Exercise 2 - Using GIS as a Database

In the previous exercise you were explored spatial data (point, line, polygon and raster) in a Geographic Information System. The next step is to examine the attributes associated with spatial data sets. In this exercise you will look at the attributes associated with the county, road and EPA TRI layers.

2.1 Start ArcMap

Click on Programs ArcGIS ArcMap.

2.2 Open Example 2

- In ArcMap click on File Open from the menu bar.

- Click on the arrow for the drop down menu next to Look In at the top of the open window and select c. - Double click on the temp folder. - Double click on the workshop folder. - Double click on example2.mxd. - ArcMap opens with the Massachusetts counties in the display window.

2.3 Open County Attribute Table

- Right click on county in the ArcMap Table of Contents. - Select Open Attribute Table in the pop-up menu. This opens the Polygon Attribute Table (PAT) associated with the county layer. Each row in this PAT represents an individual polygon in the layer. According to the attribute window there are 262 polygons in the county layer. Why are there so many polygons when there are only 14 counties in Massachusetts? The answer can be found in the county column. Each column represents an attribute associated with the polygons. You can add any type of attribute column to the PAT including text attributes and numbers. If you look at the county column you see a county name associated with each polygon. You will see that in some cases there are multiple polygons with the same county name. Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the Attribute Table to see the other attributes associated with each county polygon. - Click on the x in the upper right hand corner to close the Attribute window.

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2.4 Open the Roads Attribute Table

- Repeat the previous step to open the attribute table of the roads layer. - Because this is a line coverage the Shape of each row in the table is a polyline. - Examine some of the other items in the attribute table. - Click on the x in the upper right hand corner to close the Attribute window.

2.5 Open the EPA TRI Attribute Table

- Open the EPA TRI attribute table. - What is the Shape of the EPA TRI layer?

2.6 Examine Link Between Spatial Locations and Attributes

In this step you will see the link between rows in the attribute table and spatial locations. Remember, each row in an attribute table represents one spatial feature in the layer. - Turn off the roads layer to make the counties more visible. - Click on the Select Features button . This tool allows you to select features in a layer simply by clicking on the feature in the display window. - Click on one of the county polygons in the display window. It should now be highlighted with a blue outline. - Open the attribute table for the county layer. - Click on Selected at the bottom of the attribute window to show only the selected features.

Now, the only feature displayed in the attribute window is the one you selected. The attributes listed are associated with the polygon highlighted in the display window. This link between the spatial location and the associated attributes is
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made in the database through a unique identifying number called the OBJECTID, which can be seen in the attribute table. While some features may have the same attributes, such as county name, the polygon ID number is always unique. A second way to examine the attributes associated with a feature is through the Identify button . - Click on the identify button. Your pointer should now have a small "i" in a circle next to it. - Click on one of the EPA TRI in the display window. If you are having trouble clicking on a EPA TRI use the zoom tool to zoom in on one. The attributes associated with the EPA TRI you selected should appear in the Identify Results window:

Like the polygons in the county layer, each EPA TRI will have a set of attributes associated with it including a unique identifying number.

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