Some Concepts That Underpin GIS - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 70

Exploring Soils
10. Click the Preview tab. Select Soils in the Catalog Tree. You see a map of the Soils you worked
with in Assignment 1-1. In the pull-down menu in the Preview text box (bottom of the window),
select Table. How many Soils polygons are there? _________.
11. Examine the table. Notice the fields Shape_Length and Shape_Area. These attributes are the
perimeters and areas of polygons. This is information you get “for free” by using a GIS. Sort the
Shape_Area column into ascending order. To the nearest tenth of a meter, what is the perimeter
of the polygon with the smallest area? ____________ meters.
12. Click the Description tab. Note the information there, some of which is incomplete. Expand
the ArcGIS Metadata (click the link) and then see if you can read through the data and find the
following values: 31
Geographic Coordinate System Name: _______________________
Projected Coordinate System Name: _________________________
Lat-Lon West Longitude: _________________________________
Lat-Lon East Longitude:__________________________________
Lat-Lon North Latitude: __________________________________
Lat-Lon South Latitude: __________________________________
Now look at the extents in the Item's Coordinate System
West Longitude: ________________________________________
East Longitude: ________________________________________
North Latitude: ________________________________________
South Latitude: ________________________________________
Expand the FGDC Metadata > Identification and record the following information: 32
West Bounding Coordinate: ______________________________
East Bounding Coordinate: _______________________________
North Bounding Coordinate: ______________________________
South Bounding Coordinate:________________________________
31 I really can't give you more explicit information about where to find those values because the metadata formats
change frequently, with new software versions and updates. For example, version 10.0 is different from version 10.1.
However, the relevant information is bound to be in there somewhere. You just have to find it.
32 If necessary, change the stylesheet (Customize > ArcCatalog Options > Metadata) to add FGDC CSDGM Metadata, so
you can also access this form of metadata. Again, metadata is handled differently between version 10.0 and version 10.1.