GIS Essentials Series - Descriptions

1. Creating Reference Maps
Dates Offered: 3/16/2010, 4/7/2010, 4/23/2010, 5/18/2010 (10am PST, 1pm EST)
Reference mapping is an essential GIS skill used to create basic, traditional maps. The purpose of a reference map is to illustrate geographic boundaries, such as for a city or county. The goal of this class is to create a map of your area that clearly displays multiple geographic layers. Other topics include color shading, labeling, creating a basic layout and saving. (Topics covered: working with layers, color shading, labels, layouts, saving)

2. Creating Well-Designed Layouts
Dates Offered: 3/16/2010, 4/7/2010, 4/23/2010, 5/18/2010 (11:15am PST, 2:15pm EST)
Map elements such as a title, legend, north arrow, and scale bar should be added to map prior to printing. This is accomplished in the Layout View. The purpose of this exercise is to practice creating well designed layouts. (Topics covered: color, font, map flow, legends, sources)

3. Projecting Shapefiles
Dates Offered: 3/9/2010, 3/16/2010, 4/7/2010, 4/23/2010, 5/18/2010 (12:30pm PST, 3:30pm EST)
Defining the datum, projection, and coordinate system for shapefiles will ensure that the geography is reflected properly, that distance is recorded accurately and that all layers are visible. This class teaches how to project or re-project a shapefile. Prerequisite: Familiarity with ArcGIS required.

4. Creating Geo Databases and Using ArcCatalog
Dates Offered: 3/17/2010, 4/9/2010, 4/20/2010, 5/19/2010 (10am PST, 1pm EST)
A geodatabase is a commonly used file type in ArcGIS. It's like a container where you can store all files related to your GIS project. You can store multiple shapefiles, aerial photographs, spreadsheets and many other types of files. To group these items together in one place is very convenient as it provides one point of access for all needed files.

If you're only using a few shapefiles for you GIS project, there is no need to convert it to a geodatabase. However, if your project begins to grow and uses many files, it is well worth it to convert the project to a geodatabase. Also, it's good to be familiar with geodatabases, as many organizations distribute files in this file format. The purpose of this exercise is to create and work with a file geodatabase using ArcCatalog. Also, using ArcCatalog will be covered

5. Downloading Free 2009 Shapefiles from the Census
Dates Offered: 3/17/2010, 4/9/2010, 4/20/2010, 5/19/2010 (11:15am PST, 2:15pm EST)
The Census has begun outputting geographic files in shapefile format. These files updated at least once a year. We can teach you how to quickly download several shapefiles for any location. New 2008 files are available for the following types of geographies: Streets, Cities, Counties, Tracts, Block Group, Blocks, Water, etc. We'll teach where to get these, how to download them and how to open them in ArcGIS.

6. Downloading Census Data and Joining to a Shapefile
Dates Offered: 3/17/2010, 4/9/2010, 4/20/2010, 5/19/2010 (12:30pm PST, 3:30pm EST)
This class focuses on the basics of downloading demographic data from the Census, opening it in ArcGIS and joining to a tract shapefile file for their location. Students may select which Census variable to download.

7. Working with Attribute Tables
Dates Offered: 3/10/2010, 3/19/2010, 4/6/2010, 4/21/2010, 5/21/2010 (10am PST, 1pm EST)
Manipulating data tables (attribute tables) (such as adding columns to a table, or performing calculations) is a frequent task prior to making maps. This class teaches the fundamentals of working with attribute tables in ArcGIS. (Topics covered: Adding/deleting multiple columns, editing values, calculations)

8. Thematic and Categorical Mapping
Dates Offered: 3/11/2010, 3/19/2010, 4/6/2010, 4/21/2010, 5/21/2010 (11:15am PST, 2:15pm EST)
Mapping thematically enables you to visually show the distribution of data across geography. It's one of the most frequently used tools in GIS. Categorical mapping is similar to thematic mapping, except categorical mapping uses unique categories versus numeric data. This class teaches you how to mapping both ways.

9. Editing Boundaries
Dates Offered: 3/19/2010, 4/6/2010, 4/21/2010, 5/21/2010 (12:30pm PST, 3:30pm EST)
Occasionally you may need to change the physical boundary of an existing polygon. For example if your agency uses a target area boundary to deliver services and would like to modify the target area boundary as adjustments are made to service delivery, editing the boundary would become necessary.

The purpose of this exercise is to perform various editing tasks including changing a boundary outline, merging polygons, creating shapefiles out of selected polygons, appending shapefiles to each other and clipping shapefiles. (Topics covered: changing boundaries, merging multiple geographies into one, merging multiple shapefiles into one, clipping, custom selections)

10. Joining Boundaries
Dates Offered: 3/23/2010, 4/14/2010, 5/7/2010, 5/25/2010 (10am PST, 1pm EST)
Spatial joining is different from data to map joining. Spatial joining involves combining two shapefiles (and their data tables) into one. The purpose of this exercise is to perform a spatial join between a city shapefile and a county shapefile, and create one attributes table that includes the county where each city is located. (Topics covered: spatial joining)

11. Geocoding
Dates Offered: 3/23/2010, 4/14/2010, 5/7/2010, 5/25/2010 (11:15am PST, 2:15pm EST)
Address mapping (also called “geocoding”) is like creating a ‘push pin' map of addresses. This is a skill that everyone is likely to find that they need in their GIS work life. It's very helpful for things like mapping out diseases, crimes, client addresses, service addresses or really any sort of entity that has an address and that you would like to show on a map. This class focuses on taking a list of addresses (from an Excel spreadsheet) and geocoding them in ArcGIS.

12. GPS Point Mapping
Dates Offered: 3/23/2010, 4/14/2010, 5/7/2010, 5/25/2010 (12:30pm PST, 3:30pm EST)
In addition to mapping addresses, you can also map a table of latitude and longitude (x,y) coordinates collected in the field using a GPS unit. Latitude and longitude points are frequently used in GIS. They would be used when a particular place doesn't have an address, but you still need to display a dot on the map where that particular place is located. The goal of this exercise is to place latitude and longitude points on a map.

13. Spatial Queries and Buffers
Dates Offered: 3/9/2010, 3/24/2010, 4/16/2010, 5/4/2010, 5/26/2010 (10am PST, 1pm EST)
Performing queries allows you to analyze spatial information in more complex and sophisticated ways. This class teaches you to perform Attribute (data) and Location (Geography) queries. Additionally, how to create buffers are included.

14. Aerial photography
Dates Offered: 3/24/2010, 4/16/2010, 5/4/2010, 5/26/2010 (11:15am PST, 2:15pm EST)
Bringing in an aerial photography into ArcGIS is fairly easy. However, when combining aerial photography and shapefiles is more difficult. Learning to work with both types of files, especially in combination, is useful.

The purpose of this exercise is to import an aerial photograph into ArcGIS and to georeference it by associating a geographic reference to the image so that it's clear where the area is physically located. Lastly, you overlay an existing shapefile on top of the photograph.

15. Digitizing Paper Maps
Dates Offered: 3/11/2010, 3/24/2010, 4/16/2010, 5/4/2010, 5/26/2010 (12:30pm PST, 3:30pm EST)
Often people want to import a paper map into ArcMap. You may just want to view it digitally, or overlay other boundaries on top of it, or use the drawing tools to create shapefiles of specific target areas. In this exercise we'll import a scanned .jpeg image and "georeference" it. Then we'll draw polygon boundaries and create a new shapefile.

16. Using ArcGIS Explorer, a free GIS browser, to share data and build presentations
Dates Offered: 3/26/2010, 4/13/2010, 5/5/2010, 5/28/2010 (10am PST, 1pm EST)
ArcGIS Explorer, a free GIS viewer, is a great resource for sharing maps and building geo-presentations. ArcGIS Explorer is similar to Google Earth. Since it's free, and easily downloadable, it is a great way to share maps and geo-presentations with colleagues without any added expense. It's also fairly intuitive and easy to use for even the most inexperienced map reviewer.

17. Publishing Maps to Google Earth
Dates Offered: 3/10/2010, 3/26/2010, 4/13/2010, 5/5/2010, 5/28/2010 (11:15am PST, 2:15pm EST)
Often what people want to do these days is to share maps with colleagues and other reviewers. One way to do that is to publish maps to Google Earth. This class teaches you to take a pre-existing thematic map and upload and publish it to Google Earth.

18. ArcView 9.3x to 9.4: What's New?
Dates Offered: 3/26/2010, 4/13/2010, 5/5/2010, 5/28/2010 (12:30pm PST, 3:30pm EST)
GIS and mapping technology is changing every day. With the release of ArcView 9.4, find out what new features are offered in the newest version. While the rest of the GIS world progresses, don't be left standing still.

19. Creating Map Books and Geo-enabled PDFs - 9.4 only
Dates Offered: 6/3/2010, 6/9/2010 (10am PST, 1pm EST)
With the introduction of 9.4 comes the ability to create "map books" using Data Driven Pages. This new functionality is helpful if you need to create a book where the header placement and legend and other maps elements are static, but the map changes. The final product is a series geo-enabled PDFs.

20. Creating reports - 9.4 specific
Dates Offered: 6/3/2010, 6/9/2010 (11:15am PST, 2:15pm EST)
Creating reports to accompany maps is a frequent task. The 9.4 version of ArcGIS has much enhanced data reporting capabilities. Reports can give your reader much more information and provide credibility for the map's data. Prior to 9.4 most reports were created outside of ArcGIS, although Crystal Reports was occasionally used. Crystal Reports has been removed from ArcGIS, and in its place is a new and improved report builder. Report data can either be included as a part of your map's layout (if it's a small amount of data) or attached as a technical addendum.