Salahaddin University-Hewler

College of Engineering
PH.D in Civil Engineering

Advanced Geographic Information System

Lecture_5: Data, and Symbology in GIS

Jehan Sheikh Suleimany

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 Quary

It is one of the operation used in GIS to analyze data.

Query layers allow both spatial and non spatial
information stored in a database to be easily
integrated into GIS projects within ArcGIS Pro.

In analysis of Spatial data

• Attribute quarry
• Spatial quary
• Alteration of original data
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 Attribute query

• An attribute query is a way to search for and

retrieve records of features in a set of data
based on its attribute values.

• Like in a country map ,name of states which

contains” citadel”

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 Spatial query

Spatial queries allows you to select features in a layer by

their spatial relationships (intersect, contain, touch etc.) with
features from another layer.
like areas within some distance

3 broad categories of SPATIAL QUERY

• DIRECTION
• DISTANCE
• TOPOLOGY

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 Applications of Query
• Retrieve data
• Data manipulation
• Hydrological modeling
• Buffer maps
• Cost maps

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 Topology
Topology in GIS is generally defined as the spatial relationships
between adjacent or neighboring features. In GIS, topology is
implemented through data structure

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 Shape files
A shapefile is an Esri vector
data storage format for
storing the location, shape,
and attributes of geographic
features. It is stored as a set
of related files and contains
one feature class. Shapefiles
often contain large features
with a lot of associated data
and historically have been
used in GIS desktop
applications such as Arc
Map.
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ArcGIS shape files have mandatory and optional files.
The mandatory file extensions needed for a shape
file are .shp, .shx and .dbf. But the optional files are:
.prj, .xml, .sbn and .sbx

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 Metadata

• Metadata is information about data. Similar to a library

catalog record, metadata records document the who,
what, when, where, how, and why of a data resource.
• Geospatial metadata describes maps, Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) files, imagery, and other
location-based data resources.

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 Geodatabase Elements

• Objects
• Object classes
• Features
• Feature classes
• Relationships
• Geometric networks
• Data sets
ArcGIS Geodatabase

Workspace
Geodatabase
Feature Dataset
Feature Class

Geometric
Network

Relationship
Object Class
 Objects

• Geo databases organize geographic data into a hierarchy of

data objects.
• Objects are instances of an object class that have properties
and behavior.
• Objects can be related to other objects via relationships
 Object Classes

• An object class is a collection of objects in tabular format that have the same
behavior and the same attributes.
• Object classes are tables in a geodatabase storing non-spatial data (e.g., Parcel owners)
• Objects in an object class have the same
• Properties - stored in the table as attributes
• Behavior - implemented as a component

An object class is a table that has a unique identifier (ObjectID)

for each record
 Features

• Features are objects with required shape (Points, Multi-points,

Lines & Polygons) that represent a real world object in a layer
on a map.
 Features Classes

• Features classes are collections of features with same type of

feature geometry and attributes.
• A feature class is also an object class which stores spatial
objects (features)(e.g., Parcels).
• All the features in a feature class are in the same spatial
reference.
• Feature classes which store topological features must be
contained within a feature dataset to ensure a common
spatial reference.
• A feature class is a collection of geographic objects in tabular format that have
the same behavior and the same attributes.

Feature Class = Object class + spatial coordinates

Feature Class
Feature Datasets
• Containers for feature
classes
• Shared spatial reference
• Analogous to a coverage
• less restrictive
• May also contain
• relationship classes
• geometric networks
 Coverage and Coverage Features
• A coverage is a geo relational data model that
stores vector data—it contains both the spatial
(location) and attribute (descriptive) data for
geographic features.

• Coverage's use a set of feature classes to represent

geographic features. Each feature class stores a set
of points, lines (arcs), polygons, or annotation
(text). Coverage's can have topology, which
determines the relationships between features.

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The figure below shows the common feature classes in a coverage.
The other coverage feature classes include section, route, region,
and link.

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 Storing Data

• Coverage's and Shape files

• Coverage's are stored partially in their own folder and partially
in the common INFO folder. Shape files are stored in three to
five files (with extensions .shp, .shx, .dbf, .sbx and .sbn).

• Coverage's store common boundaries between polygons only

once, to avoid redundancy. Shape files store all the geometry
of each polygon regardless of redundancy.

• Coverage features are single lines or single polygons. Shape

files allow features to have multiple, disconnected,
intersecting and overlapping components.
 Storing Data

Coverages Shapefiles

Texas
Texas

Counties
Counties.shp
Counties.shx
Counties.dbf
Evap
Evap.shp
Evap.shx
Evap.dbf
Info
 Relationship
Relationship between spatial and non-spatial objects

Water quality data

(non-spatial)

Measurement station
(spatial)
 Relationships

Parcels Owners
(Spatial) Non-Spatial
 Relationship
Relationship between non-spatial objects

Water Quality Data

Water Quality Parameters

 Geometric Networks
• A topological relationship
among a collection of
feature classes in a feature
dataset
• Used to model network
systems
• Topology:
• Based upon geometric
coincidence
• Always live
• Features are
constrained to exist
within the network
 Network

• A network is a set of edges

(lines) and junctions (points)
that are topologically
connected to each other.
• Each edge knows which
junctions are at its endpoints
• Each junction knows which
edges it connects to
 Geometric Networks

•Network features classes must reside in a geometric network

•Directly support network analysis
•Types of Network Features: Junction or Edge
•Junction and edge features can be Simple or Complex
 Symbology In GIS

• Symbols help in interpreting information in the

maps.

• There are three types of symbols in GIS

Graduated

Continuous; and

Unique Value

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 Graduated Symbols

• Sometimes vector features represent things with a changing

numerical value. Contour lines are a good example of this.

• Each contour usually has an attribute value called ‘Elevation’

that contains information about what elevation that contour
represents.

• Adding color to the contours can help us to interpret the

meanings of contours. For example we can draw low lying
areas with one color, mid-altitude areas with another and
high-altitude areas with a third.

• Graduated symbols are most useful when we want to show

clear differences between features with attribute values in
different value ranges. 29
 Map with graduated color symbols
• The height attribute of
contours can be used to
separate the contours
into 3 classes.
• Contours between 980m
and 1,120m will be
drawn in brown,
• those between 1,120m
and 1,240m in blue, and
• those between 1,240m
and 1,500m in purple.

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 Continuous Color Symbols:

• In Graduated Color symbols the features are drawn

in discrete groups or classes.

• Sometimes it is useful to draw features in a color

range from one color to another.

• The GIS Application will use a numerical attribute

value from a feature (e.g. contour heights or
pollution levels in a stream) to decide which color to
use.

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• Using the same contours example used in the previous section, a
map with continuous color symbology

• After defining the minimum and maximum colors in the color

range, the color features are drawn in, will depend on where the
attribute lies in the range between minimum and maximum.

• For example if you have contour features with values starting at

1000m and ending at 1400m, the value range is 1000 to 1400.

• If the color for the minimum value is set to orange and the color
for the maximum value is black, contours with a value of close to
1400m will be drawn close to black.

• On the other hand contours with a value near to 1,000 m will be

drawn close to orange. See Figure on next slide 33
 Continuous Scale
A contour map drawn using continuous color symbology.

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 Unique Value Symbols:
• Sometimes the attributes of features are not numeric,
but instead strings are used.
-'String' is a computer term meaning a group of
letters, numbers and other writing symbols.

• Strings attributes are often used to classify things by

name.

• We can tell the GIS Application to give each unique

string or number its own color and symbol.

• Road features may have different classes (e.g. 'street',

'secondary road', 'main road' etc.), each drawn in the
map view of the GIS with different colors or symbols.
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A roads vector layer symbolized using a unique value per road type.

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 TIN Datasets
• Triangle sides are constructed by connecting adjacent points so that the
minimum angle of each triangle is maximized. Triangle sides cannot cross
break lines.

• The TIN format is efficient to store data because the resolution adjusts to
the parameter spatial variability.
 Spatial Analyst
• Analysis of land
surface terrain as
a grid
• Key means of
defining drainage
areas and
connectivity to
stream network

Drainage network for Montgomery, Alabama

 3-D Analyst

• Analysis of land
surface terrain
as triangulated
irregular
network (TIN)
• Visualization in
3-D using Arc
Scene

Stream channel of Pecan Bayou, Texas