Week 10: Spatial Analysis (week 2)

This week the map assignment was to utilize shape files to find potential camp sites that are within 300 Meters of a road, 150 Meters of a Lake, 500 Meters of a River and outside of any conservation area.  First to buffer the road shape file: Arc Tool Box button, Analysis Tools, Proximity, Buffer, 300 Meters and dissolve (overlapping buffer edges are removed).  Next to buffer the water feature class took a few more steps.  Separate buffers of 150 Meters for lakes and 500 Meters for rivers.  Insert field to the attribute table for the water feature class and name the field buffdist (for buffer distance), right click the new column heading and select field calculator and define the buffers for lakes and then "switch selection" button and define for rivers.  Next my first experience with ArcPy (is a Python site package for performing geographic information system (GIS) functions available in ArcGIS).  That's right Python, as in programing language!  I wrote my first script and practiced inputting multiple scripts to run simultaneously.  Next I had to get the water buffer and road buffer together.  The lab assigned a Union Overlay and then to export (TOC-Data-Export Data - Selected Features) to a new feature class.  Then to do another overlay that would result in the same outcome, I chose an Intersect Overlay.  For this exercise, I found no noticeable difference in the outcomes of the Intersect Overlay and the Union Overlay.  Then I needed to exclude any conservation areas from my results of possible camp sites.  I chose to use Erase Overlay, to remove conservation areas from my results.  Next I changed the multi-part layer (only 4 records in the attribute table) to a single-part layer (allowing more specific feature selection).  Back to the Arc Tool Box-Data Management-Features-Multipart to Single part.  Finally adding a field to the single part attribute table for area and utilizing calculate geometry option for the math to be preformed.  It didn't really feel like a lot this week, but writing it all out sure makes it sound like a lot.  Here is my final map!