CONS350 – Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Assignment 01 – Assessment of Spatial Data Accuracy & Creation of Metadata
PART 1 – ASSESSMENT OF SPATIAL DATA ACCURACY (50 points)
In this part of the assignment, you are going to evaluate the accuracy of a feature class named Study Area
Streets, which defines the centerline of the streets on and around the SUNY Canton campus. You will do
this by comparing the centerline intersection locations in the feature class to the center locations of
intersections in aerial imagery. You will define the “true” location of the intersections by adding points
from a shapefile named Checkpoints using the ArcMap Editor. To do this, complete the following steps.
1. Download the zip archive of the Assignment 1 data from the Blackboard Site and save it to the
Weekly Material folder on your OneDrive. Extract the zip archive. Rename the folder that is created
Assignment1LFM, where L is the first letter of your last name, F is the first letter of your first name,
and M is the first letter of your middle name. This folder contains a map file named
Assignment1.mxd and three shapefiles named Checkpoints.shp, Study Area.shp and Study Area
Streets.shp
2. Launch ArcMap and navigate to your Assignment1lfm folder. Open the Assignment1.mxd map
file. You will find the three shapefiles named above and a link to the World Imagery ESRI basemap.
3. Fill out the Map Document Properties dialog box with an appropriate title and your name as Author.
4. Make sure that Study Area Streets is turned off and Checkpoints and Study Area are turned on.
5. Zoom to the Study Area layer and create a bookmark called Study Area.
6. Turn on the World Imagery basemap.
7. Study the image and pick ten intersections within the Study Area boundary that have two
perpendicular streets. At least one of the streets should extend across the intersection. Do not use
intersections that have driveways, such as the entrances to Nevaldine, because they are not in the
Study Area Streets feature class. The intersections you use should be completely visible and not
covered by vegetation.
8. Use the Editor to create Checkpoints. Click on the Create
Features button and place a triangle in the center of each
intersection. To set each point, pan to the intersection at a scale
of about 1:500 and use your best judgment to place the point at
the exact center of the intersection. Some centers are defined
by painted centerlines, but most are not. An example is shown
on the illustration to the right.
9. When the 10 points are added, save your edits and stop editing.
10. Turn off the World Imagery basemap and turn on the Study Area Streets layer.
11. Make sure the Check Points layer is labeled with the FID field.
12. Make sure Use Snapping is on. You may need to add the Snapping toolbar to do this.
CONS 350 – Assignment 1
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13. Prepare a table or a spreadsheet with the column headings below. If you use a spreadsheet, save it
in your Assignment1LFM folder.
ID
Difference
Difference^2
14. At each intersection with a Checkpoints triangle, zoom in to a scale between 1:10 and 1:5. Then use
the Measure tool to measure the distance in feet between the intersection to the two street
centerlines in the Study Area Streets layer and the triangle you set in the Checkpoints layer during
step 7. Use snapping to get right on each point. Record the ID and measurement in the table or
spreadsheet.
15. Perform the calculations needed to find the RMSE and the NSSDA value in accordance with the
Lecture information.
16. If you did the calculations by hand, scan your work to pdf and save it in the Assignment1LFM folder.
PART 2 – EDITING METADATA (50 points)
Use ArcCatalog to prepare the metadata, including a thumbnail, for the INSOLATION raster you created in
Lab11. This includes adding information to the Tags, Summary, Description, and Credits sections. You
should include the sources of the input data. Double-check spelling and grammar. This will be part of your
grade.
After you have completed the metadata, use ArcCatalog to make a copy of the metadata you just edited
and paste it into your Assignment1LFM folder.
HANDING IN YOUR WORK
Make a zip archive of your Assignment1LFM folder and upload the zip archive to the DropBox for
Assignment 1 on Blackboard.
CONS 350 – Assignment 02
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