About the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst Tutorial

Using the Spatial Analyst tools available with ESRI ArcGIS, you can perform spatial analysis on your data. You can provide answers to simple spatial questions such as How steep is it at this location? and What direction is this location facing? You can also find answers to more complex spatial questions such as Where is the best location for a new facility? and What is the least costly path from A to B? The comprehensive set of Spatial Analyst tools within ArcGIS allows you to explore and analyze your spatial data and enables you to find solutions to your spatial problems. You can run tools from the Spatial Analyst toolbox or the Python Window, accessible via any ArcGIS Desktop application. You can also create your own custom tools (models or scripts) to run a sequence of tools at one time.

A quick tour of Spatial Analyst

Tutorial Scenario

The town of Stowe, Vermont, USA, has experienced a substantial increase in population. Demographic data suggests this increase has occurred because of families with children moving to the region, taking advantage of the many recreational facilities located nearby. It has been decided that a new school must be built to take the strain off the existing schools, and as a town planner, you have been assigned the task of finding the potential site.

This tutorial will show you how to use many of the available tools and will give you a solid basis from which you can start to think about how to solve your own specific spatial problems.

It is assumed that you have installed ArcGIS Desktop (ArcView, ArcEditor, or ArcInfo) and the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension before you begin this tutorial. If you need more information about extensions, see Using Extensions in ArcGIS.

The data required is included on the ArcGIS Desktop CD. After running the ArcGIS setup, on the Additional Installation Components dialog box, check to install the ArcGIS Tutorial Data. On the ArcGIS Tutorial Data Setup wizard, check to install the Spatial Analyst data (the default installation path is C:\arcgis\ArcTutor\SpatialAnalyst). The datasets were provided courtesy of the state of Vermont for use in this tutorial. The tutorial scenario is fictitious, and the original data has been adapted for the tutorial.

Dataset

Description

Elevation

Raster dataset representing the elevation of the area

Landuse

Raster dataset representing the land-use types over the area

Roads

Feature class representing the linear road network for the town of Stowe

Rec_sites

Feature class representing point locations of recreation sites

Schools

Feature class representing point locations of existing schools

Destination

Feature class representing the destination point used when finding the best route for a new road

This tutorial is divided into exercises and is designed to allow you to explore the Spatial Analyst functionality in ArcGIS at your own pace.

You will need approximately 90 minutes of focused time to complete the tutorial. Alternatively, you can perform the exercises in sequence one at a time, saving your results along the way when recommended.

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6/27/2013