LAB 1:

8.1 Extra Credit: Using the Geography Network

The Geography Network provides access to an amazing amount of data that you can access through ArcMap (or ArcCatalog). Here we will go through a brief exercise to show you just how valuable a resource it is.

Imagine the following scenario:

You have been hired to try to implement GIS for a sea food distribution company, but your boss is a mean old fisherman and doesn't much like computers, so you are eager to prove yourself. It is your first day on the job and it is pouring down rain.

Your office is right next to the boss's and you overhear him screaming about a quarter of a million dollars worth of frozen fish stranded in the San Diego Harbor area. The only things you catch from the CB radio conversation between your boss and the driver are:

"I don't know the street names, I can't see anything" hiss crackle, "but I am on the inner side of the bay near the city", "I'm just up from the bridge that goes over to the peninsula from the mainland", hiss "I'm near a marina and there's a tall white hotel-looking building beside the parking lot I'm in" and "my coordinates are 117.16 by 32.70" (Yes, the truck has a GPS, but it's not very precise.)

This is your chance to prove the power of GIS to your skeptical boss! Find the truck and come up with directions for a replacement rig to go get the trailer.

Start an empty ArcMap layout (File -> New), go to File -> Add Data ..., double-click on "GIS Servers", and then double-click "Geography Network Services hosted by ESRI". It should be located directly under Catalog, although you may need to navigate back up a few directories if you don't see it.

If you do not see "Geography Network Services hosted by ESRI" you may need to add it. Once you get on the geography network, find the SI_SanDiego server and double click on it. This will automatically add links to several coregistered image files, and a thumbnail image that will show you the extent of your selection in the box. Be patient.

Once the thumbnail is transferred, your ArcMap layout should look like the following. Select the Zoom In tool and draw a small box over San Diego (highlighted in red).

Now ArcMap will attempt to retrieve the data for the scale you have zoomed in to from the server, again be patient.

Consider the description the driver gave of his surroundings and zoom and pan accordingly.  Note that if you scroll too far down you will go outside of the extent of the high resolution image.

There is a replacement rig available from RoadOne (you searched Google and called them) and it is located at "Station #2".

Station #2 - San Diego
3333 National Av.
San Diego, CA 92113

 

Question X8.1 Type out the directions in a Word Document. Also, insert an image into the Word Document (Insert -> Picture -> From File) that shows where the truck is and its general surroundings (roads, harbor, big white building and parking lot ). You can make the image by going to File -> Export Map, and choose JPEG as the output type, from the ArcMap layout you just made. Feel free to annotate the map.

Save this layout on your Zip disk. The answer to question X8.1 above (the directions and the image), is to be turned in on a separate document, with your lab assignment.

Created Jan. 2004 by Jeff Hemphill; Revised Fall 2004 by Sean Benison and Sunhui Sim
© 2004-2005 Regents of the University of California

This page was last modified on Jan. 9, 2008 by Indy Hurt