LAB 3

Jeffrey Hessburg
Lab 3

Lab 3 has several objectives:
   The first objective is to map a GPS MS Excel file of black bear locations in the study area, central Marquette County, Michigan. To complete this objective, use arc help to search and learn how to add x,y coordinate data as a layer. Then add the x,y table of bear_locations_geo$ and set the x field to Point_x and the Y field to Point_Y. Make sure that the z field is left blank. Next the coordinate system needs to be edited and set to NAD 1983 HARN Michigan GeoRef (Meters). Once the tool runs. points will appear on the map as shown below. These points are the bear locations and needed to be exported into the lab3 geodatabase in order to complete objective one.

   The second objective is to determine the forest types where black bears are found in the study area based on GPS locations of black bears. To do this all of the data from the bear_management_area feature set must first be added. Next the intersect tool is used with the landcover layer and the bear_locations layer. This intersect creates a layer that show all of the bear locations and the type of land cover that each bear was in. The next thing that needs to be determined is how many bears were in each habitat. To do this, summarize tool Minor_type with FID_bear_locations maximum and area maximum. This shows the count of bears in each site.

    Objective 3 is to determine if bears are found within 500 meters of a stream.  To determine this, use the select by location tool. As the target layer use bear_cover and as the source layer use streams. Then, the spatial selection method for target layer feature can be set to: are within a distance of the source layer feature of 500 meters. 49 out of the 68 bears were within 500 meters of a stream. This is 72% of the bears. This means being close to streams is important for bears. Another way to complete this objective is to use the buffer tool to create a wider stream, then the intersect tool can be used to create a layer of bears that are within 500 m of stream.

      Objective four is to find suitable bear habitat based on two criteria: suitable land cover types and within 500 meters of a stream. Now the Dissolve tool must be used to create one large polygon around the streams. Now shown is a polygon where bear habitat is.

   Objective five is to find all areas of suitable bear habitat within areas managed by the Michigan DNR. First the DNR management lands layer must be added to the map. Then the intersect tool is used to intersect the dissolved 500 m stream buffer and the DNR management land.
Then dissolve tool to make all of the intersect one layer.

Step 6 is to eliminate areas near urban or built up lands from the map. To do this, use the select by attribute tool to select just urban or built up land. create a layer of just urban or built up land. then use the buffer tool to create a 5km buffer around this layer then use the dissolve tool to make the buffer one layer. last. use the erase tool to create an output that just shows what is outside of the buffer

Below is the final map. it shows where all of the bears were located, the streams, the bear habitat on DNR land, and the three most sutible land cover habitats.

   Objective seven is to generate a digital data flow model of the workflow. The circles are the input/outputs and the rectangles are the tools used. This was created using adobe illustrator.

The final thing needed to do is learn how to use python.
by clicking the tool and following the directions then entering the following codes.
>>> arcpy.Buffer_analysis("streams", "streams500m", "1 kilometer", "FULL", "Round", "ALL")
>>> arcpy.Intersect_analysis([streams_buf","suit_land"], "land_stream"




Sources: All of the data were downloaded from the State of Michigan Open GIS Data http://gis.michigan.opendata.arcgis.com/  Landcover is from USGS NLCD o http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/nlcd/metadata/nlcdshp.html  DNR management units  o http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/spatialdatalibrary/metadata/wildlife_mgmt_uni ts.htm  Streams from  o http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/framework/metadata/Marquette.html