Goals and Objectives
General Methods
There were a number of data sets that we downloaded for use in our suitability data. They are listed below with their respective URLs:
US Department of Transportation - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_atlas_database/index.html
USGS National Map Viewer – http://nationalmap.gov/viewers.html
MRLC – https://www.mrlc.gov USDA Geospatial Data Gateway – http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov Trempealeau County Land Records – https://www.tremplocounty.com/landrecords
USDA NRCS Web Soil – http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm
Our general process included navigating to the data hub, which was often an online interactive map, searching Trempeleau County, and downloading the desired data based on the county's boundaries. With some of the data we downloaded, it was necessary to use a Python script to load our raster files into our geodatabase, clip them to restrict them to just the county boundary, and project them in the desired Trempeleau County projected coordinate system. Since we downloaded the data from the internet, we kept our compressed .zip files in a temporary workspace, and extracted them to a working folder before loading our actual data into the geodatabase. After the project, I deleted the .zip files and working files because they took up extra space, and were no longer necessary. The resulting datasets are shown below.
Data Accuracy
Conclusion
This lab was very important to understand, because GIS is all about interoperability, and it is necessary to understand the processes involved in data downloading, storage, and management. These processes are very common tasks in the workplace, and I am glad to have been introduced to them.
