Geographical Information System

(CEL747)
Tutorial 1 & 2

SURYAKANT
M.Tech 2nd semester
Water Resources Engineering
2014CEW2110

Department of Civil Engineering

IIT Delhi -110016

TUTORIAL 1
ARC CATALOG
1. What is the function of each of the following buttons?

Ans. Large Icons, List, Details, Thumbnails, Launch Arc Map,

Show/Hide Arc Toolbox Window, Show/Hide Command Window, Start
Model builder, Whats This?
2. How many individual files comprise the "IndiaPoi" shapefile?
Ans. The indiapoi contains seven supporting files as follows:
IndiaPoi.dbf

IndiaPoi.prj

IndiaPoi.sbn

IndiaPoi.sbx

IndiaPoi.shp

IndiaPoi.shp.xml

IndiaPoi.shx

3. state" is seen as a folder in Windows Explorer. View state"

in ArcCatalog, what specific format of geospatial data is it? Does this
data appear as a folder or a single file in Arc Catalog?
Ans. After view state in ArcCatalog it appears as single file with
coverage format and it contains four types of feature classes as arc,
label, polygon, tic. These data doesnt appear like folder there are four
types of Arc feature classes as shown below.

4. What specific type of GIS data is the file "India"? Does this appear
as one single file in Windows Explorer or a folder?

Ans. It appears as India.mdb file. It refers to personal Geodatabase file.

It is a single file not a folder.
5. When you preview Geography which icons become active
in ArcCatalog?
Ans. When I preview Geography in ArcCatalog there are eight icons are
active, those are Zoom In/Out, Pan, Full Extent, Go back to previous
Extent, Go to next Extent , Identity, Create thumbnail.

6. In the Preview of Dam, what is the latitude longitude

of Sardar Sarovar Dam? This is shown in the lower right corner
of ArcCatalog. Give answer in Degrees, Minutes and Seconds.
Ans. Sardar Sarovar Dam Lat 21 49 49 N, Long 73 44 50 E

Metadata
7. Why do you think the fields are automatically filled in ISO 19139
Metadata Implementation Specification style?
Ans. Since, it is the standard format for representation of the data as
specified by ISO so it is also followed in India and hence, the fields are
automatically filled in ISO 19139 Metadata Implementation Specification
style.
8. What is the "Horizontal coordinate system" (Datum) of these data?
Ans.

Horizontal coordinate system

WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_43N.

i.e.

XY

Coordinate

System

is

Arc Toolbox
9. Use the toolbox Search to find all the tools related to "overlay"
operations. List the top three tools along with a brief description (in your
own words) of their functions.
Ans.
Erase: It will Creates a feature class by overlaying the Input Features
with the help of polygons of the Erase Features.
Identity: It can be used for geometric intersection of the Input Features
and Identity Features.
Intersect: It is used for geometric intersection of the Input Features.

ArcMap
10. What information is provided in the symbology tab when we select
the Mediam Description field? From this window, how can we change the
data representation?
Ans.

11. Where else do you think the transparency function might be (more)
useful?
Ans: It is used in GIS for legends and graphics but it can be used in
PowerPoint also.
12. How would you remove duplicate labels?

13. In which state is the Rihand Dam? Write the query that you have used
for determining the answer.
Ans. Rihand Dam is a concrete gravity dam located in Pipri, Sonbhadra
District of Uttar Pradesh, India. Rihand dam has length of 934.21 m. The
maximum height of the dam is 91.44 m and was constructed during
period 1954-62.

TUTORIAL 2
TOPOLOGY
1. What are the topology rules available to find out errors for a polygon
feature class?
Ans: In the ArcGIS data model, polygons can be coplanar, they can overlap,
they can be discontinuous, or they can contain nested islands and lakes. To
avoid these errors following rules are available:
Must Not Overlap: This rule requires that the interior of polygons in
the feature class not overlap. The polygons can share edges or
vertices. This rule is used when an area cannot belong to two or more
polygons.
Must Not Have Gaps: This rule requires that polygons not have voids
within themselves or between adjacent polygons. Polygons can share
edges, vertices, or interior areas. Polygons can also be completely

disconnected. This rule is used when polygons or blocks of

contiguous polygons should not have empty spaces within them.
Must Not Overlap With: This rule requires that the interior of
polygons in one feature class must not overlap with the interior of
polygons in another feature class. Polygons of the two feature classes
can share edges or vertices or be completely disjointed. This rule is
used when an area cannot belong to two separate feature classes.
Must Be Covered by Feature Class of: This rule requires that a
polygon in one feature class must share all of its area with polygons
in another feature class. This rule is used when an area of one type,
such as a state, should be completely covered by areas of another
type, such as counties.
Must Cover Each Other: This rule requires that the polygons of one
feature class must share all of their area with the polygons of another
feature class. Polygons may share edges or vertices. Any area defined
in either feature class that is not shared with the other is an error. This
rule is used when two systems of classification are used for the same
geographic area and any given point defined in one system must also
be defined in the other.
Must Be Covered By: This rule requires that polygons of one feature
class must be contained within polygons of another feature class.
Polygons may share edges or vertices. Any area defined in the
contained feature class must be covered by an area in the covering
feature class. This rule is used when area features of a given type
must be located within features of another type.
Boundary Must Be Covered By: This rule requires that boundaries of
polygon features must be covered by lines in another features class.
This rule is used when area features need to have line features that
mark the boundaries of the areas.
Area Boundary Must Be Covered by Boundary of: This rule requires
that boundaries of polygon features in one feature class be covered by
boundaries of polygon features in another feature class. This is useful
when polygon features in one feature class, such as subdivisions, are
composed of multiple polygons in another class, such as parcels, and
the shared boundaries must be aligned.
Contains Point: This rule requires that a polygon in one feature class
contain at least one point from another feature class. Points must be
within the polygon, not on the boundary. This is useful when every

polygon should have at least one associated point, such as when

parcels must have an address point.
2. Which topology rule you will use to remove overshoot & undershoot
errors.
Ans: A common topological error with polyline features is that they do not
meet perfectly at a point (node). This type of error is called an undershoot if
a gap exists between the lines, and an overshoot if a line ends beyond the
line it should connect to.
Figure Topology Errors 1:

The result of overshoot and undershoot errors are so-called dangling

nodes at the end of the lines.The result of overshoot and undershoot
errors are so-called dangling nodes at the end of the lines. The
following rule can be applied to overcome the above mentioned errors:
Must Not Have Dangles: This rule requires that a line feature must touch
lines from the same feature class at both endpoints. An endpoint that is
not connected to another line is called a dangle. This rule is used when
line features must form closed loops, such as when they are defining the
boundaries of polygon features. It may also be used in cases where lines
typically connect to other lines, as with streets. In this case, exceptions
can be used where the rule is occasionally violated, as with cul-de-sac or
dead end street segments.

3. What are the rules available to find out errors for a line feature class?
Ans: A well-designed geodatabase will have only those topology rules
that define key spatial relationships needed by an organization.

 Must Not Overlap: This rule requires that lines not overlap with
lines in the same feature class. This rule is used where line
segments should not be duplicated; for example, in a stream feature
class
Must Not Intersect: This rule requires that line features from the
same feature class not cross or overlap each other. Lines can share
endpoints.
Must Not Have Dangles: This rule requires that a line feature must
touch lines from the same feature class at both endpoints. An
endpoint that is not connected to another line is called a dangle.
Must Not Have Pseudo-Nodes: This rule requires that a line
connect to at least two other lines at each endpoint. Lines that
connect to one other line (or to themselves) are said to have
pseudo-nodes.
Must Not Intersect Or Touch Interior: This rule requires that a line
in one feature class must only touch other lines of the same feature
class at endpoints. Any line segment in which features overlap, or
any intersection not at an endpoint, is an error.
Must Not Overlap With: This rule requires that a line from one
feature class not overlap with line features in another feature class.
This rule is used when line features cannot share the same space.
For example, roads must not overlap with railroads or depression
subtypes of contour lines cannot overlap with other contour lines.
Must Be Covered By Feature Class Of: This rule requires that lines
from one feature class must be covered by the lines in another
feature class.
Must Be Covered By Boundary Of: This rule requires that lines be
covered by the boundaries of area features. This is useful for
modeling lines, such as lot lines, that must coincide with the edge
of polygon features, such as lots.
Endpoint Must Be Covered By: This rule requires that the
endpoints of line features must be covered by point features in
another feature class.
Must Not Self Overlap: This rule requires that line features not
overlap themselves. They can cross or touch themselves, but must
not have coincident segments.

 Must Not Self Intersect: This rule requires that line features not
cross or overlap themselves. This rule is useful for lines, such as
contour lines, that cannot cross themselves.
Must Be Single Part: This rule requires that lines must have only
one part. This rule is useful where line features, such as highways,
may not have multiple parts.

4. Built topology between stream and Roads. Now list the rules which
could be used to set relation among them.
Ans:
A topology can be created in ArcCatalog by right-clicking on the data set
name and selecting New -> Topology from the context menu.
A wizard appears to guide the user through the creation of topology.
Then following steps are click next on the first page of wizard to move to
second page, on second page set the name of the topology i.e. stream or
roads and specify the tolerance then click next, on third page specify the
feature class that will participate in the topology and then click next, on
fourth page specify ranking of each feature class within the topology then
click next, on fifth page define integrity rules and click next, on sixth page
i.e. summary page that will lists all the choices made in the wizard.
5. What is the function of the rule Must Not Have Pseudos?
Ans: A line must connect to at least two other lines at each endpoint. Lines
that connect to one other line (or to themselves) are said to have pseudo
nodes. The basic function of the rule Must Not Have Pseudos is; when
line features must form closed loops, such as when they define the
boundaries of polygons or when line features logically must connect to two
other line features at each end, as with segments in a stream network, with
exceptions being marked for the originating ends of first-order streams.
6. What do you mean by cluster tolerance?
Ans: The minimum tolerated distance between vertices in a topology.
Vertices that fall within the set cluster tolerance are snapped together during
the topology validation process. [ESRI software].The cluster tolerance is the
distance range in which all vertices and boundaries in a shape file or feature
dataset are considered identical or coincident.
7. If two polygons are overlapping, how will you remove this error?

Ans: The possible solution of this kind of problem is as:

Subtract: The Subtract fix removes the overlapping portion of
geometry from each feature that is causing the error and leaves a gap
or void in its place. This fix can be applied to one or more selected
Must Not Overlap errors.
Merge: The Merge fix adds the portion of overlap from one feature
and subtracts it from the others that are violating the rule. You need to
pick the feature that receives the portion of overlap using the Merge
dialog box. This fix can be applied to one Must Not Overlap error
only.
Create Feature: The Create Feature fix creates a new polygon feature
out of the error shape and removes the portion of overlap from each
of the features, causing the error to create a planar representation of
the feature geometry. This fix can be applied to one or more selected
Must Not Overlap errors.

8. What is the need to provide Rank to features in Topology? Why do we

carry out validation in topology?
Ans: The Rank allotment in topology is important to manage the relative
accuracy between the all participating feature class. The x,y and zranks
represent the accuracies of the feature class relative to other feature classes
participating in the topology. Feature classes with a higher rank, such as 1
are more accurate than feature classes with a lower rank, such as 2. Ranks
are a relative measure of accuracy; the difference between two features
classes of ranks 1 and 2 is the same as two feature classes with ranks of 1 &
50.
Validation in topology: Once the topology has been created with all the
feature classes and rules, you can optionally choose to validate the
topology. However, this is not required, since the entire topology is covered
by a dirty area. Until the topology is validated, the topological relationships
of the features cannot be guaranteed.
9. Why we need to define Domain in a Geodatabase. Can we do even
without domain? Is it possible to give same Domain to many feature
classes?
Ans: A domain is a declaration of acceptable attribute values .Attribute
domains are rules that describe the legal values of a field type, providing a
method for enforcing data integrity. Attribute domains are used to constrain

the values allowed in any particular attribute for a table or feature class..
Whenever a domain is associated with an attribute field, only the values
within that domain are valid for the field. In other words, the field will not
accept a value that is not in that domain.
Yes it is possible to give same Domain to many feature classes because
domains are created for the entire geodatabase, not just for a specific feature
class or feature dataset. Same domains can be used by any feature class
within the geodatabase.