ArcMap 10 & ArcScene 10 Used to Assess Visible Land Cover

 

 

Using a Tin Model, a Hillshade has been done to assess the visible land cover blocked by high elevated grounds, such as the Niagara Escarpment or highway overpasses.

The above layout displays the (Viewshed) area of sight from the respective vantage points. Seen in the viewshed map are pink areas representing not visible land and grey-green areas representing visible lands. Elevation is the factor the affects visibility.

 

This relationship is also seen in the line of sight viewport- where red represents land not visible and green represents visible lands. In this case, higher elevated grounds will be visible from the particular vantage point the line of sight tool stems from.

 

Seen below is the 3D visualized layout of the above map. The elevated grounds can be seen in ArcScene 10 as the Hillshade and all other features have been draped over the Tin Model. 

 

Product of ArcScene Drape Over: Hillshade atop Tin created in ArcMap 10

Urban Application Example: Street lighting where lighting can be buffered for distances, but a line of sight will need to be used to assess the grounds blocked by high elevated areas.

Software: ArcMap 10, ArcScene 10

Enjoy. Thank you for viewing

 

 

 

A Fun Small Project about ESRI Canada

How GIS software uses other software to gather and display spatial info

I put this video together that shows the spatial distribution of ESRI Canada offices spanning from Vancouver, BC to St. John's, Nova Scotia.


I apologize for the lack of subtitle- 
* Video Song: By Moby called Extreme Ways and DJ Tiesto Instrumental



* The vid begins in Google Maps- to access Latitude and Longitude data for each ESRI office
* That info is entered into an MS Excel Spreadsheet along with other data fields. Ie. Address
* I show the final product of what we will end up with - then start a new project from scratch
* In ArcMap 10, I used a file geodatabase, and in it a point data feature class was created to hold the attribute data for all the ESRI offices (point data) locations
* The data from the MS Excel table is loaded into the feature class and the points are displayed in the data frame window of ArcMap 10 after I display using XY data. 


          -usually I would include domains, datasets and subtypes where applicable, but they are not included for the purpose of demo simplicity.


* Once the points are visible on the map, ESRI's basemap bing imagery is loaded to obtain a spatial reference for the point data.
* This gathered information is applicable in many cases:
- Potential employees or clients seeking knowledge of ESRI office locations
- ESRI's marketing ability to spatially assess their national reach
- With an increased attribute catalog more data can be used to relate/ compare spatial relationships
- A Buffer/Query can be created to assess distance of offices in Canada- as ESRI grows GIS can facilitate growth spatially from a distance. 

The following map displays the location of ESRI Canada's Toronto location in ArcMap 10. However, as a printed map it can only provide so much info- in geospatial software I can build on the analyses.

* With increased data comes increased information- and this is how I found ESRI's ArcMap 10 and the use of MS Excel and Google Earth to help in my pursuit of gathering info on ESRI Canada.

2012 Niagara College Grad Reception

After a long day of volunteering with the Environmental & Horticultural Studies & GIS display, our team had a great time at Niagara College's Grad reception (March 30-April 1, 2012). Fun for GIS!

In the picture below, I have my colleague Nicholas Menard (far left), co-Chair Al Unwin (middle), and me (Alicia Samuels far right).

This is what GIS is about- socializing,  exchanging knowledge and more. Niagara College makes volunteering with what I love easy.

Analysis 2: Exploration Phase- Proposed Pond Excavation Project 2012

The layouts above and below are the result of this analysis. The information shown here is the amount of material  that must be excavated in order to proceed and create a proposed pond. This study was done using both AUTOCAD Map 3D 2012 and ESRI's ArcGIS 2010.

Existing & Proposed Terrain Depth Along Cross Section:

Here's how it is done:

My focus is a small town called Springfield. The top of bank has an elevation of 189.5. The top of bank elevation was set and the study boundary was created using COGO - both procedures were performed in  AutoCAD Map 3D 10.

Provided Data: 

1	Elevation Points
2	Existing Top of Bank with 189.5 Elevation
3	Text File with Study Site Boundary Bearings, Azimuths and Distances
4	Cross Section
5	Elevation at Bottom of Bank with 186.1 Elevation

Below is a layout representation of the provided data. I should note the contour lines were created using the Surface Contours tool of ESRI's 3D Analyst extension. The bottom of bank (Proposed Pond) elevation was set to 186.1 in AutoCAD Map 3D before being imported into ArcMap 10.

 

Proposed Layout: 

Below is a representation of the terrain conditions around and within the proposed pond. The tin (Triangulated Irregular Network) uses a series of triangles created from elevation data. As seen below we then have a representation of the terrain surface for display. 

 

We see the variation in elevation within the proposed pond. From the most Southern position of the proposed pond, the elevation starts at 190- drops to 187, and shoots back up to 191. This variation in terrain elevation is seen in the above Existing & Proposed Terrain Depth graph.

Volume Data: 

In this portion of the study I had the opportunity to use either the Surface Difference Tool or the Cut Fill tool - both from the 3D Analyst extension. The image to the left of the layout below is believed to show the best representation of the site volume, the image to the right, I believe has been incorrectly represented in ESRI. I asked a colleague to run this tool using another set of data and the dark blue triangles showed on both of our images. This speckle could suggest that there is need to fill the site, but the entire study suggests the need to excavate.Therefore, the surface difference tool best represented the amount of material that will be excavated: 20,347.74 meters cubed.

Elevation Volume Curve of Proposed Pond:

The above graph is a representation of volume change. As the elevation in meters increases the volume of the proposed pond increases. Therefore, although the surface difference tool displays the amount of material to excavate (20,347.74 m cubed), the above graph displays the relationship between elevation and volume around the proposed pond.

As originally mentioned, it was visible on the proposed layout that the elevation from the Southern most point of the proposed pond started at 190, dipped to 187 and rose again to 191. The graph indicates that when the elevation increases so will the volume, and as the elevation decreases the volume will follow also. 

 

In relation to cost, we can then assess the cost factor of this project. It could be dependent on area, elevation, or material that will be excavated. With more information, more thorough planning can take place at the exploration stage. 

 

Let's recall:

Data was provided- elevation, proposed pond at 186.1, existing elevation 189.5, surface contours.

A tin created a representative surface using the elevation points.

The volume between the top of bank and bottom of bank was calculated providing us the amount of material to excavate.

A graph of the cross section displays the relationship between elevation and distance along the cross section F-F'.

The study indicates that (20,347.74 m cubed) will be excavated in order to proceed and create the proposed pond.

Analysis 1: Finlay's Fern Reintroduction Horticulture Land Suitability Project 2012

Created using Fuzzy Classification in ESRI's ArcMap 10, a horticulture suitability map shows the best and most poor locations to plant a new species of fern. This process using ESRI's GIS technology has reduced costs and time associated with project planning.

Below my study site, located in the Niagara Region, is displayed:

Below are criteria used to assess the most suitable land cover:

Slope, Aspect and Hillshade were classified using Fuzzy Classification. This method groups elements with similar properties. In the examples below, a midpoint of the data is entered. Using the gaussian (Bayesian) probability curve, all other points around the midpoint are dispersed with a widely stretched variability of 0.01.

• Slope Output   *Fuzzy

 

• Hillshade Output *Fuzzy

 

• Aspect Output *Fuzzy

• Soil Reclassed Output

Combined using the raster calculator in ArcMap 10, weights by percentage were added to each of the above criteria. This method works best when each layer has a different significance to the final outcome.

 

Below is the formula used in the raster calculator:

(Slope Output * 0.461538) + (Aspect Output * 0.230769) + (Hillshade Output * 0.153846) + (Soil Reclassed Output * 0.153846)

 

The result of the above is a map showing groups/categories of land class suitability from best to most poor. This is seen below:

The Fuzzy method displays the small nuances between classes.

The Fuzzy Classification method was chosen by myself because in this study it provided the best land suitability analysis.

PDAC 2012

Monday March 5th 2012, myself and four of my GIS colleagues spent the day at the 2012 PDAC Conference.

With a variety of professionals (predominantly from the Mining Industry) present, we were exposed to innovative technology to detect mineral deposits, businesses on the verge of a gold exploration break through and much more.

I strongly believe GIS is more than the technology, but is a tool necessary within other industries. Therefore, understanding the inner working of another field, such as Mining, is the first step to apply GIS. This conference has exposed me to a new world of GIS application; This includes companies in the business to map current mining production spatially across Canada, process digital imagery  to seek out mineral deposits during the Mining Exploration phase, and even companies in transition between software. Ie. CAD to GIS or vice versa- Needing GIS professionals to assist.

I would attend the 2013 PDAC Conference for the information, networking and an overall great time.

Cheers.