name nor the field in the attribute table is clear to you.

1. Use the same map Ethiopia.

2. Open the attribute table of the layer Ethiopia. If there are any fields or records
selected, clear the selection.

3. In the Attributes table, click the Options button > click Find and Replace. The
Find and Replace dialog box will appear.

4. Input “sosa” into the Find What textbox.

5. Make sure the section for Text Match shows Any Part, otherwise select it by
clicking the dropdown arrow next to the textbox.

6. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Search textbox > select All.

7. Uncheck the flag of “Search Only Selected Field(s)”

8. Click the Find Next button.

9. Move the Find and Replace dialog box so that the attribute table is visible. You
will find the word “Asosa” has been highlighted under the field NAME2, and a
rightward arrow in the leftmost cell will indicate the record. As you practiced in the
former exercise, after you find the object feature, click the leftmost cell of the
record to select it. Then confirm the location of the district “Elkere” in your map.

If there is more than one attribute data containing the word “sosa”, the first one you

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 find might be changed according to the previous processing you did for the attribute
table.

10. Maybe there are some other data that also contain the word “sosa” , so you can
click again Find Next button in the Find and Replace dialog box to see if the
feature will be changed. When you find a new feature that contains the word
“kere” you can hold the Ctrl key then click the leftmost cell of the feature to add it
into you selection. After all data that contain the key word “sosa” have been
selected, a Record Search message will appear to let you know you have completed
the search.

11. Then you can go back to the Data View to check the location of the selected
feature.

Exercise 8: Select Districts with Big Populations by Field Sorting

The purpose of this exercise is to select districts within Ethiopia, but the selection
criteria is that the 1990’s population for the selected districts is greater than 100,000.

1. Open the map Ethiopia.

2. Open the attribute table of the layer Ethiopia.

3. Find the field of P90 which corresponds to the district population, and right-click
the field heading.

4. In the following dropdown menu, click Sort Descending.

5. Navigate using the the scroll bar to find the smallest value that meets the selection
criteria.

6. Hold the Shift key (or Ctrl key) down, click the leftmost cell of the record and then
slide back up to the top of the attribute table. All districts with a population greater
than 100,000 will be selected.

7. Go back to the Data View to see the selection result.

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Exercise 9: Select the Same Districts as in Exercise 8 using Query Builder

1. In the same map, clear all the selections.

2. Click the Selection menu > click Select By Attributes and the Select By
Attributes window will appear.

It is also possible to open the Select By Attributes window from the attributes
table: click Options > choose Select By Attribute.

3. Refer to the previous exercises to specify the Layer and Method.

4. If the query builder textbox is not empty, click the Clear button. (or select the text
of the expression and then click the Delete key on your keyboard)

5. Find the field of P90 from the field list and double-click it to add it to the textbox
of query builder.

6. Click the greater than mark button to add it into the textbox of query builder.

7. Input the figure 100000 to the right of the greater than mark in the textbox of query
builder.

8. Click the Apply button. You will find you have obtained the same result of
selection by attribute data sorting.

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Exercise 10: Combined Selection using Query Builder

The purpose of this exercise is to find districts in Ethiopia that have a population greater
than 200,000 and an area greater than 200 Sq km.

1. Refer to steps 1 to 7 in the last exercise to set the first selection criteria:
P90>200000

2. Click the And button to add the word AND into the query builder textbox.

3. Find the field SQKM which corresponds to the area in square km, and double-click
it to add it to the query builder textbox.

4. Click the “greater than” mark to add it to the query builder textbox.

5. Input the figure 200 to the right side of the greater than mark. The expression of
query equation should look like this:

[P90] >200000 AND [SQKM] >200

6. Click the Apply button.

7. Check the selected result in the

Data View.

8. You can also check the selection result in the attribute table with the following
procedure:

- Open the attribute table

- Click the Selected button at the bottom of the attribute table window.

- Find the field of SQKM, sort it to check if all selected features have an
area greater than 200 square km.

- Find the field of P90. Sort it to check if all selected features have a
population greater than 200000.

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Exercise 11: Select Districts by High Ratio of Population Increase

The ratio of population increase changes with district. For water supply system plans, it
is usually necessary to predict the population in the future, and the basic method for the
prediction is to use the past ratio for population increase as a reference. Here your target
is to find districts in Ethiopia where the ratio of population increase in the last 20 years
(from 1970’s to 1990’s) is 2 or greater. That is, within some two decades, the population
in those districts would have doubled.

1. Refer to steps 1 to 7 in Exercise 10 to set the selection criteria:

[P90]/ [P70] >2

2. Click the Apply button.

3. Check the selected result in the Data View.

The result looks like the figure shown below. In Ethiopia, the districts with a
relatively high ratio of population increase tend to be concentrated in the northern
and/or north-western part of the country.

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Assignment 2
Create a Map to Show the Districts with High Population Density.

1. Refer to the above exercise, select districts with high population density by the
following criteria:
[P90]/ [SQKM] >100

2. Export the selection result as a shape file Eth_popdnst.shp into the folder:

C:/GIS_Exercise/Result

If you are not familiar with method of exporting, please refer to Exercise 4, Section
2 for the procedure to export data.

3. Add the exported result as a new layer Eth_popdnst into the map Ethiopia.

4. Move the layer Eth_popdnst to the top of the map.

5. Set a light color (for example light yellow) as the Fill color of the background layer
Ethiopia.

6. Set a relatively dark color for fill of the top layer Eth_popdnst.
Please refer to Exercise 3, Section 2, if you are not familiar with color setting in
steps 5 and 6.

7. Adjust the map to show the full extent of the Data View.

8. Export the map in .jpg format into the folder C:/GIS_Exercise/Result

- Set the Format to 24-bit True Color

- Adjust the Resolution to make the number of pixels for Width and Height
greater than 1000.

The above format and resolution setting should be taken as default for all
assignments in this course

- Set the name of export result to Yourlastname_E2. (such as Lei_E2.jpg)

Please refer to Section 2-2, Exercise 4, if you are unsure how to export the map
as an image.

9. Upload the resulting image to the folder saved with your name to the server
computer.

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2-4 Edit Attribute Data
In this section you will become familiar with the following processes:

- Making a backup before editing

- Changing the arrangement of the attribute table

- Deleting unnecessary fields

- Adding a new field

- Using a new field to do calculation

Exercise 1: Make a Backup before Editing

When you created the map of Ethiopia, you directly added the shape file Ethiopia as a
layer into your map. If no modifications are made, there is no difference between adding
a shape file and adding a feature class into the map. However, if you perform some
modification, it is better to import the original data as a feature class into a GeoDB and
then add the feature class into your map. This will prevent damage to the original data
even in case some error occurs during the editing process.

1. Start ArcCatalog, browse to C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/My_data > find the

polygon shape file Ethiopia and right-click it.

2. Click Export in the following dropdown menu then select To Geodatabase

(single). The Features Class To Feature Class dialog box will appear.

3. Set the Output Location to the GeoDB

C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/Ethiopia./Geographic_C.

4. Set the Output Feature Class Name as Ethiopia.

5. This window also allows you to select the field, but it is preferable to do this in a
later exercise, so we will leave the Field Info unchanged.

6. Select DISABLED for both “Output will contain Measure(M) values(optional)”

and “Output will contain Z values(optional)”.

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7. Click the OK button. You can check the result of feature class export.

8. Open the map of Ethiopia, then add the feature class of Ethiopia from the GeoDB
C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/Ethiopia.mdb/Geographic_C. You can confirm that
the feature class is exactly the same as the shape file Ethiopia.

9. Delete the layer of Ethiopia that is based on the shape file and then save the map.
Now you can start editing the layer without the worry of damaging the original
data.

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Exercise 2: Delete Useless Fields

1. Open the attribute table of the layer of Ethiopia.

2. Check the attribute data field to see that the two left-most fields, OBJECTID_1
and Shape, have an asterisk (“*”) mark with them. This mark indicates that these
data are not available for editing.

3. The third field OBJECTID keeps an index value for the original shape file
Africa_administrative.shp, but this value is of no use for your work, so it is better
to delete it in order to narrow down your attribute table. Right-click the field
heading of OBJECTID > click Delete Field in the following dropdown menu.

4. When you are asked in a dialog box, if you are sure to delete the field, click Yes.
Then you will find the field has been deleted from your attribute table.

5. Also, the same procedures in step 3 and 4 can be used to delete other fields that
serve no purpose for this work, such as AREA / PERMETER / AFRICA_ /
AFRICA_ID / ADMSQKM / CODE / ADMINID / COUNTRY / DEMOFLAG
/ SR / Shape_Leng

6. The last two fields Shape_length and Shape_area are also unnecessary, but it is
not possible to delete them because they are not primary attribute data fields. These
two fields are added automatically when you exported or imported a shape file into
GeoDB.

7. Although it is not possible to delete those 4 fields, you can make them invisible
with the following procedure in order to better organize the attribute table of your
layer.

- Open Layer Properties

- Click the Fields tab and then uncheck those fields you would like to make
invisible

- Click the OK button

- Open the attribute table to confirm those fields are no longer visible.

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Exercise 3: Attribute Table Arrangement

1. Open the map of Ethiopia.

2. Open the attribute table of the layer of Ethiopia.

3. Adjust the width of a field. Do this by putting your cursor on the right border of
the field heading cell, the cursor changes to a border mark. Drag the border and
move it, a red line will show you the new position of border.

4. Move a field. Do this by putting your cursor on the heading cell of the field that
you would like to move > hold down the left mouse button to drag and drop it to
the location you would like it to be.

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Exercise 4: Add a New Field into Attribute Table for Editing

You have practiced selection by population density, but the values of the calculation
have not been made visible and saved into your attribute table. In this exercise you will
learn to add a field and add values into the field by calculation using present values in
the attribute table. The task here is to add a new file to save the result of the calculation
for population density.

1. Open the map Ethiopia > open the attribute table of the layer Ethiopia.
2. Click the Options button, then click Add Field. The Add Field dialog box will
appear.
3. Type a name for the field, such as Pop_denst.
4. Click the dropdown arrow next to Type and select Float.
5. In the Field Properties section set Precision as 6 and Scale as 2.
6. Click the OK button. The new field is added into the attribute table, but all values
will appear as <Null>.

7. Right-click the heading of the new field (Pop_denst) > click Calculate Values. In
the following dialog box click Yes button. The Field Calculator window will
appear.

8. Input the expression [P90] / [SQKM] to the textbox of calculation builder. Then
click OK button. Calculation results are added into attribute table with the decimal
place of 2 that you set in Scale of the Field Properties.

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Exercise 5: Edit a Value of Attribute Data

Method1

In this exercise you will learn how to edit attribute data by practicing with an example.
You will delete the space within the district name “Supe & Soda”, to get the edited
result of “Supe&Soda”.
1. Start ArcMap > open the map of Ethiopia.

2. If the Editor Toolbar is not shown in the ArcMap window, click the Editor

Toolbar Icon in the tool bar. The Editor tool bar will appear.

3. Place the Editor tool bar in a convenient location.

4. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Editor > click Start Editing.

You should have only one layer in your map so the layer Ethiopia will be
automatically selected as the target. However, if there is more than one feature class
layer in the map, you will have to click the dropdown arrow next to the Target
textbox on the tool bar and select the target layer you would like to edit; in this case,
you will select Ethiopia.

5. Open the attribute table of the layer for Ethiopia.

6. Locate the field for NAME3 and right-click the heading. Sort the data in the field.

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7. Find the data for “Supe & Soda” > click and edit it.

8. After you have finished editing, close the attribute table, click the dropdown arrow
next to the Editor > click Stop Editing. In the confirmation window to Save, click
yes.

9. Open the attribute table and check the edited result. You will find that you can not
edit as long as you have not set the layer in editing mode.

Method 2

If you prefer to use a method to find the data to edit other than field sorting, you can use
a method similar to the one you practiced in the query exercises. The task of this
exercise is to change the name of “Supe&Soda” back to its original value “Supe &
Soda” using this alternate method.

1. Perform steps 1 to 5 in the Exercise of Method 1.

2. Select the field NAME3 by clicking on the field heading.

3. Click the Options button > click Find and Replace. The Find and Replace dialog
box will appear.

4. Input the value “Supe&Soda” into the Find what textbox and click Find Next.

5. Check the selected result by locating the arrow in the leftmost cell of the attribute
table and confirm the selection has been properly performed.

6. Click the Replace tab in the Find and Replace dialog box, and input the new name
of the district with spaces as “Supe & Soda”

7. Click the
Replace button.
and check the
result in the
attribute table.

8. After you have

confirmed the value has been properly edited, close the Find and Replace dialog
box, then close the attribute table. Stop Editing and confirm to Save the results.

9. If you would like to check the result of the edit, open the attribute table and the find

2-34
 the input value “Supe & Soda” using the Find and Replace function to confirm it
has been correctly modified to its original name. In this step it is also possible to
confirm that the Replace textbox is shadowed because the layer is not in editing
mode.

2-5 Vector Data Editing

In the last section you practiced the basic method for attribute data editing. However,
there are various cases where you might like to edit the spatial shape of your GIS data.
In this section, you will learn the essential methods to edit vector data.

Exercise 1: Change Data Types

The three (3) basic types of vector data are point, polyline and polygon, all of which
consist of nodes. The most common vector data file is a Shape file and only one type of
data can be saved in each shape file. However, there are various purposes for which you
might need the same nodes expressed as different types. For example, you might like to
know coordinates of all nodes along a water supply pipeline, but a pipeline is generally
saved as a polyline type, so you need to convert it to a point type. Also, when you use a
boundary file to identify the area using other GIS software, such MicroDEM, all areas
within the boundary extent will be covered by a single color, making it difficult for you
to see the area inside the boundary. Therefore, you might want to convert a polygon to a
polyline. In this exercise you will learn the basic methods to change the type of shape
file.

Polyline Vertices to Points

The task of this exercise is change a polyline shape file that shows a stretch of railway
within the eastern part of Ethiopia into a point shape file.

1. Start ArcMap > open the map titled Temp > remove all layers within the map.

2. Add the polyline file railway.shp from your GeoDB Ethiopia/Geographic_C into
the map.

3. Add the Ethiopia that you created and edited in the previous exercise as a
reference.

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4. Move the layer of railway to the top of data frame.

5. Set outline of the layer of railway relatively thick so that you can see it clearly.

6. Click the icon to Show/Hide Arc Toolbox Window to open the Arc Toolbox

window, if it is hidden.

7. Expand the menu for Data Management Tools > expand Features > open the tool
Feature Vertices To Points, and a corresponding window will appear.

8. Set the factors in the Feature Vertices To Points window as follows:

- Input Features: layer of railway

- Name of the Output Feature Class: Temp2

- Location of the Output, C:/GIS_Exercise/Temp

9. Click the OK button. The type change result will be added into your map.

Features to Points

When you perform a groundwater simulation using the finite difference method, you
will create a model grid to divide your simulation area into many small square cells. All
the input data and output results are based on the cells you created. Also, for each cell
there is only one value which can be used for each parameter, such as hydraulic
conductivity or one result, such as hydraulic head. The value generally represents the
property of the cell’s centroid. Therefore, if you can change a point file to contain the
centroid of all the square cells, it would be convenient for you to prepare input data for
your model or process the result of your simulation.

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1. Start ArcMap > open a new map > set the coordinate system of the data frame to
WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_45N.
2. Add the polygon feature titled nss_gridbase from your GeoDB of OtherData. This
layer shows a simplified groundwater simulation model grid created by a JICA
study team to formulate a water resources management plan in Turpan, China.
3. Open the attribute data of the layer nss_gridbase, and you will find some basic
data are attached to the cells, such as grid code, coordinates, number of columns
and rows.
4. Make sure the Arc Toolbox window is displayed if it is hidden.
5. In the menu of Data Management Tools > Features (as above), open the tool
Feature To Point.
6. In the Feature To Point window, set the two factors as follows:
- Input Features: layer nss_gridbase

- Name of the Output Feature Class: nss_gridbasept

- Location of the Output, C:/GIS_Exercise/Result

7. When you click OK button, a point feature will be created and added into your data
frame. Confirm that the point is assigned to the centroid of each cell and all the
attribute data are kept to the new centroid feature.
8. Export the nss_gridbasept into your GeoDB OtherData; this result will be used in a
later exercise.
.

Polygon to Polyline

In this exercise you will use a polygon shape file A_ababa to practice changing the data
type from polygon to polyline.

1. Start ArcMap> open a new map > set the coordinate of the data frame to

2-37
 WGS_1984 > save the map as Temp to overwrite the old one.

Then you can use ArcCatalog to delete the shape file Temp2 that you created in a
previous exercise. If this is not deleted, it is not possible to save your output under
the same name to overwrite it by almost any of the Arc Tools.

2. Add the feature A_ababa from your GeoDB Ethiopia/Geographic_C.

3. Make sure the Toolbox window is displayed if it is hidden.

4. In the same toolbox (see previous exercise) Data Management Tools/Features,

open the tool Feature To Line.

5. Set the factors in the Feature To Line window as follows:

- Input Features: layer A_ababa

- Location of the Output, C:/GIS_Exercise/Temp

- Name of the Output Feature Class: Temp2 (if you have not deleted the
old Temp2 file, you will not be able to use the same name here and can
change the name to Temp3)

6. Click the OK button. The result of the data type change will be added into the map.
You can check the result of the change by making the A_ababa layer invisible.

7. Export the data type conversion result as A_ababal.shp into the folder My_data.
Rather than polygon to polyline,
the adverse procedure - to
change a polyline feature to a
polygon feature - seems more
useful in this work. You can
complete this task by using the
Feature to Polygon tool in the
same toolbox you used in the
last two exercises. You will
practice the polyline to polygon
conversion in later exercises.

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Exercise 2: Point Data Editing

Point editing is the simplest type of vector data editing. This editing task includes the
processes of moving, deleting and adding.

1. Start ArcMap > open a new map > save it as Temp (overwrite the old one).

2. Add an image Baseline_primary_data_a3.jpg from your GeoDB of Image. This

image shows the survey area of EWTEC. You will find a feature within this image
that shows the location of towns by red triangular marks.

3. Add the feature BTPMS from your GeoDB of OtherData.

This feature was created from other source data and is known to have some error
within it. By comparing the location of these two layers, you will find that the
BTPMS symbols do not match the image very well.

4. Open the Layer Properties window of the layer BTPMS > click the Symbology
tab > set Triangle 1 as symbol, black for Color, and 15 for symbol Size.

5. Make sure the Editor toolbar is showing if it is hidden > Start Editing > set the
Task to Reshape Feature.

6. Click the Window menu in the toolbar > click Magnifier and a Magnification
window will appear.

7. Drag the Magnification window to an appropriate location so that you can clearly
see a point that you want to move (refer to the left side of the figure below).
8. Click the Edit Tool > select the point feature that you want to move > drag it
to proper location and drop it (refer to the right side of the figure below).

2-39
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 to move all misplaced points to proper locations.

10. Click the Edit Tool > select an extra point that you would like to delete, such

as the point for Abosuke > click delete icon in the tool bar to delete it.

You can also click the Delete key on your keyboard or right-click the selected point
feature and then select Delete from the dropdown menu to get the same result of
deleting a point.

11. To add new point features, you must change the Task to Create New Feature. You

will find the Sketch Tool will become available.

12. Click the Sketch Tool > click the locations on map to add a new point.

13. After adding a new point, click the Attributes icon on the Editor toolbar. The

Attributes window will appear.

This is a simple point feature with only two fields, TYPE and NAME, in the
attribute table. All data in the TYPE field has the same value as Town, and values
in the NAME field give the names of each town.

14. Click the cell in the Value column which corresponds to TYPE, which currently
appears as <Null>. Input the value “Town”. Then select the Value which
corresponds to the NAME field and input the name of the town referring to the
background image.

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15. Find all other places where you should add a new point. Repeat steps 12 – 14 to
finish adding any points and attributes.

16. After you finish the point feature editing, Stop Editing.

Exercise 3: Editing Line Data

Sometimes we need to edit polyline data. Editing a polyline is a little more complicated
than a point. It includes not only the basic editing processes of adding, deleting and
moving, but also reshaping and snapping have to be carried out in many cases. In these
exercises, you will learn the essential methods for polyline editing.

Editing Preparation

1. Start ArcMap > open a new map > save it as Temp (overwrite the old one).

2. Set the coordinate system from of the data from to WGS 1984 UTM Zone 37N.

3. Add the image Aa_river_base.jpg into the map from your GeoDB Image.

Aa_river_base.jpg was created using a free program MicroDEM to process

digital elevation data SRTM.

4. Add the polyline feature Aa_rv_old.shp into the map from your GeoDB Ethiopia.

5. Set the symbology of the layer for Aa_rv_old as follows:

- Line color: Yellow

- Line width: 2

Aa_rv_old.shp is a temporary polyline file which represents the river route

distribution in Addis Ababa and its vicinity. Comparing the polyline feature and the
background image, it’s obvious that the river route line feature needs to be
modified.

6. Add another polygon feature A_Ababa.shp. Set the symbol as no color for fill and
pink for outline.

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 The layer A_ababal itself is not involved in the line feature editing, but will be
used in this exercise as a reference boundary.

7. Start Editing > in the following Start Editing window select the GeoDB
OtherData as Source, because, as shown in the feature list, your target feature
Aa_rv_old is from this GeoDB.

8. Set the editing Target to the layer of Aa_rv_old, and the Task to Reshape
Feature.

Moving All Features Together

1. Zoom into the map and you can find that all river
routes in the layer aa_rv_old are out of alignment in a
lower-left direction.

2. Find a location from where you can measure the amount of deviation between the

line feature and image, and click the Measure icon

- Click on a line that stretches in a nearly vertical direction

- Move your cursor horizontally to the corresponding point in the image

- Read the value of measure from the lower left corner of the window, take a
note of the value.

In this way, it is possible to measure the line deviation in a horizontal direction.

3. Use a similar procedure to measure the deviation in a vertical direction.

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4. Set the Data View to Full Extent.

5. Set the layer aa_rv_old as the only selectable layer (Selection Menu > Set
Selectable Layers)

6. Select all features in the layer aa_rv_old by one of the following methods:

- Use the Editor tool to drag a rectangle covering all features

- Right-click the layer > click Selection > click Select All.

7. Click the dropdown arrow next to Editor > click Move. The Delta X, Y dialog box
will appear. Input the value according to your notes for amount in the X and Y
dicrections, then click Enter key on your keyboard.

8. Check the result. If you are not satisfied, you can use the Undo button to

recover the former shape, and then repeat the above process until you complete
moving all line features to a satisfactory position.

Moving a Single Feature

1. In the same way that you moved all features together, it is possible to select only
one or a certain number of features, and move the selection by specifying the X and
Y direction values.

2. You can also move a line feature by selecting it > zoom in to a large enough extent
or use the magnifier window > drag and drop the feature to any place you think it
should be located.

Operating with Nodes

1. Use the Edit tool to select a line feature and double-click on it. All the nodes

within the selected feature will appear as small square marks.

2. Place the cursor somewhere along the selected feature where there is not a node but
you would like to add one. You cursor will change to a cross mark with arrows
attached to it.

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3. You can add a node in that place by right-clicking to open the dropdown menu, then
clicking Insert Vertex.

4. Place the cursor on one of the nodes. The cursor will change to a square mark
surrounded with 4 arrows.

5. You can click on the node to drag and drop it to a new location.

6. You can also delete a node by selecting it > right-clicking to open the dropdown
menu > clicking Delete Vertex.

Splitting a Line

1. After a line feature is selected, the Split Tool in the Editor toolbar will

become available. Click the tool and place the cursor within the map. You will see
the cursor has changed to a circle mark with a cross in it.

2. You can use this tool to split a line by clicking any point on the (selected) line being
edited.

Creating a New Line

1. Set the Task to Create New Feature. The Sketch Tool will become

available.

2. Click the Sketch Tool, when you put your cursor within the Data View, the cursor
will change to a circle mark with a cross in it.

3. A node will be added by clicking once on a point in the Data View. You can then
trace the image by clicking several times to add several nodes which will be linked
by a line. The last node added is colored red.

4. When you get to the last node for a line, double-click to conclude the new line
creation.

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Snapping

1. Click the dropdown arrow next to Editor > click Options > select the General tab.

2. Click the dropdown arrow under Snapping tolerance and select map units as the
type of measurement unit.

3. Type 20 as the desired

number of measurement
units in the Snapping
tolerance textbox.

4. Click the OK button to

finish snap unit setting.

5. Click the dropdown arrow next to Editor and click Snapping. The Snap
Environment window will appear.

6. Check the boxes for Edge and End for the layer that you would like to edit.

Checking these boxes specifies that, in creating a new line or editing an existing
line, when you drag the end of the editing line and drop it somewhere near another
existing target line, the end point will snap to that target line.

7. Close the Snapping Environment dialog box.

8. Set the Task to Reshape Feature > find a line feature that is not properly snapped

to another line that should be joint to > zoom in to it > click Edit Tool and

then double-click the line to make the nodes on the line shown.

9. Put your cursor on the end node of the editing line > drag the node to some where
near the destination line. The node will be automatically put on the destination line.

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10. After you have finished editing the line, Stop Editing.

Exercise 4: Dissolving Polygon Data

In this exercise, you will learn how to dissolve polygons that have the same properties
to create a new polygon feature class. The task of the exercise is to combine all districts
within the same region to create a polygon feature representing a region boundary.

1. Start ArcMap, open the map of Ethiopia.

2. Make sure the Arc Toolbox window is showing if it is hidden.

3. Expand the menu for Data Management Tools > expand the menu for
Generalization > double-click the Dissolve tool. The Dissolve window will
appear.

4. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Input Features textbox > select the layer for
Ethiopia.

5. Set the output location as your GeoDB of Ethiopia/Geographic_C. See

instructions below on the suggested Name for the file before you save.

6. The default method for naming the output feature class of Dissolve tool is the
original name and Dissolve with an underscore in between, i.e. Ethiopia_Dissolve.
This name is probably inconvenient to identify the dissolve result, so it is
recommended that you change the name to Eth_Region.

7. The field NAME1 corresponds to the name of region in the input layer, so you can
check the selection box next to the field of NAME1 in the Dissolve Field(s)
(optional) list box.

8. Some attribute data for the original file Ethiopia are insignificant for region file
creation, such as NAME2, NAME3 and Pop_denst, so it is not necessary to select
them.

9. Other data, such as population and sqkm, are useful, so they should be added to
the new file by clicking the dropdown arrow next to the textbox of Statistics
Field(s) (optional) > select SQKM. The field is added to the field list, but an error
mark will also appear.

10. The error mark appears because you have not set the Statistic Type. To set the
Statistic Type, click the corresponding cell under the Statistic Type column and

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 select SUM in the following dropdown menu because you would like to get the
area for each region by summarizing all areas of the districts within the region.

11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 to add all necessary fields and set SUM as Statistic Type for
all the added fields (see screen shot for Dissolve below).

12. Click the OK button.

13. When the dissolve process is finished, the new file Eth_region will be
automatically added into your data frame.

You will find that all boundaries for any administrative units smaller than region
have been combined into corresponding regions. The new file Eth_region only
shows the boundary of the region.

If there is no need to use the new feature for another purpose, the process is
complete with the above step. However, the new feature is an in-memory file that
can not be used with other software, even for the previous ArcGIS of ArcView. If
you would like to make the result available for common use you have to export the
layer as a shape file according to the following procedure.

- Right-click the layer of Eth_region > click Data > click Export Data

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 - Accept the setting to Export: all features and Use the same coordinate
system as this layer’s source data.

- Browse to the folder C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/My_data

- Specify the new shape file name the same as the layer’s name
Eth_region.shp.

- Click the OK button to finish exporting.

Use the dissolved result Eth_region to add some decoration to your map to express
more information.

- Adjust the colors of Eth_region to display no color for the fill color and
pink for the outline, then set the outline width as 2.

- Set the colors of Ethiopia as any colors as you like, for example, light blue
for fill color and blue for outline.

You can then make a map that indicates both the extent of the regions and districts
as shown in the following figure.

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Assignment 3
Create Boundary Feature of Ethiopia and Your Own Country.

Requirement:
1. Dissolve the feature Ethiopia to create a polygon file that only contains the
country’s boundary (without region or district boundaries). Set the name of the
output feature as ETH, and the output location as:
C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/My_data
then export the result into GeoDB:
C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/Ethiopia/ Geographic_C
This result will be used for georeference exercises and others.
2. Dissolve the feature of your assigned country or region to create a polygon file that
only contains the boundary of the country (for countries other than Ethiopia) or
region. Set the name of the output feature as the abbreviation of the country or
region, and the output location as:
C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/My_data
then export the result into GeoDB:
C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/CountryData

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 Tip: To create a country’s boundary polygon file, there is no need to set any
dissolve field nor add any statistics fields.

The result will also be used in later exercises.

Exercise 5: Combine Two Polygons

It is usually difficult to collect high precision data for a vast area such as the whole
country. However, it is usually possible to obtain relatively detailed data for some
limited extent, such as the capital area or a survey project area. The combination of
these two kinds of data can be helpful to expand your GIS database to make high
precision data included into a vast extent or partially improve the level of precision for a
vast extent of data. In this exercise, you will learn several different methods to combine
polygon features and some of the basic skills to edit a polygon feature.

You have created a polygon feature to present the administrative boundary of Ethiopia
that covers the whole country, which was extracted from Africa_administrative. You
also have a polygon feature A_ababa for the administrative boundary of the Addis
Ababa area. In this exercise, you will find the difference in precision between these two
features and then practice the combination the A_ababa.shp into Ethiopia.shp.

Method-1: Union for Polygon Combination

Union of Two Polygons

1. Start ArcMap > open the map of Ethiopia > Make the first layer of Eth_region
invisible.

2. Add the feature A_ababa from the GeoDB Ethiopia >

set the symbology of the layer A_ababa as no color for
fill and the red for outline.

3. Right-click the new layer of A_ababa > click Zoom to

Layer. You will find a great distinction between the two
features, and obviously the precision of A_ababa is
much higher than that of Ethiopia.

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4. Make sure the ArcToolbox window is open.

5. Expand the Analysis Tools menu for in ArcToolbox > expand Overlay > open the
tool for Union. The Union window will appear.

6. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Input Features textbox > select the two
features A_ababa and Ethiopia, respectively. Both the layers will be added into the
selection list.

7. The same GeoDB is automatically selected for the location of Output Features
Class, but you can change it to the Temp folder, and name the output feature as
Temp.

8. Click the OK button. The new feature Temp will be automatically added into the
data frame after the process is completed.

In this way, the Union tool can be

used to combine two polygons,
however the output of the union
contains errors that will need to be
edited. See below.

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Edit the Union Result (Merging)

1. Open the Properties window of the layer Temp, select the Fields tab, click the
dropdown arrow next to the Primary Display Field textbox and select NAME3.
Then close the Layer Properties window.

2. Set the Temp layer as the only Selectable layer. (Selection menu > Set Selectable
Layers)

3. Make sure the Editor tools are displayed > Starting Editing.

4. In the Start Editing window, select the folder Temp where the output of the union
result has been saved, and click the OK button.

5. Set the Task to Reshape Feature and the Target to Temp.

6. Click the Edit tool > click somewhere

within the Addis Ababa area. A feature will be

selected when you click within it.

7. Hold down the Shift key and click the adjacent

features one by one until all the features within
the Addis Ababa area are selected.

8. Click the dropdown arrow next to Editor > click

Merge. The Merge dialog box will appear, in
which you can find all the district names of the
selected features. Select Addis Ababa because
all the selected features are within the Addis
Ababa area. Then click the OK button.

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9. You will find that all the extra boundary lines have disappeared. Check the attribute

data using the Identify Tool to confirm the district name of the merged result is

Addis Ababa, as you selected.

10. Although the editing has not been finalized, it is better to save periodically when
you have obtained some sure results. Click the dropdown arrow next to Editor >
click Save Edits.

As shown in the figure below, the northwest part of Addis Ababa is split into two
parts; these two parts should be merged to different districts.

Edit the Union Result (Splitting)

1. Use the Zoom In tool to make the part that should be edited take the full
extent of Data View, so that it will be easier to edit.

2. Change the editing Task to Cut Polygon

Features.

3. Use the Edit Tool to select the feature that

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 you would like to split. Click the Sketch Tool from the Editor toolbar. The

cursor changes to a circle mark.

4. Put the cursor on the line that you want to extend to split the polygon > click to add
a node.

5. Every time you click, a node will be added in that place and all the nodes you add
will be linked by a line. This line will be used as the split line for polygon feature
splitting.

6. When you finished adding the last node

that should out of the polygon you are
cutting, double-click to finish splitting
line creation. And you will find the
polygon is spitted by the line you drew.

7. If you are not satisfied with the result of

the split, you can simply recover the
former shape by clicking the Undo

button . The split result will be

canceled and then you can reselect the

polygon and redraw the split line.

8. To finalize the edit task, you have to merge both parts obtained from splitting the
polygon to their surrounding districts, (refer to the procedure of Edit the Union
Result (Merging) to complete the merge task.)

9. Stop Editing, after you have finished all the

editing tasks > click Yes in the following
confirm dialog box. Then you should have a
result as shown in the figure to the right.

10. The final task for polygon combination is to

edit the attribute data for the new feature
because most often when you use various tools
to create a new file, several fields will be
automatically added into the attribute table,
some of which are useless.

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11. When you open the attribute table of the Temp.shp, however, you are likely to find
some fields can not be deleted; an error message says that the file is in use. To
remedy this, save the map and open a new map. Then, name the new map as Temp,
add the Temp.shp into the new Temp map. You will now be able to edit the
attribute table and delete any useless fields.

Method-2 Updating for Polygon Combination (optional)

1. Repeat steps 1 to 4 of the last exercise to prepare the basic data for polygon
combination.

2. Expand the ArcToolbox menu for Analysis Tools > expand Overlay and open the
Update tool. The Update window will appear.

3. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Input Features textbox and select the layer
Ethiopia; click the dropdown arrow next to the textbox of Update Features and
select the layer A_ababa,
then click the browse icon
next to the Output
Feature Class to set the
location as your Temp
folder and the file name as
Temp1.

4. Click the OK button. The

update result is added automatically into the map and you will find the result is just
like the result you get in the step 16 in the last exercise.

However, using the Identify tool to check the attribute data of the updated feature,
you will find that all necessary data have been lost, such as SQKM, P90 and so on.

5. One method to add the necessary attribute data into an updated feature is to open
both the attribute table of the input feature (Ethiopia) and the output feature
(Temp1), adjust the arrangement of the two tables so as to view them both easily, as
shown in the figure below.

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6. Set the output feature (Temp1) to editing mode, then you can edit the datum one by
one referring to the input feature.

7. If you have difficulty properly inputing data for one or more fields, you can stop
editing and save the properly edited result. Then add one or more new fields and set
the value to be the same as the value in the corresponding field. Then start editing
once again. Generally, with this procedure you will overcome the difficulty of
inputting correct values for editing.

You have obtained two features, in which the Addis Ababa area has been replaced
by not only a high-precision spatial expression, but also the proper attribute data.
You can use one of these two features to replace the original feature of
Ethiopia.shp by exporting the data.

8. Suppose you use the new feature Temp to replace Ethiopia.shp. Right-click the
layer Temp > click Data > click Export Data > set the Output location as your
folder My_data where the original feature Ethiopia is stored > set the output
feature name as Ethiopia.shp.

9. Click Yes when you are asked “Do you wish to replace it?”.

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 You might also replace the feature class Ethiopia in the GeoDB

C:/GIS_Exercise/Database/Ethiopia

but you can not replace it by overwriting the file. Instead, close the map of
Ethiopia, open ArcCatalog, and remove the feature class Ethiopia from the
GeoDB. Then import the Temp.shp as a feature class of Ethiopia.

10. When you have finished updating your GeoDB, open the map Ethiopia once again
to check the update results.

Exercise 6: Other Processes for Polygon Data Editing

Preparation to Edit the Polygon

1. Start ArcMap > open a new map > set the Coordinate System for the dataset as
WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_38N > save the map as Temp inyou’re the Temp folder
(overwrite the old one).

2. Add the feature polygonE from your GeoDB Ethiopia, then add the image
Baseline_primary_data_a3.jpg from your GeoDB Image.

3. Adjust the symbol settings of the feature polygonE as: No color for Fill, red for
Outline and 2 for Outline Width.

The deviation of polygonE from

the background image will then be
clearly visible.

Add a New Polygon Feature

In the western portion of the study area,

the woreda Butagira is not included in
the layer polygongE, so the first task
for editing is to add a new feature for
the Butagira woreda.

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1. Start Editing, set the Task to Create New Feature.

2. Click the Sketch Tool > start a new polygon creation by clicking on any

point on the outside line of the Butagira woreda.

3. Move your cursor along the boundary line of the outside boundary and click on any
point where the boundary line changes its direction.

Clicking the mouse button will add a new node and all the nodes you add will be
linked by a line.

4. When you get to the boundary line between Butagira and neighboring woredas,
there is no need to add new nodes along the boundary as it is very time consuming
and nearly impossible to match all nodes to the existing boundary line. You can put
you cursor into the area of the neighboring polygon (woreda) and add just a few
nodes to cover the boundary line by the new polygon you are creating.

5. When you get to the outside boundary line again, you have to add nodes along the
boundary line as you did in Step 3.

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6. When you get to the end node of the new polygon, double-click to finish creating
the new polygon. The new polygon should look like the figure shown below.

Clipping

You have created a new polygon for woreda Butagira with a relatively accurate outside
boundary line and a very rough inside boundary. To modify the inside boundary you
will have to use the clip function.

1. Change the editing Task setting to Reshape Features.

2. Click the edit tool and then click on a neighboring polygon. The neighboring
polygon will be selected.

3. Click the dropdown arrow next to Editor > select Clip, and the Clip dialog box
will appear.

4. Accept the default setting

in the Clip dialog box and
click OK button. The new
polygon will be clipped to
fit the boundary between
the two polygons.

5. Repeat Steps 2 to 4 to clip the new polygon by its neighboring polygons one by
one.

6. Once you have finished clipping for new polygon modification, save the result and
then continue editing.

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Nodes and Attribute Data Editing

Up to now, you have created a new polygon for Butagira woreda. The inside boundary
is just the same as the original feature. But the outside line is composed with nodes you
added manually. When you zoom in to a larger scale, you might find the nodes you
added deviate from the boundary line of the background image. If you would like to edit
the outside boundary line, double-click the new polygon to show all nodes. Then you
can move, add and delete nodes to edit the new polygon.

The procedure is almost the same as you practiced for line editing, so there's no need to
practice it here, but keep this in mind for your own reference.

The new polygon will include no real values in its attribute data, so you should also edit
attribute data referring to the procedure you practiced for editing the point feature.

Cutting a Polygon

In the northeastern portion of polygonE, the polygon of woreda Alemtena is different

from the background image. There is an extra part protruding out of the woreda which
must be cut.

1. Be sure the editing Task is set to Reshape Feature.

2. Click the Edit Tool and select the polygon that you would like to cut. As soon
as a feature is selected, the Sketch Tool
will become available.

3. Click the Sketch Tool button and then

draw a line along the boundary line
shown in the background image.

Here, pay attention to ensure both ends of the line are made outside of the polygon
feature you are editing.

4. When you get to the end point of the line for

polygon cutting, double-click. The outside
of the polygon will be cut.

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 Tip: There is a task option for Cut Polygon Features within the task list, which
you practiced when editing the combination result of A_Ababa and Ethiopia. If
you set the Cut Polygon Features task, the selected polygon can only be split into
two parts, but neither part is erased.

Add a Part to an Existing Polygon Feature

In the Eastern portion of polygonE, the polygon of woreda Ogolcno is different from
the background image. There is a missing part you have to modify by adding it.

1. Be sure the editing Task is set to Reshape Feature.

2. Click the Edit Tool and select the polygon you would like to add to.

3. Click the Sketch Tool and draw a line along the boundary line shown in

background image.

Here, different from the exercise of cutting a polygon, you have to pay attention to
making both ends of the line you are drawing inside the polygon feature you are
editing (refer to the left side of the figure below) .

4. When you get to the end point of the

line for the polygon you are adding,
double-click. That part of the polygon
will be added to the edited polygon as
shown in the right side of figure
below.

After you have finished all of the polygon editing tasks of adding a new feature, cutting
and adding, Stop Editing > save the editing results > export the editing result to your
Result folder and then save the map.

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