Web GIS: September 2015

Goal and Background

The goal of this lab was for me to become comfortable with the various techniques used to host geospatial web services. I published hosted feature services via ArcGIS online by uploading both shapefiles and CSV files directly, as well as by using an ArcMap document to facilitate the upload. I published a tiled map service using ArcGIS Server, and subsequently consumed the map service in a web application. I authored a feature access service with time-enabled data and made a web map to consume the service.

Methods

In order to publish the shapefiles, I selected the shapefiles I wanted to upload in ArcCatalog and sent them to a .zip folder. I then uploaded the .zip folder using ArcGIS Online's "Add Item" button. After adding a title and tags, I published the data to ArcGIS Online as a feature service (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Shapefile to hosted feature service

Next, I created a web map using the hosted feature service I just uploaded. First, I simplified the layer names. I then adjusted the transparency of the "Counties" layer to help it fit into the background better, changed the colors and stroke width of "Highways" and "Interstates" so they would be more easily visible and differentiable, and changed "Cities" to a darker color (Figure 2). After I deemed the map "cartographically pleasing", I saved my map to ArcGIS Online.

Figure 2: Transportation web map

Next, I published data of Wisconsin fire occurrences in 2004 that was saved in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with XY coordinates. In order to publish this data I first saved a copy of the spreadsheet as a CSV file. I next used ArcGIS Online's "Add Item" button to import the data as points located at their XY coordinates (Figure 3).

Figure 3: CSV to Points with native attributes visible.

Upon displaying the data, I noticed that the pop-ups only showed the Object ID, Feature ID ,and X and Y coordinates of the individual points rather than show the date of the fire at the point's location (Figure 3). In order to amend this, I configured the pop-ups to only display the date of the fire at each point (Figures 4 & 5).

Figure 4: Wisconsin fire occurrences with the edited pop-up window

I published a feature service containing two vector datasets related to Wisconsin water resources. First, I added the "Rivers_and_Streams" and "Lakes" features from my class folder to a new map. I then edited the feature titles and saved the map to my personal folder as a .mxd document. Next, I connected ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Online. I used ArcGIS Desktop's built-in capabilities to publish my map to ArcGIS Online as a feature service with creating, querying and updating capabilities. These capabilities will allow an end-user to add features to the feature service, update the feature service with features they've edited, or use the data within the feature service to query features. After configuring the feature's settings, title, summary, and tags, I published the map (Figure 6). The layers had superfluously redundant labels, so I renamed them with their simplified names from my ArcMap document (Figure 6). The map had unhelpful pop-ups, so I eliminated the pop-ups for the "Rivers and Streams" layer and configured the "Lakes"'s pop-ups so only the name and area in kilometers are shown (Figure 7).

Figure 5: The feature service's tags and layers' edited names.

Figure 6: An edited pop-up for "Lakes"

After utilizing both ArcGIS Online's and ArcGIS Desktop's built-in publishing capabilities for shapefiles, .CSV's and .MXD's - I learned how to publish a tiled map service via ArcGIS Server. This first required me to connect to the department's ArcGIS server and connect to my database on the server. After connecting to my database, I imported a raster dataset from the class folder to my enterprise geodatabase (Figure 8). After configuring the symbology (Figure 9), I used ArcGIS Desktop's built-in capabilities to publish the image to my folder in the the department's ArcGIS Server (Figure 10). I enabled caching, so the map will take less bandwidth, and load faster.

Figure 9: The data's publishing settings

Figure 7: The raster data in my enterprise geodatabase

Figure 8: The raster data in ArcGIS Desktop prior to publishing

After the publishing was finalized, I navigated to the department server directory, and viewed my map service in ArcGIS Online (Figure 11).

After learning how to publish services to ArcGIS Server, I learned how to reference a service I've created, in a web map service. In order to do this, I imported two layers, "Earthquakes" and "Hurricanes" into my enterprise geodatabase (Figure 12). Next, I added the layers from my enterprise geodatabase to a new map, and saved it to my class folder. After adjusting the symbology of the layers (Figure 13), I enabled time on both layers. This allows both layers to be animated according to their temporal attributes. Next, I published the map document to the department server as a service with creating, editing, deleting, and querying capabilities (Figure 14).

Next, I opened up a blank map in ArcGIS Online. In order to add the newly-created services to a web map, I used the "Add Layer from Web" button to add the natural disaster layers merely by pasting their URL within the department server. After adding the data, I simplified the pop-ups for both classes (Figure 15), and shared my map to the department and also my course group. Next, I calibrated the time settings so the time animation will show hurricanes and earthquakes occurrences progressively; adding data to the map 6 months at a time, until all of the data is displayed (Figures 16 & 17).

Figure 10: "Earthquakes" and "Hurricanes" in my enterprise geodatabase

Results:

Figure 11: The data as it appears on ArcGIS Online

Several of the maps I generated had formatted pop-up windows, so their information is extremely easy for the end-user to interpret (Figures 4, 6, and 13). The two maps hosted on the department Server can also be viewed by anyone with the URL without costing esri credits (Figures 11 &12. The last map features time-enabled data, which allows the end-user to view both spatial and temporal trends in the data (Figures 12-15).

Raster data: Click Here
Map featuring temporal information and good pop-up windows: http://arcg.is/1L9tWEf

Figure 12: Earthquakes are symbolized as red dots, and the Hurricanes are symbolized as lines

Figure 13: A pop-up for "Hurricanes"

Figure 14: All of the "Hurricane" lines along the Northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico

Figure 15: All of the "Earthquake" points in Alaska

Sources:
Advanced Remote Sensing Class. (2012).

Fu, Pinde (2015). Earthquake Data.
Retrived from
\\EsriPress\GTKWebGIS\Chapter3\Data.gdb\Earthquakes, courtesy of USGS National Atlas.

Fu, Pinde. (2015). Hurricane Data.
Retrived from
\\EsriPress\GTKWebGIS\Chapter3\Data.gdb\Hurricanes, courtesy of NOAA National Climatic Data Center.

Price, Maribeth. (2014). Mastering ArcGIS geodatabase.

Wilson, Cyril. (2012). unpublished data.

Wisconsin DNR. (2013).

Goal and Background
The goal of this lab was for the students to understand the uses of web-based GIS applications, build familiarity with these applications, and to learn how to construct an application using sample data.

Methods

In order to become comfortable with ArcGIS online, I first studied a sample web map created by one of the program's developers.

Tags help people find maps by associating them with a topic

Initial observation of the map's metadata gave me insight into the importance of adding my own tags and labels to our own maps.

The "Oceans" basemap adds vivid
detail to the volcanoes map

Interaction with the map layers showed the importance of choosing the proper basemap when building a web map.
I also learned the difference between a hosted map service and a hosted feature service, and how to view pop-up windows supported by the hosted feature services.

The Hazard Zone Boundaries layer is a hosted feature service, and features
pop-up windows granting even more information to the map user.

I next made a copy of the sample map and used the copy to experiment with changes to the map's symbology. Then, I shared the map to our department's ArcGIS online group.

"Hazard Zone Boundaries" at 50% transparency.
Later it will be set to 100% transparency.

In order to learn how to make a web map, I re-created Chris Harder's map using the service layers he published and the oceans base map. I then renamed all of the layers so that the names would be both shorter and make more logical sense. Next, I adjusted the transparency of "Hazard Zone Boundaries" and "Highways", so they would be not visible and less visible, respectively.

I then removed legend entries that were redundantly self-explanatory by the map itself.

I found a layer featuring the locations of emergency shelters on the island, and added it to the map.

My finished map featuring emergency shelters

In order to become acquainted with Esri's Story Maps, I constructed one of my own using their Story Map builder. First, I constructed a map template of the study area using Esri's web map builder. I used the "Terrain with Labels" base-map, as it will allow for simplified differentiation between points on my story map. After focusing the extent of the map to the area around Austin, Texas, I saved the document, shared it to the course group, and created a web app from the template.

The Study Area around Austin, Texas

In order to create the story map, I chose the "Story Map Tour" from Esri's list of configurable web applications. I then created a feature service named "Geog_368_Sawall" and added the sample photographs to the feature service. After creating the feature service, I added the photos to the story map, named them, captioned them, and added their X,Y coordinates so they could be properly geotagged in the finished map. I then shared the map to the course group, and launched the application from a client's side view.

The finished Story Map Tour

Results

The Volcanoes map features the feature services "Volcanoes" and "Hazard Zone Boundaries" which allow the end-user to find more information about these two features through interactive pop-up windows. It also features another feature service "Highways" that allows the end-user to find out the name, type, and class of any highway within the map area. I also included a feature service with all of the emergency shelters on the island, so people needing a place to stay in the case of a volcanic eruption would have all of that information easily accessible to them through a handy pop-up window showing the names, addresses, and phone numbers for every one. This map can be found at: http://arcg.is/1itXrUO

The Story Map Tour is operable by: the arrows on either side of the photo window, the location pins on the reference map, or by the horizontal list of photos across the bottom of the screen. This versatility greatly benefits the end users, as there is no wrong way to operate the app. The map also features the photos as part of a feature service that could possibly be used in an additional map at some point in the future. If an end-user finds the map truly interesting and can't wait to share it with all of their closest friends and acquaintances, the application also has links to facilitate easy sharing to Facebook and Twitter. This map can be found at: http://arcg.is/1iaO3oQ