The River Mile Extension Workshop

Field Assignment: Mapping trees at Crescent Bay
Grand Coulee, WA - July 18, 2012

DRAFT - work in progress. Comments and recommendations welcome.

Assignment

Use ArcGIS Explorer to complete the following ...

  1. Create an ArcGIS Explorer map for Lake Roosevelt's Crescent Bay, Grant Co., WA (To get started... 1. Go to ArcGIS Explorer; 2. Click on the "Open ArcGIS Explorer Online" button; 3. Click on the "New Map" button; 4. Type: Grand Coulee, WA in the "Find Places" space; ....)
  2. Download, save and use the Crescent Bay tree spreadsheet file (either Excel format (must first "Save As..." .csv file before adding to ArcGIS map) or use the CSV format (which does not contain the "waypoint" or "notes" columns) to import data into ArcGIS Explorer. (Hint: When you inport the data, modify the "Photograph #" column so that it comes in as text, not as a numeric value.)
  3. Modify the points so that different types of trees are easily identifiable. (Hint: Becasue we assigned a letter value (A, B, ... G) to each "type" of tree, even if the tree was unknown, I was then able to modify the points to represent different types of trees. To do this
    1. select the layer containing the imported tree data
    2. click on the ">" symbol to show details
    3. under "Display" select "Configure ..."
    4. in the top box change "Single Symbol" to "Unique Values"
    5. in the second box change the Attribute to "tree ID"
    6. modify each values (A, B, ... G) as you wish. I chose flags to represent the points surrounding a group of similar trees -- values "C" and "G".
    7. click on the "Done" button
  4. Select the "Add Features" tab and select "Area" from the shapes. Click a series of points to surround an area on the map. Double click to complete the shape. Label the "grove" of trees using the text tool.
  5. Add images to the popups for various positions in ArcGIS Explorer. (Note: I have not been able to add image URLs directly to the pop-ups for points created using imported data. Therefore, I have had to create a second set of points [which are added to the "Map Notes" layer] and edit their pop-ups to add the photo URL. Since these points are on different layers, it is possible to hide the layer showing the imported positions. But, this also hides the other popup data, such as Lat/Long positions and photo info. Let me know if you find a solution.) Use the "Add Features" tab, select a shape (such as a stick pin), and click on the positions imported earlier and add a new point at each location. Edit these popups to add images from this webpage. (Hint: right-click the tree images shown below on this webpage and select "Copy Image URL".) The tree images associated with the different Lat/Long positions at Crescent Bay are included in the spreadsheet and the popup data that was previously imported.
  6. You may need to adjust the position of your new points. (I needed to do this when I placed my second set of points. When I zoomed in on the map, I found that they were not quite where I wanted them to be.) To make changes...
    1. select the "Edit Features" option from the horizontal tool bar above your map --it is near the center, next to the "Dashboard" gadgets icon.
    2. Click on the feature(s). Make changes.
    3. When finished, select the "Done" button.
  7. Calculate the perimeter for the two groves of trees using the measure tool.
  8. Calculate the area for the two groves of trees using the measure tool.


image of an ArcGIS map -
click to enlarge


click image to open ArcGIS presentation


click image to open ArcGIS map


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Lake Roosevelt - Crescent Bay trees

tree image 01
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tree image 02
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Russian olive
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Russian olive
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Russian olive
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tree image 25
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tree image 26
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tree image 27
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Note: The images above were taken with an Olympus SZ-10. They were then cropped and enhanced (lighting & contrast) in Adobe Photoshop Elements.


Created by Michael R. Clapp (2012). All rights reserved.
For more information, contact: mclapp@nwnature.net

updated: 8/7/12