ArcGIS Tutorials

ArcGIS Online Analysis

This tutorial demonstrates ArcGIS Online analysis tools such as: select by attributes (use feature attributes to create a subset of features), generate travel areas (to identify a 2 minute drive polygon around childcare centres), and layer enrichment (using the resulting polygons from the drive time analysis, we will enhance the associated attributes by enriching the table with demographic variables captured from Statistics Canada and Environics Analytics).

Scenario: Parents need infant child care! We’re going to assess a neighbourhood in St. Catharines for existing childcare by displaying point features, filtering, running drive time analysis and enriching the areas of interest with family and income statistics. ​The software will allow us to visualize the data in unique ways and offer a tool to identify areas of need.

Getting Started

1. Go to arcgis.com and click Sign in.
2. Click “Your ArcGIS Organization’s URL”.
3. Enter the text ‘brock’ to complete the URL. Click Continue.
4. Click Brock University. You will be taken to the Brock University authentication page where you will enter your Brock credentials and click Sign in.

The Interface

1. From the menus at the top, click Map. This action opens the default map viewer and should look like this:

The Map Viewer is composed of a dark toolbar on the left and a light toolbar on the right with the map view in the middle. Depending on the tool you have selected, various panels will appear.

2. At the bottom of each toolbar there is a 'collapse/expand' button. Click these buttons to collapse or expand the menus.

3. Click the 'hide/show interface' button (bottom right of the map view) to hide/show all menus and panels at once.

4. To search for a location, click the magnifying glass from the lower right options. Type in a place or address and make a selection from the results. The map zooms to the location.

5. Use the mouse scroll wheel or the zoom tools to pan and zoom on the map.

6. The map viewer provides ready-made basemaps to choose from. Click the basemap button on the left and explore the options. Before continuing, select the Light Gray Canvas option.

7. At the top of the Basemap listing options, click Current basemap > 

8. Click the eyeball icon to turn off the Light Gray Reference layer. This action turns off the place name labels.

9. To save your map, click the Save > Save as button (folder with blue dot on the left hand menu).

10. Enter a unique map name that does not include special characters.

11. Click save. All of your work is saved in the cloud, making it accessible from any device with internet connection.

Finding Data

1. Open a new tab in Chrome and search for "Niagara Open Data". The result is a portal for open data as it relates to the Niagara Region.

2. Search the portal using the term "Licensed Child Care".

3. Click the title for Licensed Child Care Centres.

4. Click the title for the ArcGIS GeoService entry.

5. Right-click the URL and select copy link address.

Adding a GeoService to ArcGIS Online

1. Go back to the tab for ArcGIS Online
2. Click Map to open the Map viewer (if necessary).
3. Click  > Add layer from URL
4. Use Ctrl-V to paste the URL from the clipboard
5. Click Add to map

6. The Licensed Child Care facilities will be displayed as points on the map using a circular point symbol and random colour.

Applying Filters

The default view shows Licensed Child Care Facilities for the entire region. Using the attached attributes, we can filter the data to only show records that meet certain criteria.

1. With the newly added layer selected (you will know it is selected by the blue vertical bar to the left of the layer name in the Contents listing), click the Filter tool from the options on the right.
2. Click + Add New
3. Create the “Condition” statement: Municipality is St. Catharines
4. Click Save.
5. The map now reflects data for just the city of St. Catharines.

Find by Attributes

Alternately, the data can be queried by using various “Select” tools such as Find by attributes and location

1. From the right side, click Analysis Tools 

2. Click Tools.
3. Search using keyword “Find”.

4. Select Find by attributes and location.

5. Build a new query. The Query builder opens.
6. Select the layer you want to build the query on (i.e. Licensed Child Care Centres)
7. Select “Attribute Expression” and click Next.

8. Enter the query statement NBH_ID=ST8 (this tells the software to isolate only the St. Catharines neighbourhood with I.D. “ST8”)

9. Click Add.
10. Provide an output name.
11. Estimate credits to see the ‘cost’ of this tool. Then click Run.
12. A new feature layer is created reflecting only licensed child care centres in neighbourhood 8.
13. Turn off (click the eyeball icon beside the layer) the original child care data layer.

14. Use the zoom tools or mouse scroll wheel to zoom to the neighbourhood. It should look like this:

Select by Category

1. Select the query output layer from the previous section.

2. Click Styles. 

3. Click + Field to add each field associated with an age group.

 

4. Click Add.
5. Scroll down, if necessary, and click **Charts and Size

4. Click Style Options > Colour. Here you can select a different colour ramp and adjust the shape.
5. Under the Shape Slider, shift the option to the middle so the symbol looks more like a donut.

9. Click Done, done and done. The symbol now represents the total number of spaces (size) and the break down of those spaces by age (colour).

10. To view the legend, click  on the left.

Drive Analysis

1. Click the Analysis tools . (You may have to click the little back arrow to exit the active tool)
2. Search by keyword Drive.
3. Select Generate travel areas.
4. The input layer is the layer representing Neighbourhood 8.
5. Cut-offs > 2, click + Add (this represents a 2 minute drive time)
6. Enter a name for the Result layer

7. Estimate credits and click Run. The process may take a minute to complete. The result will look like this:

Enrichment

Using the newly created polygons, we will use the enrichment tool to calculate socio-demographic statistics for the study area. These data are calculated from various sources including Statistics Canada and Environics Analytics.

1. Click the little back arrow to exit the current analysis tool.
2. Search by keyword, “enrich”.
3. Select Enrich Layer
4. For Input Features, select the drive analysis output layer.
5. Under Enrichment data, click + Variable. Here you need to make sure that Canada is selected as the country and then you can search by keyword to find the variables of interest. For the sake of this tutorial, select Households > 2023 Children at Home: Under 5 and select Income > 2023 Household Median income (current year$)
6. Click Select.
7. Enter a name for the output layer.
8. Estimate credits and click Run.
9. A new layer is added to the contents list.

10. Click a feature on the map to see the pop-up with the added data attached.

11. With the enriched layer selected from the Contents listing on the left, click Styles from the right.
12. Add + field > Children at home

13. The result tells us where the higher populations live with children at home under the age of 5.

This section is optional but your map will thank you for paying a bit of attention to the stylization of layers and basemaps.

1. Click Basemap and select Dark Gray Canvas.
2. Click Layers and select the point layer representing child care centres and drag it up in the Contents listing.
3. Click Effects and toggle on Drop Shadow.

4. Select the enriched layer and click Properties > Blending > Contrast > Overlay

Labels

Finally, we will add some labels and save our map.

1. Select the layer representing child care facilities.
2. Click Labels.
3. Toggle Enable labels.

4. Add Label Class > Select label field Program.

1. Save your map. 

2. Update the share options, if prompted.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve successfully completed this tutorial introducing ArcGIS Online Analysis Tools! For more information, visit the Esri documentation.