Lab: 02 Coordinate Systems

This lab has four tasks. Task 1 shows is about how to project a shapefile from a geographic coordinate
system to a custom projected coordinate system. In Task 2, we will also project a shapefile from a
geographic to a projected coordinate system but using the coordinate systems already defined in Task I.
In Task 3, we will create a shapefile from a text file that contains point locations in geographic coordinates
and project the shapefile onto a predefined projected coordinate system. In Task 4, you will see how on-
the-fly projection works and then re-project a shapefile onto a different projected coordinate system.

All four tasks use the Define Projection and project tools in ArcToolbox, which are available in ArcCatalog
as well as ArcMap. The Define Projection tool defines a coordinate system. The Project tool projects a
geographic or projected coordinate system. ArcToolbox has three options for defining a coordinate
system: selecting a predefined coordinate system, importing a coordinate system from an existing data
set, or creating a new (custom) coordinate system. A predefined coordinate system already has a
projection file. A new coordinate system can be saved into a projection file, which can then be used to
define or project other data sets.

Task 1: Project a Shapefile from a Geographic to a Projected Coordinate System

Data used: What you need: idll.shp, a shapefile measured in geographic coordinates and in decimal
degrees. idll.shp is an outline layer of Idaho.

For Task 1, we will first define idll.shp by selecting a pre-defined geographic coordinate system and then
project the shapefile onto the Idaho transverse Mercator coordinate system (IDTM). IDTM is not a pre-
defined system. IDTM has the following parameter values:

 Projection TransverseMercator
 Datum NAD83
 Units meters
 Parameters
 scale factor: 0.9996
 central meridian: _ 114.0
 reference latitude: 42.0
 false casting: 2,500,000
 false northing: 1,200,000

Step-1: Start ArcCatalog, and make connection

to the Chapter 2 database.

Highlight idll.shp in the Catalog tree.

Click the Metadata tab (Customize  ArcCatalog Options), and select FGDC for the stylesheet. The FGDC
summary information lists the coordinate system as geographic. Click the link to Spatial Reference. The
information shows that there is no coordinate system.

Step-2: First define the coordinate system for idll.shp. Click the ArcToolbox button to open the
ArcToolbox window In ArcCatalog. Right-click ArcToolbox and select Environments. The Environment
Settings dialog has many sets of settings. One setting that is used in most operations is the first one
Workspace.

Navigate to the Chapter 2 database and set it to be the current workspace. In ArcToolbox, go to Data
Management Tools Projections and Transformations Define Projection.
Select idll.shp for the input feature class. The dialog shows that idll.shp already has an unknown
coordinate system. Click the button for the coordinate
system to open the Spatial Reference Properties dialog.

Double-click Geographic Coordinate systems, North

America, and North American Datum 1927. Click OK to
dismiss the dialogs. Check the spatial reference information
of idll.shp again. The Description (Metadata) tab should
show GCS _North_American_1927.
Step-3: Next project idll.shp to the IDTM coordinate system. Double-click the Project tool in Data
Management Tools  Projections and Transformations. In the Project dialog, select idll .shp for the input
feature class, specify idtm.shp for the output feature class, and click the button for the output coordinate
system to open the Spatial Reference Properties dialog. Click the New dropdown arrow and select
Projected.

In the New Projected Coordinate System dialog, first enter idtm for the Name. Then you need to provide
projection information in the Projection frame and for the Geographic Coordinate System. In the
Projection frame, select Tranverse_Mercator from the Name dropdown list. Enter the following
parameter values:

 2500000 for False Easting,

  1200000 for False Northing,
 -114 for Central Meridian
 0.9996 for Scale Factor, and
 42 for Latitude ' Of Origin.

Make sure that the Linear Unit is Meter.

Click change for the Geographic Coordinate System. Double-click North America, and North American
Datum 1983. Click OK to dismiss the New Projected Coordinate System dialog.

Click Save As in the Spatial Reference Properties dialog, and enter idtm83.prj as the file name. Dismiss the
Spatial Reference Properties dialog.
Step-4: idll.shp is based on NAD27 and
IDTM is based on NAD83. It means that
the projection requires a geographic
transformation. We can see
geographic transformation is already
selected as
NAD_1927_To_NAD_1983_NADCON.
Click OK to run the command.

Step-5: On the description tab, you can

verify if idtm.shp has been successfully
projected to idtm.shp.

Q1. Summarize in your own words the

steps you have followed to complete Task I.

Task-2: Import a Coordinate System

Data used: stationsll.shp, a shapefile measured in longitude and latitude values and in decimal degrees.
stationsll.shp contains snow courses in Idaho.

In this task, we will complete the projection of stationsll.shp by importing the projection
information on idll.shp and idtm.shp from Task 1.

Step-1: On the Description tab, verify that stationsll.shp

has an unknown geographic coordinate system. Double-
click the Define projection tool. Select stationsll.shp for
the input feature class. Click the button for the
coordinate system. Click Import in the spatial Reference
Properties dialog. Double click idll.shp to add. Dismiss
the dialogs.

Q2. Describe in your own words what you have done in

Step 1.

Step-2: Double-click the Project tool. Select stationsll.shp

for the input feature class specify stationstm.shp for the
output feature class, and click the button for the output
coordinate system. Click Import in the Spatial Reference
Properties dialog. Double-click idtm.shp to add. Dismiss
the Spatial Reference Properties dialog. It automatically
selects NAD_1927_To_NAD_ 1983_NADCON as Geographic transformation.
Click OK to complete the operation. stationstm.shp is now projected onto the same (IDTM) coordinate
system as idtm.shp.

Task 3: Project a Shapefile by Using a Predefined Coordinate System

Data used: Snow.txt, text file containing the geographic coordinates of 40 snow courses in Idaho. In this,
we will first create an event layer from snow.txt. Then we will project the event layer, which is still
measured in longitude and latitude values, to a predefined projected (UTM) coordinate system and save
the output into a shapefile.

Step-1: Launch ArcMap by clicking the ArcMap button in ArcCatalog. Rename the new data frame
Tasks 3&4 and add snow.txt to Tasks 3&4. Click the add data button and select snow.txt to add in the
data frame. Now right click the snow.txt file and choose Display XY data, and choose longitude as the X
field, and latitude as the Y field. The dialog shows that the coordinate system is unknown.
Click the Edit button to open the Spatial Reference
Properties dialog. Double-click Geographic Coordinate
Systems, North America, and North American Datum 1983
(NAD 1983). Click Ok.

Step-2: snow.txt Events is added to ArcMap. We can now project snow.txt Events and save the output to
a shapefile. Click ArcToolbox button to open the ArcToolbox window in ArcMap. Go to Data
Management Tools Projections and Transformations Project tool.
Select snow.txt Events for the input dataset, and specify snowutm83.shp for
the output feature class. Click the button for the output coordinate system.
Select in the Spatial Reference Properties dialog. Double click Projected
Coordinate Systems, UTM, NAD 1983, and NAD 1983 UTM Zone 11N.prj. Click
OK to project the data set.

Q3. You did not have to ask for a geographic transformation in Step2. Why?
Task 4: Convert from One Coordinate System to Another
Data used: idtm.shp from Task 1 and snowutm83.shp from Task 3.

Task 4 first shows us how on-the-fly projection works in ArcMap and then asks us to convert
idtm.shp from the IDTM coordinate system to the UTM coordinate system.

Step-1: Right-click Tasks 3&4, and select Properties.

The Coordinate System tab shows
GCS_North_American_1983 to be the current
coordinate system.

ArcMap assigns the coordinate system of the first layer

(i.e., snow. txt Events) to be the data frame's
coordinate system. We can change it by clicking Import
in the Data Frame Properties dialog.

In the next dialog, double-click snowutm83.shp. Click add and then Ok to data frame properties. Now
Tasks 3&4 is based on the NAD 1983 UTM Zone 11N coordinate system.

Step-2: Add idtm.shp to Tasks 3&4. Although idtm is based on the IDTM coordinate system, it registers
spatially with snowutm83 in ArcMap. (A couple of snow courses are supposed to be outside the Idaho
border.)
ArcGIS can re-project a data set on-the-fly. It uses the
spatial reference information available to project
idtm to the coordinate system of the data frame.

Step-3: The rest of Task 4 is to project idtm.shp to the

UTM coordinate system and to create a new
shapefile. Double-click the Project tool. Select idtm
for the input feature class, specify idutm83.shp for
the output feature class, and click the button for the
output coordinate system. In the Spatial Reference
Properties dialog double-click Projected Coordinate
Systems, UTM, NAD 1983, and NAD 1983 UTM Zone
11N.prj. Click OK to dismiss the dialogs.

Q4. Can you use Import instead of Select in step 3? If yes, how?

Step-4: Although idutm83 looks exactly the same as idtm in ArcMap, it has been projected to the UTM
grid system.

Task: Data Used: idroads.shp and mtroads.shp. The Chapter 2 database includes idroads.shp and
mtroads.shp, the road shapefiles for Idaho and Montana respectively. idroads.shp is projected onto the
IDTM, but it has the wrong false easting (500,000) and false northing (100,000) values. mtroads.shp is
projected onto the NAD 1983 State Plane Montana FIPS 2500 coordinate system in meters, but it does
not have a projection file.

1. Use the Project tool and the IDTM information from Task 1 to re-project idroads.shp with the correct
false easting (2,500,000) and false northing (1,200,000) values, while keeping the other parameters the
same. Name the output idroads2.shp.
2. Use the Define Projection tool to first define the coordinate system of mtroads.shp. Then use the
Project tool to re-project mtroads.shp to the IDTM and name the output mtroads_jdtm.shp.

3. Use the Description tab in ArcCatalog to verify that idroads.shp and mtroads_idtm.shp have the same
spatial reference information.