GIS  Assignment – Basic GIS Thematic Analysis

Purpose: To demonstrate skills related to using various features of ArcGIS, perform data analyses, and report on analysis results

Topics:

·        Importing data

·        Data manipulation

·        Thematic maps

·        Data analysis

·        Layouts

Data sources:

The data for this activity can be derived from various government databases.

Background:

You are an Analyst working for a consulting firm. You have been contracted to prepare a report summarizing information about a data analysis that they want you to complete. Unfortunately, they have not been very specific about their exact needs; therefore, you should generate several scenarios showing. The only requirements that have been stated include the following:

• Part of the analysis must consider the trend in statistics over time; that is, you must prepare at least one time-series analysis.
• The analysis does not need to be any more detailed than the county level, although you can include more detailed analyses if you can obtain the data.
• You should highlight individual counties that show unusual or unanticipated trends.
• You should use a number of different types of analyses (e.g., do one analysis comparing employment over two time periods using the difference between the time periods, then do a second analysis using the percentage change).
• You must do a minimum of five (5) different analyses (e.g., use different time periods, different mathematical analyses, different areas, etc.). You will need to interpret each analysis separately. In your analysis, the point is to try to identify unusual trends or patterns in the data.

To complete the exercise, you will need to generate map data for the features of interest by querying the GIS for the area of interest (e.g., query the IA counties from a file containing all U.S. counties).   In addition, you will likely need to do several calculations in order to develop time series analyses.  I've posted general guidelines for completing this process.

Prepare a report describing your findings. This report should be approximately 5 (+/-1) pages of text (double-spaced) plus any graphics, tables, or maps that you might want to include. In this report include the following:

• A description of the background of the case (i.e., why are you doing this analysis).
• A description of the procedures you used to analyze the data.
• A summary of the findings.
• The maps showing the results of the analyses you performed.

Summary: After using the GIS software to analyze these data, hopefully you have been able to see how a spatial decision support system can be used to enhance the analysis of complex data over time. This exercise also demonstrates how application software such as Excel or Access can be used to preprocess data for use in DSS software.