Lab 2: Downloading GIS Data

Goals and Background

     The purpose of this lab is to download data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website and then use this data to produce and share demographic maps with UW-Eau Claire - Geography and Anthropology. Goals include creating Joins between tables, formatting excel files correctly to add them to ArcMap, sharing and publising a map using ArcGIS online, and properly downloading .csv files from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. Data downloaded was searched and looked at before it was downloaded in order to see which data sets were adequate to produce into maps.
 

Methods

Step 1: Download 2010 U.S. Census data, and the Wisconsin shapefile from the U.S. Census Bureau.

     This included navigating to the U.S. Census Bureau Fact Finder Website found here. Then, by browsing through different datasets and by applying proper filters, two datasets where chosen to be downloaded. These data sets are titled TOTAL POPULATION with the ID P1, and TENURE BY AGE OF HOUSEHOLDER with the ID H17. Then, the Wisconsin shapefile was download from the same website.

Step 2:  Join the downloaded tables to the Wisconsin shapefile.

     First, the .csv files had to be properly formatted, and saved as a .xls in order to add them to ArcMap. Then, a Join was created between the Wisconsin shapefile and the annotation table. This was done using the GEO_ID field as the common key.

Step 3:  Map the data.

     Prior to making the map, a new field for both Population and Number of Rent Units was created which had a number datatype so it could be mapped. The datatype was originally string when downloaded straight from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. Then, these fields were mapped from the Wisconsin shapefile on two different data frames using a quantities graduated colors map for both. Jenks classification method was used on both maps. The map which displayed population was given 5 natural breaks, and the map which displayed the number of renter occupied housing units was given 6 natural breaks. The number of breaks was chosen to make the map cartographically pleasing. A base map was added to the backdrop of  both maps along with a legend, title, scale-bar, and north arrow.

Step 4: Create and share a web map with the Population by county data.

     This was done by signing in to ArcGIS online through ArcMap using an enterprise login. After logging in, a feature service was created from the ArcMap document. In creating a service, the base maps and Joins had to be deleted because the map couldn’t be published with these. An item description was entered in before publishing to ArcGIS online. Once the map was published to ArcGIS online, the map settings had to be changed in order to show a Pop-up box when a county was clicked on. The Pop-up shows the title of the map, the name of the county, and the population of the county. After this, the map was shared with UW-Eau Claire – Geography and Anthropology.

Results

Fig: 2.0: Population by county in Wisconsin

   

     Above is the map that was published to ArcGIS online and shared with UW-Eau Claire - Geography and Anthropology. The Pop-up window shows the title of the map, the county name, and the corresponding population total. The full map can be found here.

Fig 2.1: Left- Number of renter occupied housing units by county
Right- Total population in Wisconsin by county  

     Above are the two maps created in ArcMap. The spatial distribution of population increases as one moves from southeast to northwest. The same is true for the spatial distribution of renter occupied units. The reason why this relationship between the two variables correlates very well is fairly logical as one might expect that there would be more renter occupied housing units where there are more people. It is also important to note that there is an increased number of renter occupied housing units relative to population where college towns are present. These include but are not limited to UW-Eau Claire - Eau Claire county, UW-River Falls -  Pierce county, UW-Superior - Douglas county, UW-Stevens Point - Portage county, UW- La Crosse - La Crosse county, and UW-Plattville - Grant county.

Sources

Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). (n.d.). American FactFinder. Retrieved November 19, 2016 from http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml?refresh=