GSP 536

Lab 3 – Urban Geodatabase Implementation

Submit: submit the word "Done" to the bblearn dropbox for this lab
Due date: Wednesday, October 5, 2016

In the next three labs, you will create an urban geodatabase for the City of Flagstaff based on the design you completed in lab 2.

NAU ArcSDE Server Login

  • The Microsoft SQL Server provided for this lab is named horizont.geog.nau.edu. You cannot connect to it from the outside; you must connect through a VPN connection. The ArcSDE middleware is proprietary, so you must connect to the database using ArcCatalog.
  • Your user name isjb3379, your password is GIS@5389, and the database name is gdb2016.
  • In order for the instructor to see your data, you must grant appropriate privileges on all your feature datasets and tables to user GSP536. To do so:

    1. Right click on a feature dataset or table, then select "Manage >> Privileges..."
    2. In the privilege management box, click the "Add" button and select user "GSP536". Make sure the "Select" checkbox is checked.
    3. Click OK.
  • You can change or remove privileges on a data set using the privilege manager.


In this lab, you will create a set of SDE feature datasets by using all three strategies introduced in lectures. You will then import feature classes into appropriate feature datasets and tables into the root of your geodatabase.

DO NOT import the ortho rasters. Working with rasters within ArcSDE is the subject of another lab.

1. Creating your feature datasets

During the iterative design process of the geodatabase, we found that the "Basemaps" and the "Environment" logical groups can be combined and implemented as one feature dataset. Each of the other logical groupings can be implemented as a feature dataset. However, census data cannot fit into any of these feature datasets because they have a different spatial reference. Therefore, an additional feature dataset, "Census" with the GCS coordinate system, needs to be created to house the census data. Finally, you will have to create the following feature datasets in your geodatabase:

Feature Datasets Coordinate Systems
  1. Administrative
  2. Land
  3. Utilities
  4. Transportation
  5. Census
  • Environment Arizona State Plane Coordinate System
  • Central Zone FIPS 0202
  • NAD 1983 (feet)
  • GCS North American Datum 1983

Before creating a feature dataset in a geodatabase, you need to know what spatial reference to use. It is usually not a big issue to determine the projection and coordinate system of a dataset if the data comes with a well documented metadata. For all data we are going to use in this project, we know their projection and coordinate system.

Prior to creating a feature dataset, ArcGIS 9.1 and earlier versions required the user to calculate an explicit spatial domain (four limits of a rectangle), which was a very annoying process.  Since version 9.2, ArcGIS automatically calculates a spatial domain when the user specifies a storage resolution. Suppose the highest data collection resolution for the city is 1 inch (1/12 feet, for the land parcel and parcel boundary feature classes), a recommended storage resolution is 1/10 of the data collection resolution, which is one tenth of an inch (1/120 feet). This recommended storage resolution can guarantee our data quality stored in the geodatabase, minimize storage space, as well as enhance performance of spatial operations.

Now you can create a feature dataset named "Land" in the geodatabase:

  1. In ArcCatalog, make an ArcSDE connection to your geodatabase using your login (click to see instructions) if it does not exist.
  2. Double click your geodatabase connection to open the database. You may need to wait for a few seconds.
  3. Right click on your geodatabase connection, select context menu: New >> Feature Dataset. You will be prompted to give a name for the dataset. Type in "Land".
  4. Click the "Next" button to specify a coordinate system. Expand the coordinate system tree in the following order:
            >> Projected coordinate systems
            >> State Plane
            >> NAD 1983 (US Feet)
            >> Select NAD 1983 StatePlane Arizona Central FIPS 0202 (feet)
            Click the "Next" button
  5. Skip the Vertical Coordinate System page since we our source data do not have z coordinates, continue Next.
  6. On the following page, find the value in the xy Tolerance section. Set the xy Tolerance to our data collection resolution (1 inch, convert to US foot!).  Uncheck the "Accept default resolution and domain extent (recommended)" checkbox, then Next.
  7. On the last page, set the xy Resolution to the recommended storage resolution (1/120 feet) and leave all others as default, and click the Finish button to create a feature dataset.

Once you have created a feature dataset, you may use it as a template while creating other feature datasets with same spatial reference. Follow steps below to create spatial datasets "Administrative", "Transportation", "Utilities", and "Environment".

  1. Repeat steps 1) through 3) above
  2. When you get to the point to select a coordinate system, click the globe icon and select "Import". Then browse in the geodatabase for the "Land" feature dataset you just created.
    Note: while browsing for your "Land" feature dataset, make sure its name is yourlogin.Land.
  3. Click Next all the way to accept defaults until finish

Since the census data are in geographic coordinate system (GCS) with North American Datum 1983, they cannot be stored in any of the feature datasets you have created so far. Thus you need to create another feature dataset (name it "Census") with different spatial references for the census data. While you are creating the Census feature dataset, follow this order to select the coordinate system: Geographic Coordinate System >> North America >> NAD 1983. You may accept default values for the xy tolerance and resolution.

2. Importing feature classes and tabular data

Now that you have created all necessary feature datasets in your geodatabase, you will import existing data into them.

Use the following geodatabase structure while importing data:

Geodatabase root:
        Tax (table)
        CensusTable (table)

Procedure for importing a shapefile into the geodatabase:

In ArcCatalog, open your SDE connection. For each shapefile:

  1. Right click on a feature dataset and select "Import" >> "Feature Class (single)"
  2. Click the open file button to the right of the "Input Features" box to select a feature class (shapefile)
  3. Enter a name for the new feature class in the "Output Feature Class Name" box. Commonly, you may simply use the shapefile name without the ".shp"
  4. You may leave all others as default and click the "OK" button to import. Importing data into a geodatabase may take a while without response. Finally, a message will appear at the lower right corner of your Windows screen. To view importing results, you may click the ArcCatalog menu: Geoprocessing >> Results.

Procedure for importing tables (object classes) into the root of the geodatabase:

In ArcCatalog, open your SDE connection. For each table:

  1. Right click on your SDE connection, then "Import" >> "Table (single)"
  2. Follow instructions to complete.

Currently available data for the City of Flagstaff are located on the R drive:

\\geoglab0.geog.nau.edu\gprdata
in folder:
GSP536\Flagstaff
  1. The Flagstaff Spatial data files are in shapefile format, and the tabular data is in dBase format. Import the tabular data into the root of your geodatabase. Import the feature classes into the appropriate feature datasets.

    Shapefile or Tabular Data Import to Location in the Geodatabase Done
    ZIP_Codes.shp Administrative
    Fire_Stations.shp Administrative
    city_limits.shp Administrative
    Fire_Districts.shp Administrative
    Voting_Districts.shp Administrative
    Hydrology_Lines.shp Environment
    Hydrology_polys.shp Environment
    Bikeways.shp Environment
    golf_courses.shp Environment
    parks.shp Environment
    Hydrology_polygons.shp Environment
    USPLS_2ndDivision.shp Land
    USPLS_1stDivision.shp Land
    USPLS_Township.shp Land
    zoning.shp Land
    Building.shp Land
    Address.shp Land
    Parcel_legal.shp Land
    Parcel.shp Land
    Corner.shp Land
    Boundary.shp Land
    Streets.shp Transportation
    railroad.shp Transportation
    Water_Junctions.shp Utilities
    Fire_Hydrants.shp Utilities
    Water_Valves.shp Utilities
    Water_line.shp Utilities
    CensusTable.dbf root
    Tax.dbf root
    schools.txt root
    Census.dbf root
    Schools.dbf root
    QS_Index.shp root
    District2.dbf root
  2. For census, we only have a census table of Coconino County in dBase format:
    CensusTable.dbf
    You need to download the census 2010 TIGER/Line® shapefiles, including tracts, block groups and blocks, for Arizona code 04 and Coconino County code 04005. CENSUS.GOV:
    ftp://ftp2.census.gov/geo/pvs/tiger2010st/04_Arizona
    ftp://ftp2.census.gov/geo/pvs/tiger2010st/04_Arizona/04005
    has them, but downloading is very slow because the site is extremely busy. ESRI (esri.com or arcgis.com) might have them.

    Import them into the "Census" feature dataset in your geodatabase. Remember to assign meaningful names to the feature classes instead of using their default names such as "tgr04005trt00".
  3. After you have finished importing all your data, grant the SELECT privilege to user GSP536 to all your database objects.


NOTES

  • In circumstances when you do not need to import all features in a feature class, you can use the query builder to create an expression to select part of the features to import.
  • Sometimes, you may not want to import all attributes (fields) of a feature class. To exclude a field, you don't need to use SQL, just select the field in the fieldmap and click the "X" button.
  • Usually, you do not need to import geometric measurement fields, such as polygon area and perimeter and line length, because SDE will create new geometric measures while importing a feature class.
  • A "configuration Keyword" which uniquely identifies this feature class in the geodatabase is optional.