Geography 482/582 Lab Assignment Overview and Schedule

Last Updated: 9/18/2018

Note: See the Canvas website for all downloadable materials – assignment and data. 

This document provides an overview of the lab assignments associated with Geography 482/582 GIS Data Management. This document highlights the skills portion of the course, summarizing the knowledge skills and analysis abilities to be developed as part of each lab. By reviewing this document, students will gain a reasonable idea of the overall flow of activities as they form an idea of is and isn’t possible in GIS - particularly from a raster data model perspective.  More specifically, providing these directives, students will gain a sense of what they might want to plan for and think about regarding final project ideas.  Remember that we cannot introduce all capabilities at once, and thus the learning process builds upon itself as we move through the course.  Lab assignments are made available in section and due in section.

Lab Num

Lab Materials

Start Date

Due Date

Points

1

Forming a Geodatabase Schema

9/27

10/4

30

2

Building Out a Geodatabase Schema

10/4

10/11

30

3

Advanced Modeling with a Geodatabase Schema

10/11

10/18

30

4

Working with Enterprise Geodatabases 

10/18

10/25

30

5

Working with Metadata and XML 

10/25

11/1

30

6

Final Project

 

 

 

 

Status Report 1 

11/1

11/8

5

 

Status Report 2

11/6

11/20

5

 

Presentation

11/6

11/26, 28, 30, 12/3

10

 

Final Report and Student Peer Evaluation 

11/6

12/7

30

 

Lab 1: Forming a Geodatabase Schema – See Canvas website for downloads

GIS is becoming an increasingly accessible and important tool for environmental management. The usefulness of GIS to organizations that deal with natural resource management is determined in large part by the availability, currency and quality of its spatial data resources. Learning how to store and manage spatial data is important for successful use of spatial data for sustainability management. Developing a Geodatabase will enable you to access, manage, manipulate, and analyze spatial data more efficiently and effectively. In this assignment you will begin creating a Personal Geodatabase for the WRIA09 (Water Resource Inventory Area 09) in King County, Washington State. Students will learn how to create a geodatabase, including the creation of new feature datasets, feature classes, domains, and subtypes. 

 

The learning objectives of this lab are: 

·         Become acquainted with geodatabase schemas and elements

·         Create a geodatabase and associated feature datasets

·         Use different strategies for building schema

·         Define a projection for a geodatabase

·         Work with geospatial data portal capabilities for geospatial data access

·         Define geodatabase behavior based on domains and subtypes

·         Work with integrity rules for selected domains.

·         Work with SQL

·         Exercise Arc Diagrammer

 

Lab 2: Building Out a Geodatabase Schema  – See Canvas website for downloads

A geodatabase is a physical storage location for spatial and non-spatial data within ArcGIS. It can contain feature datasets, feature classes, tables and rasters. One of the advantages of using a geodatabase is to store and apply spatial and attribute behavior to facilitate data validation. We will learn to add relationship classes and create topology with a geodatabase in this assignment. 

 

The learning objectives of this lab are:

·         Add relationship classes to a geodatabase for selected feature datasets

·         Edit data within relationship classes

·         Work with map topology

·         Create topologic relationships within a geodatabase 

·         Edit topologic data within topology

·         Continued work with Arc Diagrammer

Lab 3: Advanced Modeling with a Geodatabase Schema  – See Canvas website for downloads

Geometric networks are used to model real world connectivity both man made (roads, water, sewer and electrical) or natural (streams) systems. Geometric networks consist of edge network features and junction network features. An edge feature represents a path along the network. Examples of edge features are roads, pipelines, or streams. Edges must come from a line feature class. A junction represents a point in a network where edges connect each other. Examples of junction features are road intersections in road networks, T-valves or straight-line connectors in pipeline networks. Edges must be connected to other edges through junctions. 

 

In ArcGIS Desktop software you can create and model relationship between points and lines (edges and junctions). Students can define rules on how features within the geometric network interact to model connectivity; these include edge to edge and/or an edge to junction rule. Much like geodatabase topologies, geometric networks are stored in a geodatabase feature dataset to maintain consistent coordinate system information. Geometric networks can be managed using ArcCatalog. Different from most items that appear in ArcCatalog, the geometric network does not represent a single entity, such as a table, shapefile, or feature class. A geometric network is actually an association among several feature classes and is represented by several tables in the database. In this assignment, students will learn how to create road network and stream geometric network. 

The learning objectives of this lab are:

·         Create a geodatabase network dataset

·         Create a waterway geometric network 

·         Geocode and address table to create a point feature class of potential pollution incidents on a street

·         Run network path analysis using the Utility Network Analyst toolbar

·         Continued work with ArcGIS Diagrammer

 

Lab 4: Working with Enterprise Geodatabases  – See Canvas website for downloads

Lab assignments 4, 5 and 6 constitute the final project. You will work in the SAME student groups of 2-3 persons for all three assignments. You will learn how to connect to the CyberGIS Environment in the Department of Geography, particularly related to enterprise geodatabases.  A geodatabase connection is used to connect users directly to an enterprise geodatabase when using ArcGIS Desktop clients. Such clients could include ArcGlobe, ArcScene, ArcCatalog, and ArcMap. This method requires connection syntax and authentication protocol to connect with the geodatabase server and can store a connection file on the user’s workstation. This method also enables the user to connect with versions of a geodatabase. Once connected, the user can see all data sets stored in the geodatabase. See the assignment for instructions. 

 

Learning objectives include:

·         Learn about enterprise geodatabase environment in the Geography Dept CyberGIS environment.

·         Connect to enterprise geodatabase Spatial Database Connect method

·         Add GIS data from source data to the enterprise geodatabase

·         Develop green infrastructure data for a Puget Sound in relation to a municipality stored on GISHub, see the Lab instructions for access.

·         Green infrastructure is a topic of interest to the Puget Sound Partnership charged with clean-up of Puget Sound waters

 

Lab 5: Working with Metadata and XML  – See Canvas website for downloads

In this lab you'll learn about XML and metadata in connection with data developed in assignment 4.  You will work in the same groups.

Learning objectives include:

·         Learn about the basics of XML and how it relates to ArcGIS data

·         Learn how to read and understand ArcGIS XML-based metadata

 

Lab 6: Completing the Enterprise Geodatabase Development - See Canvas website for downloads  

In completion of the final project, students are going to use the knowledge gained inside and outside of class to create an enterprise geodatabase. You will work in teams of two or three persons. This project will involve developing a geodatabase for green infrastructure associated with a municipality among those stored in GISHub. There are several parts to the project as documented in the table above and in the lab assignment document. All students within group will receive the same score resulting from the assessment of each part.  However, instructors will take into consideration individual student performance under special circumstances.

 

Learning objectives include:

·         Learn how to complete a report about database development

·         Exercise presentation skills