FOR557 – 07 Exercise 6b See schedule for due date
Heads Up Digitizing
This is an exercise in heads up digitizing and is based on what you learned in Module 5 and
Exercise 6a. I don’t give a lot of instruction re the editing so you have to figure it out from the
Module and help. And help in ArcGIS 9.2 update 3 is very good on this subject! When doing the module pay particular attention to simple things like techniques for snapping boundaries together.
The situation here is that you have been asked by the village planning department to determine the area of agricultural fields that will be removed from production in Lowvillage by the construction of a high voltage power transmission line which will require a 400 foot rightofway.
Figure 1 show the area which is in question.
In addition, a mass marketer (RockBottom Inc.) wants to build a store in the area and the planning board wants to know how much agricultural land will be lost due to the RockBottom project. The area the store wants to build in is specified by GPS points which RockBottom has supplied.
The RockBottom part of the village’s problems will be completed in this exercise and the powerline part will be completed later (so save your work!).
A map based on a map image similar to that in Figure 1 showing the agriculture areas within the village, the roads in the area labeled by name, the building you think are farmsteads (farm houses with people in them not large animals), active agricultural lands (labeled with area in acres), the river, and the area that the store wants. A letter to the Planning Board from your consulting firm
(make up an interesting name) is needed to summarize your findings. This must include a discussion of the areas of the fields in acres and the area of the store lot along with owner’s names. The fields should be labeled with their area. End with a reflection page and, guess what, name, class, date, and Ex # on the back, upper right.
1.
Download the following data from esf-academic5.
1.1.
4 images (4 of them, se_clip, sw_clp, nw_clip, and ne_clp NOTE the differences in clp and clip!)
1.2.
The outline of the village boundary Lowvillage.shp
1.3.
The 25KVAROWclp.shape (not used in 6b but shows where the ROW will be).
2.
You can import 1.1 and 1.2 into a GDB if you so wish – not required.
3.
You are to create the following shapes
3.1.
Roads.
3.1.1.
You can freehand digitize the roads remembering to put vertices at intersections.
A neater job can be done if you use the midpoint tool. Make sure roads at intersections are snapped. You do not have to digitize farm roads or drive ways.
3.2.
Waterways (or rivers)
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FOR557 – 07 Exercise 6b See schedule for due date
Heads Up Digitizing
3.2.1.
There is one main river in the village. If you look closely you can actually see rapids in the stream. Again, the midpoint tool is useful. You can try streaming but that form of digitizing is really tricky (see help).
3.3.
Farmsteads
3.3.1.
Try to identify the buildings that are farm houses, Sometimes that is easy and sometimes it is not. Digitize them as a point shape or FC.
3.4.
Cultivated farm fields
3.4.1.
Now life gets interesting. We want just the cultivated area of the fields. These areas can include roads but not trees. In some cases the fields abut one another and in that case you have to make sure that the boundaries are snapped together. See
Figure 1 where callouts point to the boundaries that must be snapped. Your map has to have an inset map that is a blowup of one of these boundaries so we can see that there are NO GAPS.
3.4.2.
Calculate the area in acres for each of the fields you create. One acre =
43560.174 feet 2 . You will have to do this in two steps.
A) compute area as was done in 6a and then B) create a new field and use the field calculator to calculate area in acres.
3.5.
Now use the X,Y data in Table 1 to find out where RockBottom wants to put their store and it monster parking lot. The store lot GPS coordinates are tabulated to the right

RockBottom GPS points
4.
Now when all that is done make a map the has the following:
SPCS NAD83, NY Central
4.1.
A border
4.2.
A Legend
4.3.
A North Arrow
4.4.
A scale bar in miles
4.5.
A Title
1,114,302.3 E, 1,362,212.7 N
1,114,617.1 E, 1,362,212.7 N
1,114,617.1 E, 1,362,045.0 N
1,114,302.3 E, 1,362,045.0 N
4.6.
Labeled Roads
4.7.
Labeled Farmfields
4.8.
Lowvillage border
4.9.
Farmsteads
4.10.
RockBottom area (RB’s area or, for grads, a new location
4.11.
An inset map zoomed in on one of the areas where the fields must be snapped.
5.
Prepare a letter to the Lowvillage Planning Board, Eustis B. Nifkin, ES Q chair, describing how you answered the basic question about how many acres of farmed land will be taken out of production by the construction of the RockBottom project. Be sure to describe how you digitized the various parts of the map because Mr. Nifkin is a very particular person!

GRADUATE STUDENTS must locate an alternative site for the store somewhere within the 4 images. It must have the approximately same area but as the store poly and must be roughly rectangular in shape. Maybe you can find a site that does not take any Ag lands.
Justify your choice and map it.
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FOR557 – 07 Exercise 6b
Heads Up Digitizing
Figure 1
See schedule for due date snap snap
Dr. Y. Killum snap snap snap
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