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Exercise 6: Buffering and Overlay

Objectives
This part of the lab will introduce how the buffer and overlay operations can be used in spatial
analysis. This is similar, but not identical to, raster algebra.

Materials
Data Name Description
forest.shp Forest stands in the study area
rivers.shp Rivers in the study area
water.shp Water bodies in the study area (1 = no water, 10 = water)
roads.shp Roads through the forest stands
shrine.shp Shrine in the study area

Introduction
A logging company has been given a license to develop and to cut down trees in the Oakwood area
(see the figure to the right). However, there are restrictions on where the company can cut down
trees.

The purpose of this exercise will be to select sites where the company can log. We will use the
ArcGIS to select these sites according to the selection rules given below.

License Restrictions:
• No trees may be cut down within 10km of the shrine.
• No trees may be cut down within 1km of the sea, the lake, or any river in order to help
prevent land erosion.
• The logging sites must be within 5km of existing roads for easy access by heavy logging
equipment, since conservation laws will not allow any new roads to be built in this area.

1. Read through the Part 1 section

At this point you should be able to discern how to
accomplish what you want to accomplish. We want to
show the logging company where they can and cannot
log. As is the case with most things in life, there are a
few ways we can do this, and the choice is yours (if you
got this, you are my new favorite student). Below I walk
you through one way to accomplish this, but you will
gain far more if you design your own way to arrive at the
same end goal.

2. Data Organization
• Start ArcMap, create a new empty map, and save
your map document to your personal folder.
• Add forest.shp, rivers.shp, water.shp, roads.shp and
shrine.shp, all of which are located in your Part01
folder.
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• In the data frame properties, change the display units to kilometers.

• Arrange the layers correctly
o Make sure List By Drawing Order (upper left of the Table of Contents) is selected.
o Arrange the layers in this order (bottom to top): water, forest, roads, rivers, and
shrine.
• Change the symbology of each layer:
o Make the rivers blue.
o Make the roads black.
o Make the shrine red.
o Make the water blue. This requires extra steps:
▪ In the Symbology tab, click Categories near the upper left part of the
window.
▪ Select Unique Values.
▪ Select ISWATER as the Value Field.
▪ Click Add All Values.
▪ Uncheck the box the left of <all other values>
▪ Looking at the Value column, recall that water = 10 and everything else = 1,
so double-click the color box next to 10 and change it to a blue color, and
then click the color box next to 1 and change it to Hollow.

▪ Remember these steps, they will come in handy when making the final map
for this analysis

o Make the forests green. There are two kinds of trees in this layer, so use a different
shade of green for each kind. To do so, follow similar steps as were just performed
for the water layer.
• Save your map document.

3. Create Buffers for Roads, Rivers, and Shrine

• In ArcToolbox (the button with the little red box on it) go to Analysis Tools | Proximity
| Buffer. Use the following settings:
o Input Features: roads
o Output Feature Class: roads_buffer.shp (make sure to save in your Part01 folder) Linear
Unit: 5 km
o Dissolve Type: All
• Click OK and give it a minute to work. When it’s done it won’t look pretty, but we’ll change
that later.

• Follow the same steps to create 1 km buffer around the rivers layer and a 10 km buffer
around the shrine layer. Make sure you give the output files descriptive names (e.g.,
rivers_buffer.shp and shrine_buffer.shp).

4. Create Sea and Lake Buffers

• We need to select the sea and lake polygons from the water layer. If we were to just do this
we would end up buffering both shapes in the layer. Recall that when tools run, they
typically operate within the active data frame, and use the current selection (or the whole
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shapefile if nothing is selected). So to accomplish what we want to do, we want only the
actual water from the water.
• To do this, go to Select by Attributes… and use the expression "ISWATER" = 10.
• As you did with the other layers, create a 1 km buffer of the water features. (Note that if
features are selected, the buffer tool will only create buffers for those selected features.)

5. Finding Suitable Logging Sites

• Now we will find potential logging areas based on access to roads. In ArcToolbox go to
Analysis Tools | Overlay | Intersect. Use the following settings:
o Input: forest and roads_buffer (you will have to select each one individually)
o Output Feature Class: Solution_1.shp (make sure to save in your Part01 folder)
o Join Attributes: All
• Click OK.

• Now we will merge the rivers_buffers and Solution_1 layers. In ArcToolbox go to Analysis
Tools | Overlay | Union. Use the following settings:
o Input: Solution_1 and rivers_buffer
o Output Feature Class: Temp_1.shp (make sure to save this in your Part01 folder)
o Join Attributes: All
• Click OK.
• To find those areas from Solution_1 that are not within the river exclusion zone (i.e., buffer),
go to Select by Attributes…, select the Temp_1 layer, and apply the expression
“FID_rivers” = -1
• In the Table of Contents, right-click the Temp_1 layer and select Data | Export Data….
Save the features as a shapefile called Solution_2.shp. Leave the other settings as they are.
• When asked if you want to add the exported data as a layer, click Yes.
• Click the Clear Selected Features button on the main menu.
• In ArcToolbox go to Analysis Tools | Overlay | Union. Use the following settings:
o Input: Solution_2 and shrine_buffer
o Output Feature Class: Temp_2.shp (make sure to save this in your Part01 folder)
o Join Attributes: All
• Click OK.

• To find those areas from Solution_2 that are not within the shrine exclusion zone (i.e.,
buffer), go to Select by Attributes…, select the Temp_2 layer, and apply the expression
“FID_shrine” = -1
• In the Table of Contents, right-click the Temp_2 layer and select Data | Export Data….
Save the features as a shapefile called Final.shp. Leave the other settings as they are.
• In the Table of Contents, remove all layers that have names that start with Temp or
Solution or that end with buffer. The following layers should remain: shrine, rivers, roads, Final,
forest, and water.
• Using the map below as a rough guide, create a map that indicates which forest stands the
company can legally log. Make sure your symbology is clear and that the crucial components
of the map are not covered up by your Final layer. (Hint: Use patterns, and/or go to the
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Display tab of the layer’s Properties and change the transparency.) Use some creativity—
don’t just copy the map below!
• Export a PNG of the map to your personal folder.

Part 2
Materials
Data Name Description
censusblk.shp Census blocks for Douglas County, Kansas
kansas2000censusblk.dbf Database file containing census data, including population per block group
sirens.shp Point shapefile with locations of tornado sirens in Douglas County, KS
roads.shp Douglas County Roads
countybnd.shp Douglas County Boundary

Introduction
In this part of the lab, we are interested in assessing how much of Douglas County is covered by
tornado sirens. In other words, we want to know how many people can actually hear a tornado siren
when it goes off. While the sirens for Douglas County were designed to be heard at distances of up
to 5,800 feet, there might be areas in which people can’t hear them.

6. Create Buffers
• In ArcMap, create a new empty map, and save your map document to your personal folder.
• Add countybnd.shp, roads.shp, censusblk.shp, and sirens.shp from your Part02 folder.
• Create buffers around the sirens using the following settings:
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o Input Features: sirens

o Output Features: sirens_buffer.shp (make sure to save in your Part02 folder)
o Linear Unit: 5800 feet
o Dissolve Type: None
• Arrange layers so that you can see the siren points and buffers on top.
• Let’s remove the common polygon lines in the buffers. In ArcToolbox go to Data
Management Tools | Generalization | Dissolve. Use the following settings:
o Input Features: sirens_buffer
o Output Features: sirens_buffer_dissolve.shp (make sure to save in your Part02 folder)
o Change the symbology of the layers to the colors and symbols of your choice, and
arrange the layers accordingly.

7. Finding the Percentage of Population Covered by Sirens

• Add kansas2000censusblk.dbf to the data frame.
• Right-click the censusblk layer, select Joins and Relates, and select Join. Join the layer to
kansas2000censusblk.dbf using the STFID field.
• Examine the attribute table of censusblk to make sure the join was successful. Do you see all
sorts of demographic attributes? If so, the join was successful.
• Right-click the header of the POP2000 attribute and select Statistics. The sum value is the
number of people in Douglas County. Record the value somewhere, as you will be entering
this into the comments section of your elearning submission. Close the window.
• Use Select by Location… to select the census blocks that are within the buffer zone.
o Hint: Use the are completely within the source layer feature setting. The result should be
1,590 census blocks selected.
• Find the population in these census blocks by opening the censusblk attribute table, right-
clicking the POP2000 attribute header, and selecting Statistics. (It will only give you
statistics on the selected records.) Record this number.
• Find the population out of the range of sirens by clicking Table Options (upper left corner
of the attribute table), selecting Switch Selection, and then using the Statistics tool again.
Record this number.
• Switch the selection back (i.e., back to the blocks within range of the sirens) and close the
attribute table.
• Take a screenshot of your entire screen and save it to your personal folder.

• Upload the following to elearning:

o The PNG of your logging map from Part 1
o The screenshot you just created
o The following information, put in the Comments section of the assignment:

Total Douglas County population:

Number of people who can hear the tornado sirens:
Number of people who cannot hear the tornado sirens:
Percentage of the population that can hear the tornado sirens:
Percentage of total population that cannot hear the tornado sirens:
*Note: Your math should add up. If it doesn’t, reevaluate.