ArcGIS

ArcGIS Pro: Geocoding

This brief tutorial will walk you through the popular analysis tool called "geocoding". Geocoding matches a set of addresses with a pre-existing address database to assign geographic coordinates to your locations. 

Geocoding consumes ‘credits’ in the Esri ecosystem. As a user at Brock University (or other ‘organization’ with a site license) you will be allocated a limited number of credits. Brock University affiliates should contact maplib@brocku.ca before attempting to geocode a table with more than 1000 records.

More details about credits can be found here.

Setup Instructions

In preparation for this tutorial, you will need an organizational account. As a Brock University affiliate, you already have such an account. The first part of the tutorial will outline steps for accessing the software using your Brock credentials. Video instructions.

1. Download the Excel file used in this tutorial. Niagara Sports Facilities acquired from https://niagaraopendata.ca/dataset/niagara-sports-clubs-facilities.

2. From your WINDOWS PC, run ArcGIS Pro. Download options are available and described in the video instructions above.
3. Create a New Project starting with a "map". Assign the name "Geocoding tutorial" and make the location somewhere you'll easily remember (i.e. on the local hard drive).
4. Make sure the box is checked to "Create a new folder for this project".
   
5. Click OK. The software generates a new map project with a project folder and geodatabase.
6. By default there is a basemap projected to WGS 1984 Web Mercator (auxillary sphere)
7. Click the Map tab at the top of the window and click the Add Data button.
8. Browse to the download directory holding the NiagaraSportsFacilities.csv
9. Select the file and click OK. The table appears in the Contents pane under Standalone Tables.
   

10. Right-click the table "NiagaraSportFacilities.csv" and click Open. Browse the attributes and notice the address fields. We will match the addresses in the table with the Esri World Geocoder to plot points on the map.
11. Close the table.
12. Right-click the table again and click Geocode Table. the Geocode Table wizard appears to the right of the map view. Navigate through the pages as follows:
13. Click Start at the lower right of the wizard window.
14. Step One: from the Input Locator box, select ArcGIS World Geocoding Service and click Next.

NOTE: Geocoding consumes credits. Please contact maplib@brocku.ca before attempting to geocode a table with over 1000 records.

15. Step Two: This page prompts you to identify how your data is structured. This particular table has the addresses stored in more than one field. Accept the default and click Next.

16. In Step Three, the software attempts to match fields in the CSV with known fields in the address locator. Accept the defaults and click Next.
    

17. For Step Four: Output, you can define where the resulting feature layer is created. Accept the defaults for now and click Next.

18. Step Five: Select Canada. This helps the software know the location more accurately. Click Next.

19. Step Six: Select the categories Address and Postal. Click Finish.

20. From the summary page, notice the option at the top to calculate an estimate of how many credits will be consumed. Users at Brock University will have 300-500 credits by default. This activity will consume approximately 9 credits.
21. At the bottom of the page, click Run.
22. When the process is finished, you will see a Geocoding Completed window. Here you will have the option to rematch any unmatched records. Click No.
    

The map now displays points representing sports facilities in the Niagara Region and you will see a new feature layer in the Contents pane on the left.