Importing, Accessing and Handling Data

1. Importing, Accessing and Handling Data Charles E. Noon, Ph.D. The University of Tennessee

2. Session Overview • Types of information to assemble within a GIS • Methods for importing data • A walk-through example of importing, geo-locating, and editing data • A reinforcing exercise • Descriptive Analysis

3. Types of Information to Assemble within a GIS External Background Information Internal Information External Foreground Information

4. Types of Information to Assemble within a GIS Strategic Planning Application Operational Application 1. External Background Information: the part of the system you don’t own and can’t influence. 2. Internal Information: the part of the system you own or directly work with. 3. External Foreground Information: the part of the system you don’t own or directly work with, yet is very relevant to your organization .

5. External Background Information • Geo-political boundaries, landmarks, common-use transportation systems. • Such data can be found on data disks that accompany GIS software packages. • Importing it is usually easy. In ArcView use View-Add Theme.

7. Internal Information • Any data found within your MIS, LIS, financial system, WMS, purchasing system, ERP, or any transaction-based IS. • Ease of obtaining such data is organization-specific and depends on: • IS infrastructure • IS culture (sometimes require AOG)

8. External Foreground Information • Examples: • potential customers • current and potential competitors • potential partners • Wide range in difficulty to obtain such data: • Some public via “phone books” • Some can be purchased as demographic or business databases • Some may be provided by potential partners

13. Getting Data into a GIS • Principle: • there might be a lot of data associated with an entity (for example, a DC), but that entity has just one location. Make sure each entity has a data element that will allow it to be geographically located. • 5-digit zipcode • city/state • street address • latitude/longitude • other codes

14. Example: Information for 2 plants Plant Name PROVO ROME Location UTAH GEORGIA Zipcode 84602 30164 Plant ID 4962470 136668 1997 units produced 272,424 278,111 Unit Cost $46.72 $54.65 Capacity (units) 345,000 282,000 Value of Inventory $2,545,529.86 $3,039,753.23

15. Getting Data into a GIS • Principle: • there might be a lot of data associated with an entity (for example, a DC), but that entity has just one location. Make sure each entity has a data element that will allow it to be geographically located. • 5-digit zipcode • city/state • street address • latitude/longitude • other codes • Data can be pulled or pushed into a GIS

16. Ways to Pull Data into a GIS • SQL (Sequential Query Language) • ODBC • R/3 interface • SDE (Spatial Database Engine) • RPC (Remote Process Call) • Informix Datablade

17. DBMS GIS Data Table Spread Sheet Various Paths to Push Data into a GIS DBF file Other formats GPS

18. DBMS GIS Data Table Spread Sheet Various Paths to Push Data into a GIS DBF file Other formats GPS

19. Each row corresponds to an entity location

21. DBMS GIS Data Table Spread Sheet Various Paths to Push Data into a GIS DBF file Other formats GPS

22. With the Tables icon selected, hit Add button.

25. DBMS Spread Sheet Various Paths to Push Data into a GIS GIS DBF file Data Table Other formats GPS

27. The selected theme will be the reference theme.

31. How to Edit Data in a Table • Manually editing of existing data. • Adding a new data field. • Adding a field whose value is a function of other data fields.

35. It will add the formula into whatever field is selected.

38. In-Class Exercise 1. Import the DC’s information (in the file DCs.dbf) into an ArcView project. 2. Geo-Locate the DC’s based on 5-digit zip. 3. For the data table corresponding to the new theme, add a new field which calculates total annual handling cost for each DC. 4. Add some external background information.