GEOG

487
By Susan T. Williams
Spring 2012

Final Project: Workflow

Identifying Suitable Sites for an Organic Farm in the Lake Raystown Watershed

Part I: Review the Relevant Data Layers and Organize the Map Document
1. Unzip the Data for Use in ArcMap.
a. Unzip the FPdata in my FP folder.
b. Familiarize myself with the contents of the data.
2. Create a New Map Document and Set the Environment
Since not all of the datasets used in this lesson have the same projection, it is important to pay attention to the order in which the
data is loaded into the document. While the LakeRaystown, CovSoil, elev, and landgrid layers are all in NAD Albers 1983 projection,
the pasteward layer is not.
a. Start ArcMap and create a new map. Set map document display and map units to meters.
b. Make sure the Spatial Analyst extension is on. Set my workspace to my FP folder and save it in my FP folder (via
Geoprocessing > Environments).
c. Add the LakeRaystown layer first into the map document so as to set the data frame to its projection.
d. In the Geoprocessing Environment, set output coordinates to Same as display.
e. Set the analysis mask and extent to same as layer LakeRaystown (since this shapefile follows the Raystown watershed
boundary).
f. Set cell size to 30 m (same as the landuse grid) and choose to not build pyramids.
g. Save map to lock in options.
3. Add Remaining Data to the Map Document
a. Now add the CovSoil, elev and landgrid layers, and finally the pasteward layer (which will then be reprojected into the NAD
Albers 1983 coordinate system click the Transformations button and information as necessary).
b. Change the symbology of the "LakeRaystown" layer to hollow outline
c. Add the "OpenStreetMap" ArcGIS Basemap.

Part II: Determine the First 5 Criteria

Criteria 1: K-factor less than .3 (produces low to moderate runoff)
1. Convert the CovSoil shapefile to a raster grid (ArcToolbox > Conversion Tools > To Raster > Feature to Raster) using the K
field. Name the output layer KFactor.
2. Reclassify the KFactor grid (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Reclass > Reclassify) so that the areas with a K-factor of less
than .3 (0 to 0.299999) are assigned a value of 1 and all other areas are given a value of NoData (Click the classify button to
manually adjust the breaks). Name the output OK_KFactor (See Figure 1 below)

Figure 1: The OK_KFactor Attribute Table

showing cell counts from the reclassified Kfactor data.

Criteria 2: Curve number less than 74, but greater than zero (high water storage potential, but not water)
1. Convert the CovSoil shapefile to a raster grid using the CN field. Name the output layer Curve.
2. Reclassify the Curve grid. First, click the classify button to manually adjust the breaks 3 breaks, one at 0.000001, one at
73.999999, and one at the highest value, 90. Assign both undesirable areas (0 to 0.000001 and 73.99999 to 90) a zero and
assign the area that meets our curve criteria (0.000001 to 73.999999) a value of NoData. Name the output OK_Curve (see
Figure 2 below)

Figure 2: The OK_Curve Attribute Table showing cell counts from the reclassified Curve data.

Criteria 3: Slope less than 10%

1. Use the Slope Tool (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Surface > Slope) to create a new slope grid from the elev grid. Set the
output measurement to percent_rise and name the output grid Slope_pct.
2. Reclassify the Slope_pct grid so that areas with less than 10% slope (0 to 9.999999) are assigned a value of 1 and all other
areas are given a value of zero. (Click the classify button to manually adjust the breaks). Name the output OK_Slope

Figure 3: The OK_Slope Attribute Table showing cell counts from the reclassified slope data.

Criteria 4: Privately owned land (all land NOT Government/Publicly owned)

Although the pasteward layer shows mostly public land, a close look at the attribute table reveals that some of the lands are listed as
Private under the Division field. Also, the pasteward layer does not represent the entire area within the Raystown watershed
boundary, as many other privately-held lands are missing from the data. Therefore we can assume that all areas NOT included in
the pasteward shapefile are also considered private ownership.
1. Convert the pasteward layer to raster (ArcToolbox > Conversion Tools > To Raster > Feature to Raster ) based on the
Division field. Name the ouput layer ownergrid.
2. In the attribute table of the resulting grid, we see that the value 2 represents the Private land. Reclassify the ownergrid
(ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Reclass > Reclassify) so that the areas with a value of 2 (Private Land) are assigned a value
of 1 and all other areas are given a value of zero. ALSO, assign areas of NoData to a value of 2, as these represent the
privately-held land not included in the pasteward layer. Name the output OK_Owner. (See Figure 4 below).

Figure 4: The OK_Owner Attribute Table showing cell counts from the reclassified
land ownership data. The count with a value of 2 represents private land that is
outside the pasteward layer but within the Raystown Watershed boundary.

We will eventually want to know the area (in square miles) of private land that is outside the pasteward layer but still within the Lake
Raystown watershed boundary.
1. Open the OK_Owner attribute table and add a float field named AREA_SQM. Use the Field Calculator to populate this
field (AREA_SQM=[COUNT] *30 *30).
2. Add a float field named AREA_SQMI and use the Field Calculator to populate this field (AREA_SQMI=[AREA_SQM]*
3.86102158542E-7). This area for value 2 is the area of private land outside the pasteward layer but still within the watershed
boundary. (See Figure 5 below)

Figure 5: The OK_Owner Attribute Table now showing newly added area calculations.

Criteria 5: Agricultural land

Refer to Lesson 8 for the following codes regarding land use types:
2 Developed Land
3 Woodland
4 Water
5 Mined/Disturbed
7 - Agriculture
Since the landuse grid is already in raster format, there is no need to convert it.
3.

Reclassify the landgrid (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Reclass > Reclassify) so that the areas with a value of 7 (agricultural
land use) are assigned a value of 1 and all other areas are given a value of NoData. Name the output OK_Landuse. (See
Figure 6 below).

Figure 6: The OK_Landuse Attribute Table showing cell counts from the reclassified land use type for agricultural land only.

Part III: Combine the first 5 Criteria grids with the Raster Calculator
1. Open the Raster Calculator (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Map Algebra > Raster Calculator) and enter the following
expression to multiply the five previous grids together:
"OK_Kfactor" * "OK_Curve" * "OK_Slope" * "OK_Owner" * "OK_Landuse"
Name the output 5Criteria. (See Figure 7 below)

Figure 7: The 5Criteria Attribute Table showing cell counts for multiplied grids that meet all five previous site criteria.

Although we previously needed the additional values for area calculations, we no longer need them, so now I can
reclassify the 5Criteria so that the old value of 0 becomes NoData, leaving only one row of data to use the Region
Group tool on.

Part IV: Determine the remaining criteria

Criteria 6:

Regions greater than 5 acres

In order to group similar adjacent cells for further analysis, such as calculating area, we can utilize the Region Group tool:
1. (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Generalization > Region Group). Using 5Criteria as the input raster, name the output
OK_Regions. Leave the defaults as is and uncheck Add link field to output.

Figure 8: The OK_Regions Attribute Table after applying the Region Group tool.

2. Open the OKRegions attribute table and add a float field named AREA_SQM. Use the Field Calculator to populate this field
(AREA_SQM=[COUNT] *30 *30). The number 30 is used because that is the size of the cells we are working with.

Figure 9: The OK_Regions Attribute Table after adding an Area_SqM field and calculating the values.
3. Use the Extract by Attributes tool to query sites larger than 5 acres (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Extraction >
ExtractByAttributes). Select OK_Regions as the input raster and name the output OK_Area. Click the Query Builder
button to build the Where clause expression: "AREA__SQM" >20234.282112 (Since 5 acres is equal to 20234.282112
square meters)

Figure 10: The OK_Area Attribute Table and Statistics of the Area_SqM field after extracting by attributes.
4. Since we have extracted all sites greater than 5 acres, reclassify (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Reclass > Reclassify) so
that all of the extracted areas (greater than 5 acres) are assigned a value of 1. Name the output FinalSites.

Figure 11: The FinalSites Attribute Table showing all potential organic farm sites that meet all six criteria.

Part V: Prepare the Map Document

1. Create a Hillshade layer (ArcToolbox > Spatial Analyst > Surface Analysis > Hillshade) using the elev layer.
2. Create map layouts with the final potential farm sites, map title, appropriate symbology, legend, north arrow, and scale bar.