GIS for Civil Engineering

Site optimization: Locate suitable sites for a new wastewater treatment plan.

Criteria:

• Must be within 3,000 feet of the Cache la Poudre River

• Must be within 1 mile of the city limits

• Must be at least 300 feet from residential parcels and parks

• Must lie outside the flood plain

• Must be on vacant parcels that are 50,000 square feet or greater

Getting Familiar with your Data: ArcCatalog

Open ArcCatalog.

Expand the folder connection to the BldgModels10_0 folder. Notice that there are several feature classes and raster datasets in this geodatabase.

Expand FtCollins.gdb to view its contents.

From criteria to analysis:

• Must be within 3,000 feet of the Cache la Poudre River - Buffer tool

  • Must be within 1 mile of the city limits - Buffer tool

  • Must be at least 300 feet from residential parcels and parks - Buffer tool

• Must lie outside the flood plain - Erase tool

• Must be on vacant parcels that are 50,000 square feet or greater - query -> Select tool

Running your Analysis: ArcMap

Open the SitePlant.mxd document.

Set the default geodatabase to FtCollins.gdb by right-clicking in the Catalog window and choose Make Default Geodatabase.

Select a feature using a query

Our first criteria focus in just one of the records in the Hydro layer. We want to buffer only the select the Cache la Poudre River as the main water feature for your analysis. Because all geoprocessing tools honor selected sets, you can simply make a selection rather than creating new data containing only the river. This operation will help you fulfill the criterion of close proximity to the river.

Press the Ctrl key and then uncheck any layer name to turn off all layers.

Turn on the Hydro layer only.

From the Selection menu, choose Select By Attributes.

Change the Layer to Hydro.

Build the following expression: NAME = 'Cache La Poudre River'. (ArcGIS 10.0 or 10.1 users: Build this expression:"NAME" = 'Cache La Poudre River'.)

Click OK to make the selection.

Now the Cache la Poudre River is selected in the map.

Hold down Ctrl on your keyboard while you click an unchecked layer's checkbox to turn on all the layers again.

Save your map.

Create buffers

On the Standard toolbar in ArcMap, click the Search Window button .

In the Search window, click Tools to include only tools in your search results.

Type buffer and click the Search button