Formatting Spatial Data with ArcView 8 for use in WMS

Some of the most common formatting tasks are listed below:

How to convert coordinate systems with Arcview 8

How to clip out a watershed boundary with Arcview 8

How to join the hydrologic soil group to a soil type shapefile attribute table with Arcview 8

 How to convert coordinate systems with Arcview 8

  1. Open ArcToolbox
  2. Expand the Data Management Tools category
  3. Expand the Projections category
  4. Double click on the Define Projection Wizard (shapefiles, geodatabase)
  5. Click on the browse button
  6. Browse for and ADD the shapefile you wish to convert
    If needed, click the Connect to Folder button to map your drive to the list of available drives.
  7. Click the Next button
  8. Click the Select Coordinate System... button
  9. Click the Select Button
  10. Browse for and ADD the shapefile's current coordinate system
  11. Click the Apply and then OK buttons
  12. Click Next
  13. Click Finish
  14. Double Click on Project Wizard (shapefiles, geodatabase)
  15. Click on the browse button
  16. Browse for and ADD the shapefile for which you just defined the current system
  17. Click Next
  18. Specify the output location and a name for the new shapefile
  19. Click Next
  20. Click the Select Coordinate System... button
  21. Click the Select button
  22. Browse for and ADD the new coordinate system
  23. Click the OK button
  24. Click Next
  25. At this point you may or may not be asked to choose a Geographic Transformation before continuing.  If so, click the Set Transformation... button and choose a transformation scheme.  If you are not prompted to choose a geographic transformation, skip to the next step.
  26. Click Next
  27. Click Finish

The new shapefile name that you specified in step 18 is now created and it is based in the new coordinate system you selected in step 22

How to clip out a watershed boundary with Arcview 8

Usually, a land use or soil type shapefile will be much larger than is needed for working with your watershed area, therefore you may want to clip out only the portion that you will need to cover your watershed.  First, you need to convert the watershed boundary to a shapefile.  Then using that boundary shapefile as a "cookie cutter," you can clip out an area of the larger land use or soil type shapefile using Arcview.

To convert your watershed boundary in WMS to a shapefile:

    If your watershed boundary is a feature polygon,

  1. Make sure the drainage coverage is the active coverage
  2. Select Export... from the File menu
  3. Change the Save as type field to Feature object polygons shapefile (*.shp) and export the data.

    If your watershed boundary is composed by a TIN,

  1. Switch to the TIN module
  2. Select TIN Boundary -> Polygon
  3. Select Export... from the File menu
  4. Change the Save as type field to Feature object polygons shapefile (*.shp) and export the data.

To perform the clip in Arcview 8:

  1. Open the soil type, land use, or other shapefile to clip into ArcMap
  2. Open the watershed boundary shapefile into ArcMap
  3. Select GeoProcessing Wizard... from the Tools menu
  4. Select Clip one layer based on another
  5. Click Next
  6. Choose the land use or soil type shapefile under Select the input layer to clip
  7. Choose the watershed boundary shapefile under Select a polygon clip layer
  8. Specify an output shapefile name and location under step 3
  9. Click Finish

Now the output shapefile can be imported into WMS.

How to join the hydrologic soil group to a soil type shapefile attribute table with Arcview 8

  1. Open both the soil type shapefile (*.shp) and the soil type data attribute table (*.dbf) into Arc Map
  2. Right click on the soil type shapefile's name in the Table of Contents
  3. Select Joins and Relates and then Join... from the extended menu
  4. Make sure "join attributes from a table" is selected under What do you want to join to this layer?
  5. Choose the MUID field under step 1 of the dialog *
  6. Choose statsgoc under step 2 of the dialog *
  7. Choose the MUID field under step 3 of the dialog and click OK *
  8. Right click on the shapefile's name in the Table of Contents
  9. Select Data and then Export Data... from the extended menu
  10. Define a name and location for the output shapefile and click OK

The output shapefile now contains the hydrologic soil group field and can be imported into WMS as a soil type coverage.

*  These steps contain several instructions that specifically pertain to STATSGO soil data, as obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency

 

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