ArcView GIS 3.x
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Agriculture
Agriculture in Canada: The Lesson Pack
Agriculture is one of Canada's most significant industries. Agricultural production
systems are dependent on several elements in the physical environment. In this exercise,
we will examine a variety of those features, and investigate their relationship to
agriculture in Canada. First, we will analyze soil suitability in Canada. Second, a case
study of Alberta will be used to analyze other factors in the physical environment.
Background Information:
Teachers are encouraged to distribute this background information to their students.
A) Introduction to Agriculture in Canada
B) Climate, Soils, and Elevation in Alberta
C) References
The Teacher's Guide:
A) Planning Considerations
B) Required Files
C) Data Summary Table
The Student Side:
A)
B)
C)
D)
ArcView Fact Sheet
ArcView Icons - Reference Guide
Student Exercise Instructions
Extension Exercise
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Agriculture
Additional Agriculture Websites and Teaching Resources:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
An extensive directory of information for all types of inquiries about Canada's
agricultural sector.
http://aceis.agr.ca/newintre.html
AgriWeb Canada
A database of agricultural publications by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,
Food, and Rural Affairs.
http://aceis.agr.ca/agriweb/link.htm
Agriculture for Your Classroom
Introductory activities and resources about agriculture.
elementary students.
Geared towards
http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/agriculture/top.html
Agriculture in the Classroom
The Province of British Columbia has a great web site with lots of educational
resources.
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/educate/classrm.htm
Cartwright, Fraser. Contact Canada, 2nd ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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Agriculture
Background Information
Agriculture in Canada: An Introduction
A) Why is Agriculture in Canada important?
The agriculture and agri-food industry is one of the largest employers in Canada and
generates approximately $82 billion in domestic sales each year. Despite the fact that
Canada's land area is more than 900 million hectares, only 68 million hectares
(approximately 7%) are currently being farmed.
Agricultural exports are an important part of Canada's economy. The breakdown in 1994
for some of the top products are as follows:
Unprocessed grains (eg. Wheat)
Oilseeds (mostly canola)
Meat and Meat products
Live Animals
Beverages and Spirits
Agriculture is dependent on several factors in the physical environment. Climate is one
of the most important factors in Canada which can restrict crop production. Soil
suitability and elevation are also important factors.
What Constitutes an Agricultural Operation?
"In Canada, an agricultural operation is classified as a farm if it produces one of the
following products for sale: crops, livestock, poultry, animal products, greenhouse or
nursery products, mushrooms, sod, honey, or maple syrup products" (Cartwright, 1996).
Notice that not all farming operations produce food!
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Agriculture
B) A Regional Perspective: The Province of Alberta
Alberta is one of the prairie provinces, whose main agricultural exports are grains and
oilseeds. In the mapping exercise we will examine how each of these factors are related
to agricultural production in Alberta.
The Role of Climate and Vegetation Cover
Most of the crops grown in Canada require a minimum of 400mm of precipitation
annually. In areas with less than 400mm, the land is better suited to grazing. However,
where water is available from nearby rivers or lakes, crops can be grown under irrigation
(Cartwright, 1996). Natural Vegetation regions serve as an indicator of climate regions.
Grasslands: Semi-Arid southern grasslands have the lowest precipitation and relatively
hot summers. Grassland soils have a higher natural fertility that forest soils.
Parklands: Experience greater precipitation amounts, but cooler summers and colder
winters. Parklands have a high fertility chernozem (black earth) soil.
Coniferous Forest: This region has the most precipitation but the shortest season with
the lowest daytime temperatures. The Peace River Area within the boreal climate
has warm summer temperatures for that latitude, quite low precipitation, and a
relatively short growing season.
The agricultural potential is improved
substantially by the long summer day length. Winters are long and cold.
Tundra and Alpine: Mountains and foothills can be separated for purposes of
agricultural climate because of the extreme variation in amounts of precipitation
and temperatures that occur over short distances in response to elevation. This
results in short growing seasons.
The Role of Elevation:
"Good farmland needs fertile, well drained loam soils spread across level to
gently rolling plains" (Cartwright, 1996).
Elevation plays an important role in the incidence of frost. After sunset, the
ground cools rapidly and its temperature soon drops below that of the air in
contact with it. The layer of air immediately above the ground cools, becomes
heavier, and tends to drain down the landslope and collect in depressions and
hollows. In these frost pockets, cold air drainage results in much later frost in the
spring and earlier frosts in the fall than found in surrounding areas.
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ArcView GIS 3.x
Agriculture
For Example:
Hillside Locations on average have longer frost free periods than locations on lower
ground or in a valley. Light winds can mix relatively warm air above a thin, cold surface
layer.
South and Southwest facing slopes receive more direct radiation and tend to be warmer
than east and north facing slopes. These effects can be positive or negative depending on
crop type and soil moisture.
The Role of Soil:
Soils in Alberta are divided into groups based on the amount of organic matter they
contain.
For Example:
Brown Chernozemic: has the least amount of organic matter because of the relatively
small inputs of plant residues contributed by the short-grass prairie vegetation under
which they developed.
Black Chernozemic: This type of soil develops under cooler and wetter conditions
which allow for more grass growth and thus a greater accumulation of organic matter.
Dark Gray or Transitional Soils: These soils have been influenced by moderate forest
vegetation.
Luvisolic Soils: Soils where forest cover was established for a longer period of time.
C) References:
http://aceis.agr.ca/cb/facts/fao0e.htm
"All about Canada's agri-food industry…"
Agriculture and Agri-food Canada
http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/agdex/000/7100001c.htm
"Climate of Alberta"
Alberta Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development
http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/agdex/500/536-1.htm
"Soil Organic Matter"
Alberta Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development
Cartwright, Fraser. Contact Canada, 2nd ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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Agriculture
Agriculture in Canada: Teacher's Guide
A) Planning Considerations
Objectives:
1. Students will explore and manipulate various mapping tools using ArcView GIS.
2. Students will improve their cartographic skills and practice proper cartographic
conventions.
3. Students will examine the physical limitations for agriculture from a national and
regional perspective.
4. Students will analyze the physical and human characteristics of places (ie. Location
of farms, cities, soil types, vegetation cover)
5. Students will use their maps to describe, analyze, and interpret relationships between
the physical environment and land use.
Connection to Geographic Curriculum Themes:
Topics in this lesson can be applied to several themes in Geography and related courses.
They include:
1. Studies in Agriculture
2. Landuse Patterns
3. Climatology
4. Topography
5. Soil Classification
6. Regional Studies
Who Can Use This Exercise?
This exercise is designed to be accessible for many ability levels. Instructions have been
written to accommodate both beginners and more advanced ArcView users. Teachers
may wish to adapt sections of the exercise to meet specific needs.
Materials Required:
1. A copy of the ArcCanada CD-ROM Version 1.0 or 1.1.
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ArcView GIS 3.0
Agriculture
Helpful Hints:
1. We strongly advise that teachers work through the exercise before distributing it to
students.
2. We also recommend that if you plan to load the ArcCanada files onto a network
directory, double-check to ensure they have copied properly. Remember to copy all
three extensions ( .shp, .dbf., and shx.) for each file that you desire.
3. The student instructions explain the path from the ArcCanada CD-ROM to the files
they will use. If the path you have created is different, make sure you inform the
students of this change.
4. Timelines for completion of the exercise will vary. The instructions are designed to
ensure that a student can create the map in one classroom period (analysis may be
limited).
B) Required Files:
(All of the files used in this exercise are from the ArcCanada CD-Rom)
Parts I and II:
\canada\canprov.shp
(Political Boundaries of Canadian Provinces)
\canada\lpdb.shp
(Land Potential Database)
\tables\lpdb\cli.dbf
(Canada Land Inventory Capability for Agriculture)
\tables\stats\agricult.dbf (Agricultural Data)
Part III:
\ab\contours.shp
\ab\places.shp
\ab\provbnd.shp
\ab\soil.shp
(Contour Lines for Alberta)
(Places in Alberta)
(Provincial Boundary of Alberta)
(Soils in Alberta)
C) Data Summary:
A description of all the files in ArcCanada can be found on the CD-ROM in a file called
index.htm. Here is a summary of the data used in the Agriculture in Canada Lesson
Pack. You may want to go through these lists with your students before they attempt the
exercise. This will enable students to create meaningful maps.
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Agriculture
Summary from \Tables\Lpdb\Cli.dbf (Used in Part I and II of Exercise):
Capability for Agriculture - Class
Class of soil capability for agriculture. Class_e is the English descriptive text, and Class_f is the French
descriptive text.
Possible values:
Class_e
Organic Soil
Unmapped
Area
No
Significant
Limitations
Moderate
Limitations
Moderately
Severe
Limitations
Severe
Limitations
Very Severe
Limitations
Only
Perennial
Forage Crops
No Capability
Class_f
Sol Organique
Noncartographie
territoire
Description
Organic soils
Unmapped area
Limitations NonSoils in this class have no significant limitations in use for crops
signifiants
Limitations
Modere
Limitations
Moderement
Severe
Limitations
Severe
Limitations Tres
Severe
Seul Recoltes
Intarissable
Fourrage
Non Capacite
Soils in this class have moderate limitations that restrict the range of crops or
require moderate conservation practices
Soils in this class have moderately severe limitations that restrict the range of
crops or require special conservation practices
Soils in this class have severe limitations that restrict the range of crops or
require special conservation practices or both
Soils in this class have very severe limitations that restrict their capability to
producing perennial forage crops, and improvement practices are feasible
Soils in this class are capable only of producing perennial forage crops, and
improvement practices are not feasible
Soils in this class have no capability for arable culture or permanent pasture
Summary from \Ab\Soil.shp (Used in Part III of the Student Exercise):
Agriculture
Location:
Legend:
Data Type:
Description:
Source:
Notes:
Attribute
Data:
\tables\stats\agricult.dbf
Not applicable.
DBase (.dbf) table
The key variables include summary data on number of census farms, land areas, five major
crops, land management, livestock, poultry, gross receipts, farm interest and operating expenses,
farm capital and farm debt.
Statistics Canada
A cell value of -99 indicates No Data; teachers are encouraged to set this as the Null Value in
the Legend Editor
Field
Year of
Description
Units
Name
Data
tcf91
Total number of census farms
1991
# Farms
tcf96
Total number of census farms
1996
# Farms
Total number of census farms with farm receipts over
gfr^3_91
1991
# Farms
$100,000.
gfr^3_96
Total number of census farms with farm receipts over
$100,000.
1996
# Farms
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ArcView GIS 3.0
Agriculture
Summary from \Ab\Soil.shp (Used in Part III of Student Exercise)
Vegetation Cover and / or Land Use
E_vg_indus is the English descriptive text, and F_vg_indus is the French descriptive text.
Possible values:
E_vg_indus
F_vg_indus
Description
Agricultural
Cultures
Cultivated field crops.
crops
Bogs may be treed or treeless and are usually covered with Sphagnum spp. and
Bog
Bog
ericaceous shrubs.
Dominated by needle-leafed, cone-bearing species. In the Subarctic
Coniferous
Fôret de
Ecoclimatic Regions this refers to an open lichen coniferous forest; in the
forest
conifères
Boreal Ecoclimatic Regions this refers to a closed canopy coniferous forest.
Deciduous
Fôret de feuillus Dominated by broadleaf species.
forest
Dominated by sedges, grasses, reeds, and brown mosses with some shrubs and,
Fen
Fen
at times, a sparse tree layer.
Grassland
Prairie
Perennial native grassland or improved pasture.
Unvegetated areas in the High Arctic; may be caused by either climatic (too
Arctic desert Désert artique
cold or too dry) or edaphic (low soil nutrients or toxic substrates such as salt)
factors, or a combination of both.
Dominated by lichens with significant amounts of mosses and usually
Lichen
Lichen
including low to medium ericaceous shrubs.
Fôret mixte de
Composed of both coniferous and deciduous tree species (refer to codes C and
Mixed forest conifères ed de
D).
feuillus
A forest - grassland transition consisting of a mosaic of trembling aspen stands
Parkland
Prairie-parc
interspersed with patches of cropland, grassland, and meadow.
A mosaic surface pattern composed of pools or channels interspersed with
Terres
clumps of emergent sedges, grasses, rushes, and reeds, and bordered by grassy
Marshland
marecageuses
meadows and peripheral bands of shrubs or trees; submerged and floating
aquatics flourish in open water areas.
Shrubland
Arbustaies
Dominated by shrub species.
Dominated by Carex spp. and generally moderately decomposed and matted;
Sedge peat
Tourbe
the sedge leaves are readily identifiable to the naked eye.
Treeless terrain occurring at high altitudes, immediately above the forest zone
Tundra,
and the upper altitudinal timberline; vegetation consists of lichens, mosses,
Toundra alpine
alpine
sedges, grasses, forbs, and low shrubs (<20 cm) such as heath, dwarf willows,
and birches.
Tundra, high Toundra
Dominated by 20-60 cm high shrubs occurring in the Low Arctic Ecoclimatic
shrub
d'arbustes hauts Region.
Tundra,
Toundra
Dominated by 10 - 20 cm high shrubs occurring in the Mid-Arctic Ecoclimatic
medium
d'arbustes
Region.
shrub
moyens
Tundra, low Toundra
Dominated by <10 cm high shrubs occurring in the High Arctic Ecoclimatic
shrub
d'arbustes bas
Region.
Tundra,
Toundra - herbes Dwarf shrubs, Dryas and willows are important components of the vegetation.
broken herb - brise -arbustes
Other vascular plants are present but have low total coverage. Crustose lichens
low shrub
bas
are common on the ground surface. Ground cover ranges from 10-20%.
Unvegetated Surface sans
No vegetation.
surface
vegetation
Dominated by sedges and cotton grass, with "wet" mosses (e.g., Mnium spp.,
Meadow, wet prairie
Sphagnum spp.) and occasional herbs.
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Agriculture
The Student Side
A) ArcView Fact Sheet
Here's a list and explanation of important features in ArcView:
Project: In ArcView, a file for organizing your work. Projects use five types of
documents to organize information: views, tables, charts, layouts, and scripts.
View
: A component of an ArcView project used for displaying, querying, and
analyzing geographic themes.
Table of Contents: All themes in a View are listed to the left of the map. The Table of
Contents shows the symbols used to draw features in each theme. The check box
next to each theme indicates whether or not it is turned on or off in the map
(whether it is currently drawn on the map).
Theme: A set of related geographic features, such as streets, parcels, or rivers, and the
characteristics (attributes) of those features.
Table
: Information formatted in rows and columns. A component of an ArcView
project used for displaying Tabular data.
Join: In ArcView, an operation used to attach Tabular data to a theme. The fields of one
table are appended to another table (usually the theme table) using a common
field.
Query: A question or request used for selecting features or records. A query often
appears in the form of a statement or logical expression. In ArcView, a query
contains a field, an operator, and a value.
Layout
: The design or arrangement of elements in a digital map display or printed
map. A component of an ArcView project used for creating presentation-quality
maps.
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Identify Tool
Edit Tool
Select Tool
Record
Counter
Help
Sort Descending
Coordinates
Scale
Text
Drawing and
Editing Tools
Label
Hot Link
Area of
Interest
Measure
Pan
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Vertex Edit
Select
Feature
Pointer
Identify
Help
Select Features
using Graphics
Clear Selected
Features
Zoom to Previous
Extent
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Zoom to Selected
Zoom to Full
Extent
Zoom to Active
Theme
Query Builder
Locate Address
Find
Open Theme Table
Edit Legend
Theme Properties
Add Theme
Save Project
ArcView GIS 3.0
Sort Ascending
Calculate
Summarize
Join
Promote
Query Builder
Find
Create Chart
Switch Selection
Select None
Select All
Paste
Copy
Cut
Save Project
Page 2 of 14
Agriculture
B) ArcView Icons - Reference Guide
View GUI - Buttons
View GUI – Tools
Push and hold to select tool
Point
Line
Polyline
Rectangle
Circle
Polygon
Line Split
Polygon Split
Auto Complete
Table GUI - Buttons
Table GUI - Tools
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Frame Tools
Drawing Tools
Text Tool
Pan Tool
Zoom Out Tool
Zoom In Tool
Vertex Tool
Pointer Tool
Chart Colour
Tool
Erase Within
Polygon Tool
Chart Element
Properties Tool
Erase Tool
Identify Tool
Help
Find
Series From
Records/Fields
Chart Properties
Scatter Chart
Gallery
Pie Chart Gallery
Line Chart Gallery
Column Chart
Gallery
Bar Chart Gallery
Area Chart Gallery
Undo Erase
Save Project
ArcView GIS 3.0
Help
Print
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Zoom to Actual
Size
Zoom to
Selected
Zoom to Page
Undo
Send to Back
Bring to Front
Ungroup
Group
Layout
Properties
Paste
Copy
Cut
Save Project
Page 3 of 14
Agriculture
Chart GUI - Buttons
Chart GUI - Tools
Layout GUI - Buttons
Layout GUI - Tools
Push and hold to select tool
View Frame
Legend Frame
Scale Frame
North Arrow Frame
Chart Frame
Table Frame
Picture Frame
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Agriculture
Student Instructions
Problem:
You are a consultant for the Agricultural industry. You have been hired to
research factors involved in Canadian agricultural production. Your task is to use
GIS to locate appropriate areas in Canada and more specifically, Alberta, for
agricultural production. What type of agricultural production would you propose?
There are many factors which influence agricultural production in Canada. In this
exercise you will examine the role of soil suitability from a national perspective
and a variety of other physical factors in a case study of Alberta.
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Agriculture
Part I: Soil Suitability for Agriculture in Canada
A) Getting Started:
B)
It is very important to remember to save your work as you go through the
exercise!!!
1. Start ArcView if it is not already running, and follow these steps:
2. With the Project Window open, select the View icon, and click on the New button.
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Agriculture
3. Select the Add Theme button. This will open the Add Theme dialog box. This is
where you retrieve the files you will need for the exercise.
4. Navigate your way to the directory that contains the files canprov.shp and
lpdb.shp (ask your teacher for the appropriate directory).
From the ArcCanada CD-ROM, the path is /canada/canprov.shp and
/canada/lpdb.shp. To select both canprov.shp and lpdb.shp at the
same time, hold down the shift key and click on the file names with your mouse.
5. When you have selected both files, click OK.
B) Making the Map Make Sense:
1. Turn On the lpdb.shp (Land Potential Database) theme by clicking on the small
box beside it. Before we can start adding and analyzing data for this map, we need to
make it geographic.
2. To do this, go to the View menu, and select Properties.
3. Let's change the name to represent what we'll be mapping: Suitability for Agriculture
in Canada. Don't click OK yet!
4. Change the Map Units to Decimal Degrees.
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ArcView GIS 3.0
Agriculture
5. Change the Distance Units to Kilometres.
6. Select OK.
7. Try Saving your project. Go to the File menu. Select Save Project. Save your work
to the designated directory, and give your project a name.
C) Joining Tables:
(This step can be tricky, so follow the directions very carefully !!)
1. We need to attach a database to our theme in order to find a relationship between land
areas in Canada and their soil suitability for agriculture. First, make sure the
lpdb.shp theme is Active. (It appears raised or highlighted on your screen.)
2. Now, we need to open the database we want to link to. Go to the Project Window
by selecting Window, and select #1(the name of your project).
3. Select the Tables Icon, and choose Add.
4. Follow the same procedure you performed when adding themes to your view. This
time, navigate yourself to /tables/lpdb/cli.dbf.
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ArcView GIS 3.0
Agriculture
5. Notice that the cli.dbf database has a column heading called MapUnit. This field
is the common link that will allow us to join the tables together. Click on the heading
MapUnit in the cli.dbf table. It should look hightlighted. Minimize the table.
6. Go back to the Window menu, and select your View (Suitability for Agriculture).
7. Click on the Open Theme Table button. This will open the Attributes of
lpdb.shp table.
8. Click on the heading MapUnit.
9. Now you can join the tables together. Click on the Join button. If the join was
performed correctly, you should notice that the data from the cli.dbf table has
been added to the Attributes of lpdb.shp table.
10. Minimize the table when you are sure that the join was performed successfully.
11. Save your work.
D) Mapping Soil Suitability for Agriculture:
1. We're ready to produce a thematic map. Go back to your View window (if you're not
already there). Select the Edit Legend button.
2. In the dialog box that appears, change the Legend Type to Unique Value.
3. For the Values field, scroll down until you find Class_E. This is the field you will be
mapping.
(Hint: Class_E represents the descriptive data for soil suitability in Canada. Once
you have selected Class_E from the list, the values should automatically appear in the
dialog box.)
4. To change the colour for all of your values, you can scroll down the list of Colour
Ramps. To change individual colours, double-click on the symbol box beside each
value, select the Paintbrush icon, and select a new colour. (Fruits and Vegetables is
an appropriate colour scheme for agriculture.)
5. Once you have selected appropriate symbols and colours for you data, choose Apply.
Close the Legend Editor.
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Agriculture
6. It's important to change the name of your theme to represent your new map. Go to
the Theme menu. Choose Properties.
7. Change the theme name to something appropriate for your new map, such as Soil
Suitability for Agriculture.
8. Click on OK.
E) Analysis:
Use the Zoom In tool to take a closer look at different regions in Canada.
Why do you think a large proportion of Canada is unmapped?
Take a good look at the map on your screen. What do you notice?
Which regions of Canada are mapped in detail?
What does this tell you about agricultural production in Canada?
Part II: Mapping Farming Areas in Canada
In this section we will create a dot density map of census farms in Canada to discover
the relationship between soil suitability for agriculture and farm location. How large
of a factor is soil suitability for farm location? Judging by the distribution of farms in
Canada, have farmers been able to overcome limitations in the physical environment?
A) A New Theme:
1. Make canprov.shp the Active theme, and Turn it On.
2. We only want to see an outline of the Provincial boundaries overlayed onto our first
layer, so we need to change the symbol. Select the Edit Legend button.
3. Double click on Symbol. Choose the empty box in the Fill Palette Window. Click
on Apply. Close the Legend Editor.
4. Notice that you won't be able to see the canprov.shp theme if it is placed under
your Soil Suitability theme in the Table of Contents. To move the canprov.shp
theme, click on the text, and drag it up to the top of your Table of Contents. You
should now see a black outline of the Provincial boundaries.
©2006 ESRI Canada ● Schools and Libraries Program
12 Concorde Place, Suite 900 ● Toronto, Ontario, M3C 3R8● Tel: (416) 441-6035 ● Fax:
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Agriculture
B) Joining Tables:
1. Use the same steps from Part I to join a new table agricult.dbf to the table
Attributes of canprov.shp.
2. You can find agricult.dbf by going to Tables, Add. Follow the path
/tables/stats/agricult.dbf. Remember, when you're joining tables you
must choose a field that is present in both tables. Look carefully at the two tables to
find data they have in common.
3. Remember, you can find the Attributes of canprov.shp by using the
Open Theme Table button.
4. What is the heading of the common column this time?
5. Remember, you want the destination table to be the Attributes
canprov.shp, so make sure it is Active when you perform the Join.
of
6. Save your work.
C) Mapping Farms:
In this set of steps, we will create a dot density map of the Total number of census
farms in Canada whose farm receipts were greater than $100,000 in 1996.
1. Go back to your View. Select the Edit Legend button. For Legend Type, choose
Dot.
2. For the Density Field, scroll down to Gfr^3_96 (The number of census farms which
earned more than $100, 000 in 1996).
3. For the Dot Legend, type in 300. Hit Enter. This means that one dot will represent
300 farms.
4. Double click on Dot Symbol. Change the size to 6 so that you can see the distribution
of farms more clearly on your map. If this size is too large, return to this menu later
and change it to a more appropriate number.
5. Select Apply.
6. Zoom In to different areas of Canada to see the results more clearly. Look closely at
the distribution of dots on the map.
How has ArcView distributed the farms? What's missing?
©2006 ESRI Canada ● Schools and Libraries Program
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D) Comparing Results:
1. Navigate to the original agricult.dbf table. To do this, go to the Project
Window, Select Tables, click on agricult.dbf, and click on Open.
Which four provinces have the highest number of farms that made over $100,000
in 1996 (The column heading is Gfr^3_96)?
Does your map reflect these numbers?
What relationship do these provinces have with soil suitability for agriculture?
Part III: A Regional Perspective
In this exercise we will create a map of Alberta which will comprise of several
layers relating to agricultural production in this province. We already know that
soil suitability is an important factor for agricultural production. As you proceed
through this exercise, think about what some of the other factors might be.
A) Getting Started:
1. For this exercise, you need to start a New View. Navigate to the Project Window,
and choose the Views icon. Select New.
2. We will need to Add several Themes for this exercise. Add the following themes:
/ab/contours.shp
/ab/places.shp
/ab/provbnd.shp
/ab/soil.shp
3. Click on OK when you have selected these themes.
4. Turn on the Provbnd.shp theme.
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Agriculture
B) Making the Map Make Sense:
1. Follow the same steps from Part I to add Map Units, and Distance Units to your map.
2. Change the name to Vegetation Cover and Land Use in Alberta.
3. Using the Legend Editor, change the symbol for the provbnd.shp theme from
solid colour to an outline.
C) Mapping Dominant Types of Vegetation Cover and Land Use:
1. Make sure soils.shp is the Active Theme. Turn on the soils.shp theme.
2. Select the Edit Legend button.
3. Choose Unique Value. In the Values Field, choose E_vg_Indus (Vegetation Cover
and/or Landuse). Select Apply.
4. Zoom In to examine your map. Where are the areas for Agricultural Crops?
5. Turn on the contours.shp theme. If they don't appear, make sure they are located
at the top of your Table of Contents.
What do Contour Lines tell us?
What relationship exists between areas of dense contour lines and dominant
agricultural areas?
Why does this relationship exist?
D) Mapping Urban Areas:
1. Turn on the places.shp theme.
Our map is too crowded when all of the cities, towns, and villages are shown. For the
purposes of this exercise, we only want to see large cities. We will perform a Query
to show only cities with a population greater than 100 000.
2. Navigate to the Theme menu, and choose Properties.
3. Select the Definition Icon. Click on the Query button.
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12 Concorde Place, Suite 900 ● Toronto, Ontario, M3C 3R8● Tel: (416) 441-6035 ● Fax:
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Agriculture
4. To build the query, double click on Population, click once >=, and double click on
100 000+. Click OK.
Where are most of the large cities located?
Why do you think this phenomenon has ocurred?
What types of problems could arise due to the location of large cities?
E) Locating and Labelling:
1. Use the Find button to locate Calgary on your map. Select the Find button, and type
in Calgary.
2. Select OK.
The dot that represents Calgary is highlighted in yellow. Use the Zoom In tool if you
can't see it on the full screen.
3. Using the Label tool, you can add text to your map. Choose the Label tool. Click on
the highlighted dot that represents Calgary. The word Calgary should automatically
appear.
4. To change the font, size, or colour of the text go to Window. Select Show Symbol
Window and make the changes you want.
F) Finishing Touches: (Create Your Own Layout)
1. Change the names of your themes to make them representative of your map.
2. To display your map in a mode that allows you to print, navigate to the Project
Window, and select the Layouts icon. Choose New.
3. Select the View Frame tool. Draw a box inside the Layout page. A dialog box will
appear, asking you to choose the View you want to display. Choose the view that
represents your map.
Use the other tools located under the View Frame tool to add an appropriate North
Arrow, Scale Bar , and Legend to your map.
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Agriculture
4. Use the Text tool to add a title to your map, (and to add your name to the finished
product ).
5. Use the Draw Rectangle tool to draw Neat Lines around your Legend, and around
the extents of your page.
6. Make sure your map is balanced, and that it has all the components of a good map.
Ask your teacher about printing your map. If your assignment requires a printed map,
make sure you adjust the colour scheme for your printer. If you're using a black and
white printer, you may want to use a grey scale, or hatching pattern instead of a
variety of colours.
Congratulations! You have completed your research.
What have you discovered?
Where are the most appropriate locations for agriculture in Canada?
Where are they in Alberta?
Extension Exercise
1. Conduct some research of your own to find more detailed information about these
areas. What type of agricultural production would you propose? Present your
solution in a report format.
2. This exercise has analyzed some of the physical limitations in Canada for agriculture.
Using resources from your library or the Internet, list some of the other factors that
limit agricultural production. Are there also limitations imposed by human systems
onto the land? Discuss.
4. What are some possible solutions to these physical restraints? How do Canadian
farmers attempt to compensate for these limitations?
5. Create a second regional map using a different Canadian province. Compare your
results to those of Alberta.
©2006 ESRI Canada ● Schools and Libraries Program
12 Concorde Place, Suite 900 ● Toronto, Ontario, M3C 3R8● Tel: (416) 441-6035 ● Fax:
(416)441-6838 Email: k-12@esricanada.com ● World Wide Web: http://k12.esricanada.com