Category: geoanalysis

Contour lines have constant values on them such as elevation. But it’s also used in meteorology (isopleth), magnetism (isogon) & even drive-time (isochrones)

When you have two conflicting data sets, conflation resolves conflicts by preserving the most accurate one. Edgematching and rubbersheeting helps fix errors

Rasterization converts vectors into rasters. While vectorization transforms rasters in vectors. We explain how to go from one data model to the other.

Some things in life are certain. In ArcGIS, it’s the Esri 999999 error. Here are some techniques to troubleshoot this ArcMap error and put it to rest.

In the case of a semi-variogram, closer things have less variability and are similar. While things farther away are less predictable and are less related.

The prediction is strong in kriging. In this guide to geostatistics we embark on a journey to sculpt a legendary prediction model with kriging interpolation

Huff Gravity Model uses store size and distance along with census tract population to understand the probability that consumers will patron retail stores.

Topographic profiles are cross-sectional views showing elevation along a line with applications in engineering, hydrology, land use planning and more.

Tech-savvy companies are using the location-allocation tool to find optimal location and target market. Here’s an ArcGIS solution to locate your company.

In the mountains, the terrain slopes are in all directions – east, west, north and south-facing. The compass direction that the slope faces is slope aspect.

The least cost path finds the most cost-effective path, from a start point to a destination, making it a useful tool for linear routing.

Create thousands of maps instantly with data driven pages in ArcGIS. Learn more about adding dynamic text, zooming to extents and exporting PDF mapbooks

You can take any image, and you can vectorize it with ArcScan. This means you’ll spend less time digitizing and more time doing other important things.

Configure your time series animation in ArcGIS with this quick tutorial. Visualize geographic events (snow melt, forest fire, disease) as a function of time

Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation estimates unknown values with specifying search distance, closest points, power setting & barriers.

When you take a photo with your GPS on, it stores its physical location where the photo was taken. Geotagging assigns coordinates to photos.

This guide shows how Mean Absolute Error in GIS is used. We give a step-by-step instructions how to calculate MAE in Excel and a quick formula to use.

Principal component analysis PCA identifies duplicate data over several datasets & aggregates essential information into groups called principal components.

For ArcGIS projections, “define projection” changes the metadata of the current projection. The “project” tool changes the projected coordinate system.

Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) in GIS can be used to calculate how much error there is between predicted and observed values. (ex. error in a DEM)

Follow these quick 5 steps and turn Excel lat long coordinates into spatial data in ArcMap. Set to WGS 1984. Add table. Display XY Data. Export shapefile.

Python minimum and maximum values in ArcGIS can be obtained from multiple fields. This is done with min and max commands using Python and Field Calculator.

Spatial autocorrelation helps us understand the degree to which one object is similar to other nearby objects. Moran’s I is used to measure autocorrelation.

Changing NoData values to zero in arcGIS can be accomplished by using the “Con Tool”

This list is a collaborative effort of the most valuable Esri ArcMap tips and tricks. Follow these golden rules and you will save time and improve workflow.

The ArcGIS Network Analyst Service Area analysis tool is perfect finding out just how far your cities firefighters, ambulance or paramedics can service.

Flow direction calculates the direction water will flow in its eight adjacent cells using slope from neighboring cells (in a raster grid cell)

Spatial regression is used to model spatial relationships. Regression models investigate what variables explain their location.

The image analysis toolbar can generate NDVI maps in ArcGIS. NDVI shows areas of high and low vegetation and requires red and NIR bands.

For raster resampling in GIS, you can use bilinear and cubic convolution for continuous data as well as nearest neighbor and majority for discrete data.

Geocoding takes an address, then translates it to a location on a map. It changes an address to lat long coordinates (latitude and longitude).

SAGA GIS has a quick and dirty tool to fill NoData holes with raster data. We show you how to close gaps in DEMs or any raster data with holes in it.

ArcObjects is a library of Component Object Models (COM) to build UI components and stand-alone applications on top of the ArcGIS platform.

Unless you’re a data editing jedi, your GIS data may unknowingly have errors like gaps and overlaps. What to do? Fix errors using topology tools in ArcGIS

So you want to geoprocess like a GIS guru, do you? From clipping to buffering, you will learn the basic GIS processing tools along with uses & applications

If your letters and words are all uppercase or lowercase in a field, and you want to capitalize the first letter of each word, use this Python code block.

The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) is a statistical bias that occurs when you aggregate point data such as the scale and zonal effect.

ArcToolbox is a collection of GIS tools for analyzing, editing and converting data. Each toolbox has a unique set of specialized tools for spatial analysis.

This is an overview how to use ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap). We teach you the user interface, toolbars, licenses, menu bars, extensions, windows and more!

Map algebra is a cell-by-cell combination of stacked raster grids. It uses math-like functions with arithmetic, statistics and trigonometry operators.

Save time by learning how to clip rasters in ArGIS using the raster clip tool in ArcToolbox as well as the clip button in the Image Analysis Toolbar.

3D analysis is a growing trend because it better represents the real world. For some problems, 3D is sometimes the only way to solve it.

While line of sight determines obstructed and unobstructed on a line, a viewshed dictates surrounding areas as visible or non-visible from an observer POV.

Full motion video ties your videos with maps. As you play a video, it doesn’t just show a moving point. It shows the whole video footprint on the map.

Augmented reality (AR) in GIS allows you to interact with the outside world by enhancing or adding 3D features to your phone’s display.

The Merge Tool combines data from multiple sources and puts them into a new data set with the same shape type (points, lines, or polygons).

There are countless ways you can slice, dice and edit data in GIS. So that’s why we’ve created this handy visual guide with the essential GIS editing tools.

Distance decay is the idea that the farther away customers are from goods or services, the less likely they will make use of it.

The Intersect Tool in GIS performs a geometric overlap. All features and attributes that overlap will become part of the output feature class.

Indoor mapping specializes in mapping building floor plans. It can incorporate Revit, BIM, and CAD, and build floor plans from buildings.

Learn how to georeference with precision in this georeferencing guide. Add control points in two images, select a transformation and check your RMSE.

If you use ArcGIS 10.2 and above, you can use the “Table to Excel” tool to convert a shapefile table to Excel spreadsheet & export field aliases / subtypes

A geofence is a virtual geographic boundary. Whether it’s for security, retail or delivery, geofencing gives real-time alerts and increases awareness.

The Append Tool adds data from one or more sources of data and puts it into an existing target dataset, without creating a new dataset.

Linear referencing systems (LRS) store relative positions on an existing line feature with m-values for point/line events and linear analysis.

The Erase Tool removes the area that is overlapping with the erasing features. Everything outside the erasing layer ends up in the output.

Tobler’s First Law of Geography states that everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.

Everyone’s looking for the “easy button”. If you want to know how to make a map using GIS for free, I have your “easy button”. using QGIS and Natural Earth.

Metadata is like an instruction manual for data. It describes who, what, when, where and why for data. At the same time, it has to be detailed & dependable.

Geostatistics is the study of statistics with a focus on finding patterns of geographic phenomena using variograms, kriging and validation.