GIS and Remote Sending Lab 2

Lab 2: Vector Data

Lab Description:
Lab 2 and Lab 3 will introduce two important concepts in GIS: vector and raster data. To give GIS users a
better understanding of vector data, this lab will go through the steps of symbolizing vector data, analyzing
data in attribute tables, and manipulating that data.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When starting a Lab, first read through the entire lab. This will familiarize yourself with
what the content is and will give you an overview of the lab.

Objectives:
The student will be able to:
1) Differentiate between vector and raster data.
2) Symbolize vector data appropriately.
3) Interpret point, line, and polygon data.
4) Add and manipulate data in attribute tables.

Key Words:
vector, raster, point, line, metadata, polygon, topology, resolution

Resources Required:
ArcCatalog and ArcMap

Data Used:
• elephant.shp: This is a vector (point) shapefile of elephants.
• ET_admin_boundaries_UTM.shp: This is a vector (polyline) shapefile containing national
administrative boundaries, projected in the UTM Zone 37N coordinate system.
• ET_region.shp: This is a vector (polygon) shapefile of the Ethiopian regional boundaries.
• eth_towns.shp: This is a vector (point) shapefile of populated places in Ethiopia. See
Eth_towns_readme.txt for metadata.

Background:
In order for us to learn about GIS we must understand what is meant by the “I”, or Information, in GIS.
Geographic information, spatial data, geographic data or simply data are synonyms of the information term
used in GIS. Knowing the format of the information and how spatial data are collected and created is crucial
for conducting a GIS analysis. GIS uses two general data formats: raster and vector. These formats display
similar information but in different ways.

Lab:
Vector data are made up of Points, Lines and Polygons.
Vector formats always include a point or "node." When nodes are connected to make a line, they become a
vertex—or a point where lines meet. When at least three lines are connected and closed, a polygon is
formed (Figure 1).

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Figure 1 Examples of points, lines and polygons.

The following are EXAMPLES of what may be represented with each form of vector data:
• Points: Cities or towns, human population, wildlife population, trees, GPS points, endangered
species locations
• Lines: Roads, streams, elevation contour lines, political or physical boundaries
• Polygons: Countries, political regions, national parks, lakes, oceans, mountain ranges, species
habitat range, watersheds and other boundary specific areas

Adding Data

1.1. Create a new folder named Lab_2 on your C:/ or D:/ drive or in another personal workspace location.
Then open ArcCatalog, and connect to this new folder using the Connect To Folder button. (It is good
practice to not have any spaces or unusual characters in your file names.)
1.2. Add data to the new folder named Lab_2. Once you have connected to this folder, copy and paste the
following shapefiles from the Lab_2_Data folder to your Lab_2 folder within ArcCatalog (not Windows File
Explorer).

• elephant.shp
• ET_admin_boundaries_UTM.shp
• ET_region.shp
• eth_towns.shp

1.3. Open ArcMap. (If you see the Getting Started window, just click OK.) Add all of the data layers from
the Lab_2 folder to a new map using the Add Data button . The map window will look similar to
Figure 2, which displays vector data layers for Ethiopia.

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Figure 2 Vector layers for Ethiopia.

NOTE: An alternative to using the Add Data button is to open the Catalog tab on the right of the screen. If the
catalog tab is not visible, click the Catalog button: . From the Catalog window, you can navigate to your
Lab_2 folder. You can click and drag the shapefiles directly into your Table of Contents (TOC).

You can organize your Table of Contents so that the point data can be seen above the other Ethiopia layers;
just click and drag eth_towns and elephant layers above the other two. Layers in the Table of Contents draw
from the bottom layer to the top layer in the list. Because of this, sometimes your data may appear “hidden”
if it is situated below a layer on the list.

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Figure 3 Example of the Table of Contents with eth_towns and elephant layers dragged above the other layers.

1.4. Once the data layers are added to the map, save your new “map document” by going to File→ Save…
Navigate to your Lab_2 folder and give your map document the name: Lab_2_Vector (the .mxd file

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extension will appear automatically and stands for "Map Document"). NOTE: Naming conventions are very
important in GIS. In order to easily locate and identify files, make sure the names you create are descriptive
and relevant to the contained files or map.

Now you can open this map document for Lab 2 quickly and save your work as you finish new sections of
the lab.

Exploring Point Data

2.1. First explore the Point data. Turn off the ET_admin_boundaries_UTM and ET_region data layers by
unchecking the boxes next to the layer names. With these layers off, only the points should be in the display
window (Figure 4).

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Figure 4 Point data with ET_admin_boundaries_UTM and ET_region data layers turned off.

Notice how the boundary of Ethiopia has disappeared but the points appear to fill the shape of Ethiopia.
This is because all of these points were taken or created inside the boundary of Ethiopia. Knowing the
physical rules of where geographic data exists in relation to other data is known as topology. Ethiopian
towns should only be inside Ethiopia and if a point representing an Ethiopian town is outside of the
boundary we should question the accuracy of the layers. (It’s also possible that there may be a projection
issue between the layers.)

2.2. Begin exploring the point data by changing the symbol of the elephant layer. Double-click on the point
(dot) under the layer name elephant to open the Symbol Selector window. Select a different symbol and
make this symbol large (+20 pt size) and pick a color that is easy to see (red or orange). Click OK. Now the
elephant point data is easier to see against the other points representing Ethiopian towns.

NOTE: It is very important to differentiate between the symbology of shapefiles (.shp) within a map so that
viewers can easily interpret what various layers represent.
Using the Zoom In/Zoom Out tools, zoom in and out on the points to see how many points make the
elephant layer.

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2.3. Another way to explore the points is to open the Attribute Table. Right-click on the layer name (in this
case, elephant) and select Open Attribute Table. This is the “information” that’s associated with the
features (points, in this case) that you see on the map (Figure 5).

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Figure 5 Using the Attribute Table to explore point data

How many elephant points are in this table? Notice at the bottom of the table where it states “0 out of 33
Selected.” This indicates how many records there are in the table. (Warning! Don’t be confused by the FID
number. As you can see in this table, the FID numbers range from 0 to 32, but there really are 33 records.
Not accounting for a point titled “0” is a common mistake in GIS data analysis. The correct answer is 33
elephant points.)

Notice these points have very few attributes (or columns of data). Only four are listed: FID, Shape, Id, and
Species. The FID stands for Feature Identification. The Shape is the type of vector data which is "Point" for
all of the elephant data. The Id could code for another attribute but in this case is listed as 0 for all points.
Species indicates the species of elephant recorded at that point location. If additional data were available
for each point, the attribute table could include columns such as approximate age, herd, sex or other relevant
information available about individual elephants represented by the point data.

Exploring Line Data

Line data is another type of vector data. We will explore this line data using the ET_admin_boundaries_UTM
layer.

3.1. Right-click on the ET_admin_boundaries_UTM layer and select Open Attribute Table.

Q. How many lines, or records, are in this dataset_____________________?

As you can see in the Attribute Table, there is some additional information about each of the line segments.
Notice there is a column named Shape_Leng. This column tells the length of each line segment.

3.2. The contents of any column in an attribute table can be sorted from smallest to largest, largest to
smallest or alphabetical order by double-clicking on the name of the column. Alternatively, you can right-
click on the Shape_Leng heading, and notice that you have the option to sort the data “ascending” or

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“descending.” Click Sort Ascending. The numbers you see in the column are now in order from shortest
line to longest.

Questions:

1. What is the "FID" or Feature Identification number of the longest line segment? _______________
2. What is the length of longest segment? ______________________
3. Does this number make sense to you? _______________________

The length may not make sense because it is in decimal degrees units (not kilometers or miles). Decimal degrees
are units of Latitude and Longitude which make sense for locating places on earth’s surface, but are not a good
way to measure length.

When finished, close the Attribute Table window for the ET_admin_boundaries_UTM layer by clicking the
X in the top right corner.

Adding and Manipulating Data in the Attribute Table

In this section, you will learn how to add a field (or column) to an attribute table and then calculate the
length, in kilometers, of the perimeters of the administrative boundaries of Ethiopia.

4.1. Add a New Field. Right-click on ET_admin_boundaries_UTM and select Open Attribute Table
(Figure 6).

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Figure 6 Adding new field

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There are six field “Type:” options: Short Integer, Long Integer, Float, Double, Text, and Date (Figure
7).
Short and Long Integers do not allow for a decimal point in the data and are used for storing whole
numbers or nominal, ordinal, and categorical values as integers. The Float option will allow decimal
points in a field, but requires more storage space. The Double option stores up to 15 significant digits
in a field for more precise measurements; however, this may not be significant in many cases and
requires more storage space than float values. The Text option is used for nominal, or category, data
and can include descriptions of the data, such as a name of a road. The Date option is used for storing
month, day, and year.

YidNe_K In Add Field window,

give the new field the
Name: Length_KM
(Remember no spaces)

In the “Type: “dropdown field,

Click OK select Double

Figure 7 Editing the data type.

4.2. With the attribute table open, look for the Length_KM field you just created. The cells in the column
should be empty or say “0”. Right-click on the field name Length_KM and select Calculate Geometry…. (If
you get a warning about calculating outside of an edit session, check the box Don’t warn me again, then
click Yes) (Figure 8).

The only item you will

change in the window
is the “Units:”. Select
Kilometers [km].

Click through the

YidNe_K pages until the
calculation is
Completed

Figure 8 Calculating lengths in Kilometers.

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Now you should be able to see the lengths of all of the boundaries in kilometers. Another way to check this
is to use the Identify tool and click on any boundary line on your map. This will pop-up the attributes for
that specific feature.

4.3. Save your Map Document. Click on File → Save

Exploring Polygon Data

In this section, you will create a simple map layout that displays the names of the regions in Ethiopia. Turn
off all of the layers except the ET_region layer.

5.1. First, open the attribute table for ET_region and look at which field contains the names of the regions.
(Region_Nam)

Next, you will refer to that field to label all of the regions. To do this, open the Properties window for the
regions of Ethiopia dataset: Either right-click on the name ET_region and select Properties…, or just
double-click on ET_region.

Notice the tabs along the top of the window. Select the Labels tab (Figure 9).

Check the
Label
features in
this layer YidNe_K
box.

Change font size and

any other
characteristics you
would like
Select the
Label Field you
want to use
(Region_Nam
in this case)

Figure 9 Labeling regions in the Ethiopia data set.

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5.2. To give the map more contrast between regions, we can symbolize each polygon with a different
color. Open the Properties window again and select the Symbology tab.

In the
“Show:”
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window,
select
Categories,
then Unique
Values

Select
Region_N
am in the
“Value
Field”
dropdown

Click Add All Values, then click

OK

Figure 10 Assigning layer symbology. After these steps, the regions should appear with color symbols next to the name.

Observe the new map (Figure 11). Each polygon in the map has a different color. If there are many polygons
the colors in the map may repeat, but the contrast is better now because of the different colors between
regions.

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Figure 11 Map with newly assigned polygon colors

Zoom in and out of the map to see where the borders of the polygons meet. Notice the lines of the
polygons are complete and the color symbols fill the area within the polygons. The structure of vector
data builds on points to make lines (or arcs) and connecting three or more arcs to make a polygon.

Exercises:
1. How many points are in the elephant data layer?
2. How many lines are in the Eth_admin_boundaries_UTM layer?
3. In that same layer, what is the FID or Feature Identification number of the longest line segment?
4. What is the length of longest segment in kilometers?
5. What is the area of the largest polygon in the ET_region layer?
6. Points, lines and polygons are different types of vector data. List two types of geographic features
that could be represented by:
Points _____________________ ___________________________
Lines _____________________ ___________________________
Polygons ____________________ ___________________________

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