Habitat Analysis in ArcGIS

Use of Spatial Analysis to characterize used resources

Thomas Bonnot

http://web.missouri.edu/~bonnott/

Introduction

• GIS Modeling– Summarizing characteristics of resources

associated with fish and wildlife use• Resource Selection, Survival, Movement• Descriptive and Exploratory Purposes

– Types of GIS Data Involved

• Organization and Preparation of Data

• Ways to automate Geoprocessing

Spatial Analysis• Spatial Analysis: The study of the

locations and shapes of geographic features and the relationships between them

• Measuring distances between points • Modeling the behavior of ecosystems

• Geoprocessing ToolsTools that prepare, manipulate, and analyze data spatially

Characterizing resources associated with features of use

• Inputs– Features representing use

– Resource or environmental data of interest

Spatial Features

Types of features in ArcGIS

1) Point Nest Site; Telemetry Location

2) Line Movement Path; River; Xsct

3) Polygon Home Range; Nest Plot

Spatial Features cont.

• Feature Class– Group of features of the same geometry– Can be filed in different formats

Shapefile

Resource Data• Contain information and data about the

resources of interest

• Can be feature classes

Rasters• Made up of square cells

• Each cell represents a specific portion of an area– Describes location and relative position in space– And the characteristics of that area

Rasters Containing Thematic Data

• Represent some measured quantity or classification of a particular phenomena

Image Rasters

• Images or photographs

• Still composed of cells

• Cells represent colors or spectral reflectance

Missouri Land Cover, Classified Satellite Imagery – 30m

USDA NAIP Color Infrared Aerial Photography – 1m

Digitized Land Cover for Study Site

Have the Data.How do we characterize?

Use Features

Resource DataLayers

Geoprocessing for Characterizing Used Resources

UseFeature

ResourceData Geoprocessing Tool

PointsFeature Class Spatial Join

Polygons

PointsRaster Zonal Statistics as Table

Polygons

Polygons PolygonsClip then Calculate Areas

(When summarizing areas of polygons in polygons)

Geoprocessing for Characterizing Used Resources

UseFeature

ResourceData Geoprocessing Tool

PointsFeature Class Spatial Join

Polygons

PointsRaster Zonal Statistics as Table

Polygons

Polygons PolygonsClip then Calculate Areas

(When summarizing areas of polygons in polygons)

Right Click on the Layer and go to “Joins and Relates”

Geoprocessing for Characterizing Used Resources

UseFeature

ResourceData Geoprocessing Tool

PointsFeature Class Spatial Join

Polygons

PointsRaster Zonal Statistics as Table

Polygons

Polygons PolygonsClip then Calculate Areas

(When summarizing areas of polygons in polygons)

Geoprocessing for Characterizing Used Resources

UseFeature

ResourceData Geoprocessing Tool

PointsFeature Class Spatial Join

Polygons

PointsRaster Zonal Statistics as Table

Polygons

Polygons PolygonsClip then Calculate Areas

(When summarizing areas of polygons in polygons)

Organizing Data Tables in ArcGIS

• Important Consideration in Spatial Analysis

• Geoprocessing Tools produce outputs in different tables and with different formats

• Joining and Summarizing Tables

Joining TablesGetting output data into master datasets

Common Attribute(Unique Identifier)

Master Dataset Output from Tool

Desired Attribute

• Right Click on the Layer• Go to “Joins” “Relates”

Summarizing Tables

Multiple Records

For

the Same Feature

When output tables have

• Right Click on the Field• Go to “Summarize”

Choose statistic to summarize

Model Builder to automate Geoprocessing

• Create Models to link together multiple Geoprocessing Tools

• Can set parameters ahead of time or allow for them to be entered manually

• Right click on a Toolbox• Go to “New” “Model”

• Click and Drag tools to Model Builder Window • Connect tools together so that outputs from one tool become inputs for the next

To Create Parameters• Right click on Tool• Go to “Make Variable” “From Parameter”• Select the parameter for use in the dialogue box

After saving the model, open the model from ArcToolbox to see a dialogue box where you can specify the input and output parameters