GIS In Archaeology
Lab Exercise 1 – Introduction to ArcGIS
Step 1: Load Exercise Data
Load all data into a folder named GIS_In_Archaeology on your working drive. The example here assumes that the working drive is the V: drive.
Step 2: Start ArcMap
Start ArcMap™. If you have a shortcut icon for ArcMap on your desktop, double-click it to start ArcMap.
or
You can also start ArcMap by clicking the Start menu, then choosing Programs, ArcGIS, then ArcMap
When the ArcMap dialog box appears select the Start using ArcMap with “An existing map:” option and click OK.
At Open file dialog box navigate to the V:\GIS_In_Archaeology\Labs folder and select the Lab_01.mxd map document:
The map document should look similar to this:
There are two main panels, the Table of Contents panel on the left, and the Map Window on the right. Above and below are various Menus and Tool bars.
Step 2: Display Tools Toolbar
Commonly used display and query tools are found in the display Tools toolbar:
Step 3: Basic Map Navigation
Try out these commonly used navigation tools:
Zoom In
Zoom Out
Pan
Fixed Zoom In
Fixed Zoom Out
Zoom to Full Extent
Zoom Previous
Zoom Next
When you have completed this task use the Zoom to Full Extent and Zoom In tools to return to the original map display
Step 4: Identify Geographic Features
On the Tools toolbar, click the Identify button . Click inside a state polygon to view information associated with the state. If you click inside Pennsylvania, the GIS will tell you that the population of Pennsylvania is 12,365,260.
Step 5: Find Geographic Features
Select the Find Features button to open the Find feature dialog box:
Type the name of a state in the Find text box (e.g. Texas) and then click the Find Button:
Right click on the results in the bottom window and select the Flash feature option. Notice that the state you selected flashes in the map document. Try other options as well.
Close the Find feature window and use the zoom tools to return to the original map display.
Step 6: Measure Distances
Select the Measure Distance tool . Once you click a point the map will show a “rubber band” icon and the bottom left of the ArcGIS window shows the distance in Kilometers. The tool will keep updating the distance measurement until you double click in the window.
Use the tool to measure the distance between the middle of Pennsylvania and the middle of Texas (you should get a measurement of approximately 2,200 kilometers).
Step 7: Select map features from the map
Use the Select Features tool to select map features.
When you click inside a state boundary and the state border will be highlighted.
Hold down the shift key and click in multiple states, to select multiple states.
You can also select multiple states by dragging a box through multiple states.
Step 8: Toggle layer display on and off.
Notice that next to each layer in the table of contents panel (the left hand window) there is a checkbox. When a layer box is checked the layer is displayed and when it is unchecked the layer is not displayed. Try turning various layers on and off and examine how the display in the map window changes.
Step 9: Examine the effect of layer order
Look at the map displayed in the map window, notice that you cannot see the border between the United States and Mexico. This is because the States layer is displayed on top of the Countries layer.
Move the Countries layer to the top by holding down the left mouse button on the Countries layer in the table of contents and dragging it above the States layer. You should now be able to see the border between the US and Mexico:
Step 10: Label map features
To place state labels, right click on States layer in the table of contents and select the Label Features option from the pop-up window.
Right click on the States layer and select the Label Features option again to toggle the labels off.
Use the Zoom tools to return to the original map display
Step 12: Explore Attribute Information
In the Table of Contents, right click the States layer and click Open Attribute Table to view the table data associated with each state:
Notice that the number of records is displayed at the bottom of the table window. In this case, there are 82 records and none of the records are selected. You'll learn about selecting records later. Scroll to the right to see all the attributes describing this layer.
Step 13: Sorting Attribute Information
Re-sort the Admin_Name field in the attribute table by: 1. Left click on the Admin_Name box to highlight the column, then 2. Right click on the Admin_Name field label and select Sort Ascending from the pop-up menu:
If you sorted the table correctly then the top row in the table will be for Aguascalientes, then Alabama, Arizona, etc….
Close the attribute table.
Step 14: Viewing attribute information for selected states
Using one of the procedures outlined in step 7, select the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York:
Use the procedure outlined in Step 12 to open the attribute table for the states layer. If you look at the bottom of the attribute table window you can see that 3 out of 82 states are selected, and if you scroll down the table you can see that the entries for New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are highlighted:
Click the Selected button at the bottom of the attribute table to limit the entries displayed to just the selected states:
Click the All button at the bottom of the attribute table to again display the data for all the states.
Step 15: Select features from the attribute table
In addition to select features from the map, you can also select features from the attribute table.
Make sure the States attribute table is opened and All records are displayed. If the data are not currently sorted in alphabetical order by Admin_Name, use the procedure in step 13 to sort the table.
You can select a row in the table by clicking the “record selector” on the far left of the attribute table. Multiple rows can be selected by holding down the “Ctrl” key while clicking record selectors.
Using the above procedure select the four states whose Admin_Name begins with the letter “A” (i.e. Aguascalientes, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas).
Close the attribute table to see the selected states highlighted on the map.