EESC03 – Spring 2025

Assignment 1 (January): Introduction to GIS

Sections of this lab are to be submitted for marking on February 3 – refer to the Questions section (at the end of this lab) for submission requirements. Total number of marks for this assignment is 320 (15% of total).  Students are expected to read about and understand the capabilities and any shortcomings of the methods/commands within the lab (not just what is covered here).  Short outlines of lectures and slides are available on the course homepage.

Completely read the lab before attempting any part of it.

With regards to hard drive space - some of the datasets used in this course can be rather large which can cause the desktop computers and network to run (much) slower than usual.  As such, for large projects, try and work off of the Desktop of the local machine. Remember, though, that upon logout all Desktop information is generally deleted.  Projects/data should be copied to an external device (e.g. a USB key or external hard drive) before logging out.  Any cloud-based storage can likely be used as well (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive; each of these allow basic, free accounts to be created).  Saving at short intervals as well as creating incremental backups is also recommended so as to avoid loss of work due to operating system issues (e.g. the computer locks or there is a network issue). Before performing any complicated steps it is usually wise to make a backup of any components you're about to modify – do not depend on the 'Undo' option.  Copying and pasting from this document into an external program  is not recommended as 'invisible' (or non-recognizable) characters can be introduced, resulting in inexplicable errors.

For ArcGIS Pro, make sure to organize your files into a single directory (as specified in each   assignment) and copy both it and your project file(s) onto your backup device/storage-service. For Manifold (in general),only the ‘map’ file needs to be copied.

Download all necessary files to the local machine (i.e. by right-clicking on the file link and using ‘Save Target As…’ or equivalent selection) before attempting to open any of them (do not open   directly from the linked files as they will be opened ‘read-only’).

All parts of this assignment and associated data are available through Quercus.

Parts of this lab will have been written for (or updated to) a particular ArcGIS Pro or alternative GIS (e.g. Manifold) version.  If the interface in the current version of the software package differs from the provided instructions (e.g. a button has been shifted or a wizard has been assigned to another ‘group’ of commands), use a search engine to locate the ‘new’ command location.

For each part, below, the 'pdf'file indicated may have a version tag (in the form of, for example, v20231129; this conforms to a date-string, in this case ‘November 29, 2023’). If so, use the largest number present for a particular part of the assignment (this will be the most recent file).

Note that if an extension is required within ArcGIS Pro (e.g. ‘Spatial Analyst’), the appropriate license may be enabled by selecting ‘Project - Licensing - Configure your licensing options’; select the ‘Licensed’ checkbox for the listed extension (it may take a moment for the list to appear) then ‘OK’ .

Questions (to be submitted):

Questions from all Parts are to be submitted by midnight on the date listed above. Late work will have a 10% per day penalty.  Marks are indicated for each Part of the assignment. Note that  sections of this lab will be fairly time-consuming until students are familiar with working within  a spatial environment.  Work consistently at the assignment within the time allowed (do not leave the assignment to the last minute).

No written answer to any question (this does not include submitted layouts/images) should be more than 1/2 page in length, single spaced (or 1 page in length, double spaced).  Answers exceeding these bounds will be given partial marks only.  Figures and/or tables (where appropriate) are acceptable.  All responses should be concise but contain enough detail to fully answer the question.

Assignments must be submitted through the official University online course page (i.e. through  Quercus) as a ‘doc’, ‘docx’ or ‘pdf’ file; this should be named distinctly in the form ‘___lb01.pdf’ (e.g.

‘doughty_mike_123456789_lb01.pdf’).  Large documents may be split into multiple components, if necessary, and should be appropriately named (e.g.

‘doughty_mike_123456789_lb01_part1.pdf’ and ‘mike_doughty_123456789_lb01_part2.pdf’). No material will be returned to the student, only a mark will be assigned.  Any queries concerning the marking of assignments (including any reviews of specific questions) should be directed toward the TA during office hours.

All layouts/images are to be exported as an image. For creating images under ArcGIS Pro, use the ‘Share – Export Layer – Web JPEG’ option. Always use the jpeg image type (a quality of 200 dpi should be adequate). These should include a legend, scale and north arrow; all should have coordinates indicated.  In many cases, the addition of a grid or graticule (as appropriate) is useful for interpretation (this will, at times be indicated as part of the section step). Make sure that your name, student number and an appropriate title is used as part of the layout. These images should be incorporated in your submitted document in order of the listed questions (do not place them at the end of the document) and include the question number. Do not submit your images separately from your assignment file.

A compressed file (for example, a ‘zip’ file) can be submitted to decrease the file size for transfer.  Multiple ‘zip’ files are allowable for large submissions.

All submissions not adhering to these guidelines will be rejected.

Part 1 – Introduction to GIS

Source: ‘Introduction to GIS_ArcGIS.pdf’

Questions: 1, 3, 4

Total: [30]

Part 2 – Surfaces

Source: ‘Introduction to Surfaces_ArcGIS.pdf’

Questions: 1, 3, 5, 12

Total: [40]

Part 3 – Projections

Source: ‘Introduction to Projections_ArcGIS.pdf’

Questions: 1, 2, 6

Total: [30]

Part 4 – Suitability Analysis

Source: ‘Introduction to Suitability Analysis_ArcGIS.pdf’

Questions: 2, 3, 5, 8

Total: [40]

Part 5 – Vector Operations

Source: ‘Introduction to Vector Operations_ArcGIS.pdf’

Questions: 1, 5, 8, 12

Total: [40]

Part 6 – Geomorphological Analysis

Source: ‘Geomorphological Analysis_ArcGIS.pdf’

Questions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8

Total: [50]

Part 7 – Reading Material

Source: ‘Reading Material – Assignment 01.pdf’

Questions: 3, 6, 7, 11, 19, 20, 23

Total: [70]

Note that all references are available on the Course page.

Part 8 – Lecture Material

Note that these questions should be also reviewed in preparation for both the midterm and final exam.

Source: ‘Lecture Material – Assignment 01.pdf’

Questions: 6, 13

Total: [20]