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TUTORIAL: INTRODUCTION TO GIS ANALYSIS IN ARCVIEW 3

Josef Frst, IWHW-BOKU

1 PROBLEM
Several datasets containing hydrologically relevant information are available. We are supposed to present these data as thematic maps, summarize some of the information and do analyses.

2 TRAINING OBJECTIVES
Use ArcView 3 to display maps of our observed data Learn about basic GIS functionality of ArcView (classify, join) Learn how to perform overlays, create buffers, do attribute calculations,

3 GIVEN DATA
GIS datasets are provided in Shapefile format, referring to the Enns catchment in Austria and are extracted from the Hydrological Atlas of Austria. They contain a river network, basin divides, landcover, monitoring networks, and some auxiliary data.

4 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
ArcView 3.1 or later Extensions: Geoprocessing wizard, Spatial analyst, Spatial Tools 3.3, Xtools, Nearest Neighbour 3.6

5 TASKS 5.1 Getting started

Start ArcView, follow the dialogues to create a new view and add the theme of rivers from gewenns.shp

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load the extensions listed above, make the source directory the working directory of the project and set View Properties Map units and Distance units to meters. Enhance the display by an improved legend. Double click the line symbol in the TOC and select Graduated symbol with Classification field Breite in the legend editor. Apply a ramp of symbols in the size range 1 to 2, select a blue foreground color for the symbols.

Play with some of the tools: Zoom, Pan, Select, Measure, Identify, Add new themes EZGenns.shp and Landcover.shp and display various thematic maps.
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5.2 Buffers along rivers 5.2.1 Problem

Rivers are generally modelled as linear features, but there are definitely issues that involve a strip of land near the rivers. Simple constant width buffers might be needed to access the river for maintenance, but for protection of a river against non-point source pollution the width of a buffer will be related to the landcover. In this tutorial task we start out with a map of the rivers and the land cover map. We are supposed to create a buffer along the rivers whose width depends on the current landcover near the river.

5.2.2 Step 1: Assign the neighbouring landcover to river reaches

In gewenns.shp, a river reach generally passes several different types of landcover. There is a many-to-many relationship between river reaches and landcover polygons which has to be reduced into a 1 : M relationship between a river reach and a list of attributes, including the landcover properties. This is achieved by intersection. First, we select the rivers we want to buffer (e.g. all rivers whose width (Breite) is greater than 1, because our management plans only refer to these.). Next, we start View Geoprocessing Wizard Intersect 2 themes . Select Gewenns.shp to be the theme to intersect, and landcover.shp to be the overlay theme. Specify the output file gew_lc_itsct.shp and push Finish . In the resulting line shapefile the rivers are intersected where the neighbouring landcover changes and each reach has additionally all the attributes of landcover.shp. Visualize appropriately!

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5.2.3 Step 2: Assign an attribute to use as a buffer width by a JOIN with a lookup table
Assume, that the width of the desired buffer is determined by the type of landcover. Instead of individually assigning a value to each river reach in the attribute table of gew_lc_itsct.shp, we develop a lookup table (LUT) which can then be joined to the attribute table. This technique is more flexible and ensures better consistency than individual attribute calculations. A table to be used as LUT can simply be created as a text file (for convenience, we also added a column Landcover to serve as a translator into English language in file CorinLUTbuf.txt):
"HAOKLASS", "LandCover", "Buffer" 1, "Continuous urban fabric", 100 2, "Discontinuous urban fabric", 100 3, "Sparsely vegetated areas", 100 4, "Arable land", 600 5, "Vineyards", 600 6, "Grassland", 200 7, "Broad-leaved and mixed forests", 100 8, "Coniferous forests", 100 9, "Wetlands", 50 10, "Waterbodies", 50 11, "Glaciers", 0

To JOIN the new attributes LandCover and Buffer based on the Join item HAOKLASS to the attribute table of gew_lc_itsct.shp, first Add CorinLUTbuf.txt as a table document in ArcView.

. Open the attribute table of gew_lc_itsct.shp, by making it active and then clicking Select column HAOKLASS first in corinlutbuf.txt , then in Attributes of Gew_lc_itsct.shp and click the Join button . corinlutbuf.txt will disappear and the attribute table will have two new attributes "LandCover" and "Buffer" which can be used like all other attributes.

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5.2.4 Step 3: Compute buffers

With Gew_lc_itsct.shp the active theme, select Theme the dialogs.
Create buffers

and follow

Visualize appropriately with a semi-transparent symbol.

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5.3 Assign site properties to monitoring points (spatial join) 5.3.1 Problem
To manage observation networks, it is not only important to know individual station details like position, instrument type, etc. but also some site characteristics like elevation, surrounding landcover, distance to the closest river and others. This information can be derived by overlaying the map of the stations with, e.g. the landcover map.

5.3.2 Task 1: Assign surrounding landcover to groundwater monitoring points

Given a point shapefile of the groundwater stations and the polygon shapefile of landcover, the required operation in ArcView 3 is called a spatial join. Add gwmess_enns.shp to the View. Next, we start View Geoprocessing Wizard Assign spatial data by location (spatial join) . Select the involved themes and click Finish . If we inspect the attribute table of Gwmess_enns.shp now or do an Identify on a groundwater site, we will see 4 new attributes at the end of the list. E.g., site Grbming is located within Grnland (grassland). Note, that these items are only joined and not permanently written to the table.

5.3.3 Task 2: Assign distance from the closest river to each site
The distance from a river is an important characteristic of a groundwater monitoring site. To compute it automatically in ArcView 3, we need a user-contributed extension, e.g. Nearest Neighbour 3.6 by Johannes Weigel (By the way, if you cannot find a desired function in ArcView, always try a search at http://arcscripts.esri.com. There is good chance that somebody already did it for you in Avenue!). Do Nearest Neighbour Find/Sort Nearest Neighbour and follow the dialogues. Select Gwmess_enns.shp as source theme and Gewenns.shp as target theme. The appropriate type of distance here is Edge to edge. Let the tool create a distance field and also assign the name of the closest river (Flussname). Now, the list of attributes of Gwmess_enns.shp includes 2 more items. E.g., station Grbming is at a distance of 354 m from the Grbmingbach.

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5.4 Determine areal precipitation by the THIESSEN method

Areal precipitation is frequently estimated by a weighted mean of measured precipitation at rain gauges in and near the watershed. The weights are often determined by the THIESSEN method, which assigns the value of the closest observation point to each point in the domain. In a vector system, the lines of symmetry between any 2 points have to be constructed. In a raster approach, each pixel is assigned the value of the closest station.

5.4.1 Step 1: Determine the THIESSEN weights

Add the point shapefile of rain gauges prec_enns.shp to the view and make it active. Add the grid enns_mask to the view and set Analysis Properties (see Fig.). Do Analysis Assign proximity . Select HZBNR as proximity field. Display the resulting THIESSEN map. Save the grid as prec_thiessen ( Theme Save data set ). Note that only gauges within the watershed have been used. To include also external gauges, switch off the analysis mask, do the Assign proximity and then clip the grid with the enns_mask (use the Map calculator).

The attribute table of the THIESSEN map includes a field count which is the number of pixels. Open the table, Table Start editing , add fields Area and Weight. Activate Area. WIth Field Calculate calculate the area as [Count] * 250000 (the area of a pixel 500 x 500). Using Field Statistics , compute the total area (note the number), activate column Weight and compute Area/6087750000 (total area). Table Stop editing .
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5.4.2 Step 2: Calculate areal precipitation

Mean annual areal precipitation is given in field MJNSUM of prec_enns.shp. Open the attribute table, and join the attribute table of prec_thiessen. Start editing, add field Wprec and calculate field as [MJNSUM] * [Weight]. With Field Statistics we can read the areal precipitation to be the sum of Wprec.

G I S I N H Y D R O L O G Y AN D W AT E R M AN AG E M E N T - E N W AT

2005