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Exercise
Geography Matters: Analyzing
Demographics
Section 1 Exercise 2
02/2019
Going Places with Spatial Analysis MOOC
Instructions
Use this guide and ArcGIS Online to analyze data and maps showing world demographics.
Note: ArcGIS Online is a dynamic mapping platform. The version of ArcGIS Online that
you will be using for this course may be slightly different from the screenshots you see in
the course materials.
Time to complete
Approximately 30-45 minutes.
Introduction
In this exercise, you will use the ArcGIS Online mapping platform to analyze data and maps
showing world demographics. Each step covers a key component or feature of the platform.
Feel free to experiment and try things out. You will have the chance to apply what you learn in
this exercise to exercises in later sections of this course.
The questions included throughout this exercise are intended to encourage you to think
spatially and critically. Answers are provided at the end of this exercise.
• Gain a perspective necessary for upcoming spatial analysis work in this course and
beyond.
• Acquire skills in using the ArcGIS Online platform, which is the platform used throughout
this spatial analysis course.
• Reflect on your learning through self-assessment quiz questions.
Technical notes
1. We will be making full use of web mapping services throughout this course. The maps in
these services are laden with information, and therefore, a robust web connection is
important for this exercise and the other exercises that follow.
2. To take advantage of these web-based technologies, you need to use a fairly new version
of a standard web browser, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer.
In other words, a 5-year-old browser will not work well with the scripts running the maps
behind the scenes, so an old web browser may not display your maps correctly.
Note: For information on supported browsers for ArcGIS Online, visit http://
doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/browsers.htm (https://bit.ly/2pIIN2T).
3. Because this course is web-based and uses dynamic maps, as with anything on the web,
be patient, practice the problem-solving techniques modeled in this course, and be
flexible. If a certain map or website won't display at a particular time, use a different
browser or try it at a different time, or try truncating the URL and approaching the desired
URL from the organizational root of the URL. If it still won't appear, we would rather have
you move on and think about the larger issue that we are discussing instead of focusing
on the technical details on whether you can add a photo image as a pop-up to your map
(for example). You can always return to a particular resource later and try again. Keep
learning, and have fun!
b Go to www.arcgis.com and sign in to ArcGIS Online using the credentials explained at the
start of this course.
Note: Section 1, Exercise 1 explains how to determine your ArcGIS Online credentials
(username and password) for this course. If you have trouble signing in, try these steps:
a On the navigation bar in the Going Places with Spatial Analysis organization home page,
click Gallery.
The gallery for the Going Places with Spatial Analysis organization opens.
b Click the thumbnail image for Section 1, Exercise 2: Geography Matters: Analyzing
Demographics.
a From the ribbon at the top of the window, click Save and choose Save As.
b In the Save Map dialog box, make any desired changes, and then click Save Map.
Next, you will share the map. You can share it with everyone, with groups of colleagues that
you may want to set up in the future, or with no one at all.
Note: In this course, you are encouraged to share your maps with everyone. This way, all of
the course participants, as well as any colleagues, teachers, and friends, will be able to view
your map.
e Click Done.
The three buttons at the top of the Details pane provide options to see information about the
map, the map contents, and a legend.
The About button displays descriptive information about the map, the Content button
displays a list of the layers in the map, and the Legend button displays a legend for the layers
in the map. Depending upon the width of the Details pane, labels on the buttons may be
visible or hidden.
You can click and drag the horizontal size handle icon in the middle of the right edge of the
Details pane to resize the Details pane and map frame.
You will now practice resizing the Details pane and map frame.
a On the divider between the Details pane and the map frame, point to the horizontal size
handle icon .
b When the pointer becomes a double arrow , click and drag the pane horizontally to
expand or reduce the size.
Note: Reducing the size of the Details pane expands the size of the map frame. Likewise,
expanding the size of the Details pane reduces the size of the map frame.
Now, you will explore the contents of the ArcGIS Online map.
c If it is not already selected, click the Content button to view the Contents pane.
As you can see on the left side of the map, this map contains two layers: Demographics -
World Demographics and Topographic, which is a basemap (https://bit.ly/2RBrZVy) layer.
f From the gallery, choose a basemap to use. Try several selections, such as Imagery and
OpenStreetMap.
Like the others you will use throughout this course, this map is not simply graphics floating
around in cyberspace; rather, it is a representation of a geographic information system (GIS).
Because of this, the map is a "smart map": it has intelligence behind it, including locational
information, topological information, and attribute information. Each point, line, polygon, and
pixel on the map has locational information tied to it, a latitude and longitude coordinate.
In this step, you will examine and work with the spatial data behind the map. First, you will
look at some locational information.
a On the map menu bar at the top of the window, click the Measure tool.
c Move your pointer around the map to see the latitude and longitude details for locations
in the Measurement Result area of the pop-up window.
The latitude is given first, and then the longitude. This corresponds to coordinate pairs in a
Cartesian coordinate system (https://bit.ly/2SpHIvr), but with Y (latitude) given first and then X
(longitude). On the globe, the X axis is the equator, and the Y axis is the prime meridian.
Negative X values therefore represent locations in the western hemisphere, while negative Y
values indicate locations in the southern hemisphere.
Locational information does not have to be latitude and longitude. It could be street
addresses or anything else that can be geocoded (https://bit.ly/2MONSQt), or mapped,
based on some sort of specific location.
You can also measure areas and distances with the Measure tool.
e Click a location on the map to draw a polygon representing the area you are interested in,
and then double-click the last point to finish the polygon.
The Measurement Result indicates the number of square miles included in the identified area.
Note: You can change the measurement value by clicking the down arrow to the right of Sq
Miles and choosing a different value.
g Click the map to place a start and an end point on a location you want to measure the
distance of, and then double-click the last point to finish the distance.
The Measurement Result indicates the distance.
Note: You can change the measurement value by clicking the down arrow to the right of Miles
and choosing a different value.
This map and other maps in a GIS environment also contain topological information. Thanks
to topology, everything on the map "knows" how near or far every other thing, or "feature,"
is on the map. You will take advantage of this topological information later in this course when
you perform proximity, overlay, and other types of analysis on your data.
The third type of information in a map in a GIS is attribute information. Next, you will explore
information stored in an attribute table.
a In the Contents pane, check the Demographics layer to turn the layer on.
Think of the map as the "G" (geographic) part of GIS and the attributes as the "I"
(information) part of GIS.
d In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Show Table button .
The attribute table appears at the bottom of the map, with each country represented by one
row, or record, in the table. The variables that you have been examining appear as fields in
the table.
f Conversely, click a country in the map, and the corresponding row in the table will be
highlighted.
Note: You may need to scroll up or down within the table to see the highlighted row.
This is a representation of the "S" part of GIS—the "G" (geography) and the "I" (information)
are connected in a system.
2. According to this dataset, which country had the highest birth rate?
_______________________________________________________________________________
j In the table, click the country name of San Marino to select the row.
Hint: You can click the heading of the Country column and choose Sort Ascending to reorder
the list of countries in the table.
The polygon representing the country of San Marino is highlighted in bright blue.
m Turn off the Demographics map layer to see the topographic basemap.
As an example of how you might use a filter, imagine that you are in charge of a program at
the United Nations that is studying societies undergoing rapid population increases. Using the
World Demographics map and associated data, you could use the Filter tool to select
countries with population growth rates that meet your criteria.
You will now learn how to filter or select information from the table.
d In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Filter button .
Hint: You may have to switch to the Content view.
e In the Filter dialog box, for the first field, choose Rate_Increase.
Rate_Increase is the annual growth rate of the population in each country from 2012 to 2013,
according to the Population Reference Bureau.
In plain language, the expression that you just created will display features in the map layer
where the value of the Rate_Increase field in the table is at least 2.
k From the drop-down list, choose Statistics to generate statistics for the selected countries.
6. What is the maximum rate of growth of any of the selected countries? In which
country did this growth rate occur?
_______________________________________________________________________________
As useful as scrolling through the attribute table and filtering can be, the map is an even more
powerful medium for spatial analysis. You will now practice two additional key skills of
changing the map symbology and classifying the data.
a In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Filter button.
c Pause your pointer over the Demographics - World Demographics layer name again and
click the Change Style button .
• From the drop-down list, choose the attribute to show by selecting Life_Expectancy.
This is the life expectancy (in years) at birth in each country in 2013, according to the
Population Reference Bureau.
• For the drawing style, confirm that Counts And Amounts (Color) is selected.
Note: This will result in a map where features are distinguished based on a color gradient. The
check mark indicates the current styling of the layer.
The default color gradient, or color ramp, uses a range of the color teal to represent life
expectancy values.
The map display updates, and the color values indicate life expectancy by country, with
darker colors indicating a longer life expectancy.
• To change how the data is applied to the color sequence, use the handles along the
color ramp.
You can adjust the display by either dragging the handles or clicking the number beside the
handle and typing a precise value. Experimenting with the position of the handles allows you
to fine-tune the message of the map. Using the histogram beside the color ramp lets you see
the distribution of the data.
To further generalize your map, you can classify the data.
These natural breaks are based on natural groupings that maximize the differences between
the classes.
• To change the transparency of the layers, move the Transparency slider to the left or
right.
f Click Done to close the Change Style pane and view the updated map.
g Click the Legend button so that you see the map legend.
The resulting world demographics map shows life expectancy (in years) based on the natural
breaks classification method.
7. What are two patterns that you notice on the resulting map?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
8. What is the lowest life expectancy in the color ranges?
_______________________________________________________________________________
This map shows data based on natural breaks. The natural breaks method evaluates a
histogram of the data and selects naturally occurring breaks in the data to split the classes
along.
a Click the Content button so that you see the contents of the map.
b In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Change Style button.
Note: The Counts And Amounts (Color) style should already be selected.
Quantile evaluates the number of data values that you are mapping and splits the classes so
that the same number of observations exists in each class. In the case of world demographic
mapping, 254 features are being mapped, leaving roughly 50 countries in each class.
f Click the Legend button so that you see the map legend.
World Demographics map showing life expectancy (in years), based on the quantile classification method.
h Try the other classification methods (Equal Interval and Standard Deviation) and examine
the results.
Note: For more information about changing symbols and using classification schemes, refer to
the ArcGIS Online product help (https://bit.ly/1NPR9f7).
important than ever to understand which organization created the mapping data that you are
using, why it was created, how often it is updated, at which scale it was created, and other
necessary information. If you are better informed about the quality of the data you are using,
you can make more accurate choices about if and how to use the data, and your resulting
decisions will be wiser.
The information about the map is contained within the metadata of the map.
In this step, you will access the metadata in ArcGIS Online to find out who created the
demographics data that you are using.
Metadata populated by the author of the map is displayed in a new browser tab.
e To sign out of ArcGIS Online, at the top of the map window, click the arrow next to your
name and choose Sign Out.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have investigated a map and its associated attribute table, thought
spatially and critically about the map, asked questions about the map through the table and
through filtering, and symbolized and classified the data. Throughout this course, you will
continue applying these skills as you increase your analytical abilities through upcoming
exercises.
2. According to this dataset, which country had the highest birth rate?
Chad had the highest birth rate of any country in the dataset, at 51.30 per thousand.
4. On which continent are nearly all of the countries with a growth rate of at least 2.0?
Nearly all of the countries with a growth rate of at least 2.0 are located in Africa.
6. What is the maximum rate of growth of any of the selected countries? In which country did
this growth rate occur?
The maximum growth rate for any country in the dataset is 4.61. This occurred in
Uzbekistan.
7. What are two patterns that you notice on the resulting map?
Answers may vary but could include observations that high life expectancies exist for
western Europe, East Asia, and Canada-USA, whereas low life expectancies exist for
Equatorial and Southern Africa.
9. What changes do you notice after classifying the data using the quantile method?
Answers may vary, but note that the class break values have changed, and the
appearance of the map also changed.