FOR557 – 05
Pseudo Module PM3v1
Downloading and Manipulation
Overview
In this exercise you will find and download spatial data form various sources in various formats
and for various geographic locations. The general idea of the exercise is to give you experience
with the various sources of data and the several formats the data can be in (GeoDatabases,
shapefiles, coverages, and orthophotos and images. You will download data from the CUGIR
site at Cornell, the EPA site, the New York State GIS Clearing House, and the NRCS (Natural
Resources Conservation Service) site. The National Map is a much ballyhooed system that is
very difficult to use as is the USGS site so we will not be using those sites.
One set of data will be for Lewis County and the other set for Onondaga County (actually the
campus). Thus you will download data for both Lewis and Onondaga counties from different
sites.
NOTE: This is a new exercise so there may be glitches. If you find one let me know ASAP so I
can warn others.
What gets turned in? See end of document (before answer sheet)
Assignment: LEWIS County
CUGIR: An easy to use interface but the site data is sometimes older than you need and
sometimes has incurred metadata.
1) Type CUGIR into the URL space in your browser or use a search engine to find the site.
Pick “Cornell University Geospatial Data Information Repository (CUGIR)…
a) Click on the “select by Map” button.
b) Click on Lewis County.
c) Read the metadata for and then download the following layers. Q1: For each one MAKE
NOTE OF THE FILE NAMES, what you are going to call them, and their Spatial
Location and units data in Table 1 in the Answer sheet.
i) Ag districts for Lewis County
ii) County Boundary for Lewis County.
iii) Minor Civil Divisions for Lewis County.
iv) Lowville 1:24,000 quad – digital raster graphic.
d) There are several different forms of data here. The digital raster graphic is a GeoTiff
image of the quad sheet and is pretty easy to handle. The Ag Districts layer is in
ArcExport form that has been Gnu zipped but FilZip can handle that ok.
i) Data Conversion (you will want to make note of these steps!)
(1) Use ArcGIS help or toolbox Search to find out how to convert the ArcExport data
to a Coverage. (Hint: it is in the tool box).
(2) To convert the coverage to a shapefile Right click on Data, select Export, and fill
out the dialog. Add the shapefile to the map.
(3) NOTE: COVERAGE IS A FILE FOLDER. DO NOT TAKE ANY FILES OUT
OF IT!
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Pseudo Module PM3v1
Downloading and Manipulation
(4) The Lewis county boundary files have no .prj.
2) Get more data from the NRCS site
a) Go to the NRCS GeoSpatial Gateway ( see Gis Links page, my home page, if link does not
work)
b) Of the federal sites I have gone to this one is by far the easiest to use, it opens with a rather
busy page. Select “Get Data” link in the upper right of the page (in the bar).
i) This opens the main data selection page – and map of the US. You want data for
Lewis County, NY. You have 2 choices
(1) Use the zoom to zoom into NY and then find Lewis (assuming you know where it
is!)
(2) Use the “Quick County” link in the box at the lower left of the page.
(3) Fill in the dialog and click Continue.
(4) Now you are in Step 2 ( S2)of the process
(a)
Check the data for Tiger 2002 Road data and Tiger 2002 Hydrography
(b)
Click Continue to Step 3
(5) Step 3
(a)
Data Format for selected Products
(i) Vector Projection: UTM Zone 18 NAD 83
(ii) Vector Extent : Standard
(iii) Vector File Format: ESRI Shape File
(iv) Continue to Step 4
(6) Step 4
(a)
Fill in shipping info.
(b)
BE SURE TO CLICK FTP Download under Delivery Method (It appears to
be the default but check it anyway)
(7) Step 5: Order Confirmation
(a)
If you are happy with order then “Place Order”
(8) FIN. I have found that their estimate for the time to sending you email with the
links to your data are pretty accurate. Note the time and go on. When the data
links arrive load it into your map.
3) Now for the EPA Site
a) The EPA site is a little more difficult to use (If the link does not work go to the GIS Links
page as above)
b) This is a search page which was the only way to get to the data I wanted that I could find.
There must be a better way but I couldn’t find it!)
c) In the search box type SHAPEFILES. Click Search.
d) The search results lists GIS Data Download, click it.
e) This site has some interesting data. A lot of it is tabular data that is related to a point file
called emap_something (different things). Click on Water
f) The NE Lakes Sampling Locations link takes you to an interesting set of data that goes
with the emap_lk.e00 file. Click on download for that file, unzip it, and add it to your
data for Lewis County.
g) Do the same for Fish Counts. The file is lk_fshc.dbf. Download, unzip, and add it to the
map.( a dbf file is a table)
4) Now for some fun.
a) Turn on the Lewis boundary
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Pseudo Module PM3v1
Downloading and Manipulation
b)
c)
d)
e)
Turn on the hydro layer
Turn on the emap layer
Some of the emap points land on lakes
Q2: How many of the emap points are in Lewis?
_____________
f) The emap layer itself does not have very much
useful data. Suppose you were a fish person
(one who studies fish, not a monger) and
wanted to find the ponds or lakes that had
Pumpkinseeds (Lepomis gibbosus).
g) First you have to Join the attribute table for emap
to the emap_fshc database file. By Join we
mean attaché the emap_fshc table to the emap
table. To do that:
i) Right click on the emap_lk point layer.
(1) Select Joins and Relates
(2) The join Data dialog opens 
(3) Fill it out and click OK
ii) Open the Attribute table for emap_lk
iii) Q3: How can you tell which fields came from which table?
h) Q4: How many Pumpkinseeds have been counted in Lewis County?
i) Q5: How many of them were counted in the entire database?
5) Q6; Make an interesting map showing some aspect of the data you have downloaded for
Lewis county. You do not have to have a lot of information on the map like N arrows
but you do need a legend (in Layout, Insert>Legend). The title of the map must reflect
what you are trying to show.
6) GRADUATE PROBLEM
a) Look through the EPA site for any Geographic data that you find interesting and make a
simple map using that data.
The Assignment: Onondaga County
1) Get roads and county outline form some source Q7: What source did you use?
2) Go to state Clearing house (link from GIS links on my home page) and:
a) Click on Orthoimagery
b) Click on the map
c) With the Zoom in tool click on Onondaga County. (You do know where that is, right! If
not it is where 81 and the Thruway intersect) Draw a box with the zoom tool around the
intersection and a little below it. You can now see a faint map of Syracuse.
d) You are trying to find the Dome so use the zoom and pan tools to find it. The pan tool is
the red concentric circles tool. What it does is center the map on the place you click on.
When you are far enough in you will see the ESF campus identified. As you zoom in the
background become more readable. Get the dome in the center of the display. When you
are far enough in the view will switch to a high resolution orthophotos showing the area
from the cemetery to just N of the SU campus and from 81 on the west to the Woman’s
gym on the right.
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Downloading and Manipulation
e) Click on “Download imagery in current view”
f) This opens a page listing the imagery making up the view
g) The files you want are:
i) C_09361106 ……sid and C_09361106……..sdw
ii) STOP! Read on before doing anything!
iii) The MrSid (.sid) file is downloaded just by clicking on it and saving it. The
geographic file (.sdw) file is downloaded by right clicking on it and clicking on “save
target as” and saving it in your workspace. Despite what it says in the “save” dialog
it will be saved as a ….sdw.txt file. Not Good. In windows explorer get rid of the .txt
part (rename).
3) Open ArcMap and:
a) Add the roads layer from the national map.
b) Add the orthophotos
c) Add the roads
d) Q8: Do the roads match the orthophotos, what kinds of errors, if any
e) Download the ALIS roads for Onondaga from the schedule page and add them. This road
file was edited to match the orthophotos so Q9: Is the ALIS data better?
f) Make a simple map showing the orthos and the roads files.
4) What gets turned in:
a) Optional cover sheet
b) The answer sheet
c) Map for Lewis County
d) Map for Onondaga County
e) Reflection page, name, class #, and date on back, upper right
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FOR557 – ‘04
Pseudo Module PM3 V1
Downloading Answer Sheet
Q1: 15 pts
Data Name
Source File Name
File Type
Ag Districts
ArcExport, E00
Ag Districts
Coverage
Ag Districts
Shapefile
County Boundary
Shapefile
Minor Civil Div
Shapefile
Lowville
Raster Graphic
Projection data
Your File Name
Q2: emap points in Lewis ________________________________ (2)
Q3: Fields from which table ____________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________(5)
Q4: fish is Lewis(2) ____________________________ Q5: in entire database(2) _____________________________
Q6 Is map 1 based on Lewis data (20 pts)
Q7 Source for data __________________________________________________________________________(2)
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Pseudo Module PM3v1
Downloading and Manipulation
Q8: Roads Match? _________________________________Errors _____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________(5)
Q9: Is the ALIS data better? ___________________________ Errors ________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________(5)
Q10: is the second map (20)
TOTAL POINTS UG
61
OFF _______________
% _______________
Grad Map 20 pts)
TOTAL POINTS GRAD 81
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OFF _______________
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% _______________
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