ArcGIS Exercise

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to use exercise your skills in basic data query and retrieval functions in ArcGIS

Create a folder named "Lab 2" on your data storage device and copy all data to this device.

Data:
On the Oncourse page under Resources download the Sept9_Data.zip file and unpack it to your working folder.

I. Answer the following questions (10 points each):

  1. What is the (approximate) distance from the southern to northern boundary or Indian Creek township in meters?
  2. How many polygons exist in the land_own1997 dataset?
  3. What is the area of the largest polygon in the land_own1997 dataset?
  4. What is the area of the largest polygon in the land_own1927 dataset?
  5. Describe the structure of the attribute tables for the landcover polygon dataset
  6. Describe the structure of the attribute tables for grid/raster datasets
  7. Why do floating point raster datasets not have viewable attribute tables?
  8. Overlay several of the road datasets from the Sept9 folder. Describe the differences between the road features. Which road dataset is most generalized? Which is most accurate?

II. Produce a map that incorporates the following characteristics:

  1. Start a new map document.
  2. Add a second Data Frame, either by using Copy and paste or Insert Data Frame from the Insert Menu.
  3. Under the File menu >Page and Print Setup select Landscape under the Paper menu. Maintain all other default settings.
  4. Make a basic map with 1927 land ownership boundaries, use whatever shading system you like.
  5. Make a basic map with landcover data, forest = green, non-forest = yellow

Instructions for exporting a map from ArcMap and insert into a MS Word document: