Course Title: Web GIS

Course Code: GeES 613 TOPIC 4

Data analysis
Postgraduate Programme in GIS and Remote Sensing
Department of Geography & Environmental Studies with ArcGIS
College of Social Sciences & Humanities Online
Adigrat University

By
Dr. Zubairul Islam
Associate Professor
GIS and Remote Sensing
Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences
Adigrat University, Ethiopia
E-mail: [email protected] , Contact no.: +251-967490505
Course contents
Online Platforms for Web GIS
ArcGIS Online overview
Adding content to ArcGIS Online
Data types
Services
Publishing feature services and tiled map services
Creating web maps with ArcGIS Online
Authoring workflow
Configuration options
Data analysis with ArcGIS Online
Creating web applications using ArcGIS Online templates
Available templates
Workflow to create a web application
Sharing content to ArcGIS Online
Sharing options
Choosing the right option for the content's intended use
TOPIC 4
Data analysis with ArcGIS Online
Imagine you've been tasked to evaluate potential sites for a new warehouse. This evaluation is to be based on
access to transportation, the presence of special restrictions such as nearby historical neighborhoods, access to
restaurants and other facilities that employees may need, access to public transportation for employees, and
nearby land use that may restrict or enhance development. How do you evaluate these sites in a quantifiable and
defensible way? Of course you need data, but you also need tools that can analyze and measure geographic
relationships.

Whenever you look at a map, you inherently start turning that map into information by finding patterns, assessing
trends, or making decisions. This process is called spatial analysis, and it's what our eyes and minds do naturally
whenever we look at a map.

But many patterns and relationships aren't always obvious by looking at a map. Often, there's too much data to
sift through and present coherently on a map. The way you display the data on the map can change the patterns
you see. Spatial analysis tools allow you to quantify patterns and relationships in the data and display the results
as maps, tables, and charts. The spatial analysis tools empower you to answer questions and make important
decisions using more than a visual analysis.

To learn more about accessing and running the tools, see Use the analysis tools. An overview of each of the tools
can be found below. The analysis tools are arranged in categories. These categories are logical groupings and do
not affect how you access or use the tasks in any way.
Summarize data
These tools calculate total counts, lengths, areas, and basic
descriptive statistics of features and their attributes within areas or
near other features.
Aggregate Points
This tool works with a layer of point features and a layer of area features. It first figures out which
points fall within each area. After determining this point-in-area spatial relationship, statistics about
all points in the area are calculated and assigned to the area. The most basic statistic is the count
of the number of points within the area, but you can get other statistics as well.

For example, suppose you have point features of coffee shop locations and area features of
counties, and you want to summarize coffee sales by county. Assuming the coffee shops have a
TOTAL_SALES attribute, you can get the sum of all TOTAL_SALES within each county, or the
minimum or maximum TOTAL_SALES within each county, or the standard deviation of all sales
within each county.
Join Features

This tool transfers the attributes of one layer

or table to another based on spatial and
attribute relationships. Statistics can then be
calculated on the joined features.

For example

● Join crime data to police districts using

a spatial relationship.
● Join land use descriptions to land use
polygons using code values.
Summarize Nearby
This tool finds features within a specified distance of features
in the analysis layer. Distance can be measured as a
straight-line distance or a selected travel mode. Statistics are
then calculated for the nearby features.

For example

● Calculate the total population within five minutes of

driving time of a proposed new store location.
● Calculate the number of freeway access ramps within a
one-mile driving distance of a proposed new store
location to use as a measure of store accessibility.
Summarize Within
This tool finds features (and portions of features)
within the boundaries of areas in the analysis layer.

For example

● Given a layer of watershed boundaries and a

layer of land-use boundaries by land-use type,
calculate total acreage of land-use type for each
watershed.
● Given a layer of parcels in a county and a layer
of city boundaries, summarize the average
value of vacant parcels within each city
boundary.
Summarize Center and Dispersion
This tool finds the central feature, mean center, median center, or ellipse
(directional distribution) of point features.

For example

● Find the central feature in a set of points, such as trees, buildings, or

parks.
● Find the mean center of a set of points, such as crime incidents or wildlife
sightings.
● Find the median center of a set of points, such as the locations of car
accidents.
● Find the dispersion (ellipse) of a set of points, such as disease
occurrences or the location of an invasive plant species.
Find Locations
These tools find features that pass any number of criteria
that you specify. They are typically used for site selection,
where the objective is to find places that satisfy multiple
criteria.
Find Existing
Locations
This tool selects existing features in your
study area that meet a series of criteria
you specify. These criteria can be based
on attribute queries (for example,
parcels that are vacant) and spatial
queries (for example, parcels within 1
mile of a river).
Derive New Locations
This tool derives new features in your study area
that meet a series of criteria you specify. These
criteria can be based on attribute queries (for
example, parcels that are vacant) and spatial
queries (for example, parcels that are within flood
zones).

Find Similar Locations

Based on criteria you specify, the Find Similar

Locations tool measures the similarity of locations
in your candidate search layer to one or more
reference locations.
Choose Best Facilities

This tool finds the set of facilities that will best

serve demand from surrounding areas.

Facilities might be public institutions that offer a

service, such as fire stations, schools, or
libraries, or they might be commercial ones,
such as drug stores or distribution centers for a
parcel delivery service. Demand represents the
need for a service that the facilities can meet.
Demand is associated with point locations, with
each location representing a given amount of
demand.
Create Viewshed
This tool creates areas where an observer can
see objects on the ground. The input analysis
points can represent either observers (such as
people on the ground or lookouts in a fire
tower) or observed objects (such as wind
turbines, water towers, vehicles, or other
people). The result areas are those areas
where the observers can see the observed
objects and vice versa: the observed objects
can see the observers. The output is typically
used in site suitability and selection analysis.
Create Watersheds

This tool identifies catchment areas based on

locations you specify.

Trace Downstream

This tool determines the trace, or flow path, in a

downstream direction from the points in your
analysis layer.

Find Centroids

This tool creates central point features from

multipoint, line, and area features.
Analyze patterns
These tools help you identify, quantify, and visualize spatial
patterns in your data by identifying areas of statistically significant
clusters.
Calculate Density

The Calculate Density tool creates a density map from point or line features
by spreading known quantities of some phenomenon (represented as
attributes of the points or lines) across the map. The result is a layer of
areas classified from least dense to most dense.

For example

Calculating densities of hospitals within a county. The result layer will show
areas with high and low accessibility to hospitals, and this information can
be used to decide where new hospitals should be built.
Identifying areas that are at high risk of forest fires based on historical
locations of forest fires.
Locating communities that are far from major highways in order to plan
where new roads should be constructed.
Find Hot Spots
The Find Hot Spots tool will determine if there is any statistically
significant clustering in the spatial pattern of your data.

For example

Are your points (crime incidents, trees, traffic accidents) really

clustered? How can you be sure?
Have you truly discovered a statistically significant hot spot (for
spending, infant mortality, consistently high test scores), or would your
map tell a different story if you changed the way it was symbolized?
The Find Hot Spots tool will help you answer these questions with
confidence.
Find Outliers
The Find Outliers tool will determine if there are any statistically
significant outliers in the spatial pattern of your data.

For example

Are there anomalous areas in the pattern of your data (crime

incidents, trees, traffic accidents)? How can you be sure?
Have you truly discovered a statistically significant outlier (for
spending, infant mortality, consistently high test scores), or
would your map tell a different story if you changed the way it
was symbolized?
The Find Outliers tool will help you answer these questions with
confidence.
Find Point Clusters
The Find Point Clusters tool finds clusters of
point features within surrounding noise based
on their spatial distribution.

For example

Find clusters of houses infested with pests.

Find clusters of crime incidents, like theft.
Interpolate Points

The Interpolate Points tool allows you to predict values at new locations
based on measurements from a collection of points. The tool takes point
data with values at each point and returns areas classified by predicted
values.

For example

An air quality management district has sensors that measure pollution

levels. Interpolate Points can be used to predict pollution levels at locations
that don't have sensors, such as locations with at-risk populations—schools
or hospitals, for example.
Predict heavy metal concentrations in crops based on samples taken from
individual plants.
Predict soil nutrient levels (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and so on)
and other indicators (such as electrical conductivity) in order to study their
relationships to crop yield and prescribe precise amounts of fertilizer for
each location in the field.
Meteorological applications include prediction of temperatures, rainfall, and
associated variables (such as acid rain).
Use proximity
These tools help you answer one
of the most common questions
posed in spatial analysis: What is
near what?
Create Buffers
A buffer is an area that covers a given distance from a
point, line, or area feature.

Buffers are typically used to create areas that can be

further analyzed using a tool such as Overlay Layers.
For example, if the question is What buildings are
within 1 mile of the school?, the answer can be found
by creating a 1-mile buffer around the school and
overlaying the buffer with the layer containing building
footprints. The end result is a layer of those buildings
within 1 mile of the school.
Create Drive-Time Areas
Create Drive-Time Areas creates areas that can be reached within a
specified drive time or drive distance. It measures out from one or
many points (up to 1,000), along roads, to create a layer that can
help you answer questions such as the following:

Where can I go from here within a 30-minute drive?

Where can I go from here within a 30-minute drive at 5:30 p.m.
during rush hour?
What areas of town can the fire department reach within 5 minutes?
How would fire-response coverage improve by building a new fire
station here?
What market areas does my business cover?
Find Nearest
This tool finds the nearest features and, optionally, reports and
ranks the distance to the nearby features. To find what's nearby,
the tool can either measure straight-line distance or a selected
travel mode. There are options to limit the number of nearest
features to find or the search range in which to find them.

The results from this tool can help you answer the following
kinds of questions:

What is the nearest park from here?

Which hospital can I reach in the shortest drive time? How long
would the trip take on a Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. during rush hour?
What are the road distances between these major cities?
Which of these patients reside within 2 miles of these chemical
plants?
Plan Routes
Plan Routes determines how to efficiently divide tasks among a mobile
workforce.

You provide the tool with a set of stops and the number of vehicles
available to visit the stops. The tool assigns the stops to vehicles and
returns routes showing how each vehicle can reach their assigned stops in
the least amount of time.

With Plan Routes, mobile workforces reach more jobsites in less time,
which increases productivity and improves customer service.

Inspect homes, restaurants, or construction sites.

Provide repair, installation, or technical services.
Deliver items and small packages.
Make sales calls.
Transport people from their homes to an event.
The output from Plan Routes includes a layer of stops coded by the routes
to which they are assigned, a layer of routes showing the shortest paths to
visit assigned stops, and, depending on whether any stops could not be
reached, a layer of unassigned stops.
Connect Origins to Destinations
This tool measures the travel time or distance
between pairs of points. The tool can report
straight-line distances, road distances, or travel
times. You provide starting and ending points,
and the tool returns a layer containing route
lines, including measurements, between the
paired origins and destinations. If many origins
go to one destination, a table summarizing
multiple trips to the destination is included in the
output.
Manage data
These tools are used for both the day-to-day
management of geographic data and for
combining data prior to analysis.
Extract Data
With this tool, you can select and
download data for a specified area of
interest. Layers that you select will be
added to a ZIP file or layer package.
Dissolve Boundaries
Areas that overlap or share a common
boundary are merged together to form a
single area.

You can control which boundaries are merged

by specifying a field. For example, if you have
a layer of counties, and each county has a
State_Name attribute, you can dissolve
boundaries using the State_Name attribute.
Adjacent counties will be merged together if
they have the same value for State_Name.
The end result is a layer of state boundaries.
Generate Tessellations
This tool creates bins of a specified shape
and size for the study area.

Bins can be square, hexagonal,

transverse hexagonal, triangular, or
diamond.
Merge Layers

This tool copies features from 2 layers into a new layer. The
layers to be merged must all contain the same feature types
(points, lines, or areas). You can control how the fields from
the input layers are joined and copied.

For example

I have 3 layers for England, Wales, and Scotland, and I want

a single layer of Great Britain.
I have 12 layers and each contains parcel information for
contiguous townships. I want to join them together into a
single layer, keeping only the fields that have the same
name and type on the 12 input layers.
Overlay Layers
Overlay Layers combines 2 or more layers into 1 single layer. You can think of overlay
as peering through a stack of maps and creating a single map containing all the
information found in the stack. In fact, before the advent of GIS, cartographers would
literally copy maps onto clear acetate sheets, overlay these sheets on a light table, and
hand draw a new map from the overlaid data. Overlay is much more than a merging of
line work; all the attributes of the features taking part in the overlay are carried through
to the final product. Overlay is used to answer one of the most basic questions of
geography: What is on top of what?

For example

What parcels are within the 100-year floodplain? (Within is just another way of saying
on top of.)
What roads are within what counties?
What land use is on top of what soil type?
What wells are within abandoned military bases?