Embedded Files
When complete, you will submit the following on Brightspace:
A text response or word processing document (Google Doc or MS Word doc) with your responses to the questions posed throughout the tutorial
The URL link for your Web Map (copy and paste the url into the word processing document)
Getting Started
Go here to sign in to your Bard ESRI ArcGIS account: bard.maps.arcgis.com
Content page:
Access all artifacts you create: maps, layers, applications (interactive apps like Basic Map Viewer and StoryMaps)
You can organize your content into folders
Using the search bar at the top of the webpage you can search for content in your account, My Organization, ArcGIS Online (user created content), and Living Atlas (official ESRI created content)
New Map: select “Map” on the top toolbar while on any main page within ArcGIS Online to create a new map.
Part 1: Explore the basemap
Part 1: Explore the basemap
Select “Map” on the top toolbar while on any main page within ArcGIS Online:
→ Map Viewer opens.
→ Click Save >> Save and give your map a name: “Tutorial 1 <your name>”
You will see a topographic basemap but no additional layers. This is your starting map template to which you will add map layers.
A basemap provides a background of geographical context for the content you want to display in a map. When you create a new map, you can choose which basemap you want to use. You can change the basemap of the current map at any time by using the basemap gallery or using your own layer as the basemap. In this step, you will use the basemap from the basemap gallery. The basemap gallery includes a variety of choices, including topography, imagery, and streets.
→ Change the basemap to Imagery Hybrid
→ Click and hold the cursor to move around the image.
→ Use the Zoom buttons to zoom in and out.
You can also use the mouse and scroll wheel, or the arrow keys on the keyboard. To zoom in, you can also press and hold the Shift key and drag a box on the map.
→ Zoom in to your home or school and see how much detail you can see. Zoom to other places that interest you, as well.
→ Use the find address or place search by clicking on the search button
How do the map labels change as you zoom in and out?
What do you see in the remote sensing image basemap (Imagery Hybrid). What types of features and details can you see? What is the smallest object you can see?
At this point, you only have the Imagery Hybrid basemap, but the power of GIS lies in working with multiple layers of data. ArcGIS Online subscriptions include access to a wide range of data layers.
Part 2: Explore Social, Economic, and Environmental Indicators
Part 2: Explore Social, Economic, and Environmental Indicators
In this section, you will add two demographic data layers, a health data layer, a remote sensing data layer, and a GPS point data layer (TRI sites), and interpret some patterns illustrated in the data.
→ Change your basemap to “Human Geography Map” (select basemap on the left toolbar and scroll down to find Human Geography Map)
Add a data layer to the map
Add a data layer to the map
→ Click the Add button and choose Browse layers → then select Living Atlas using the drop down menu
→ In the Search window, type “Median Household Income” and then press Enter.
→ Click “ACS Median Household Income Variables - Boundaries” (the author of the layer will be ESRI)
→ In the window, click +Add. Then close the search pane.
→ Rename the layer to "Median Household Income" using the 3 horizontal dot icon to the right of the layer name.
With the +Add button, you can search for layers in your content (My Content), browse Living Atlas or ArcGIS Online layers, add layers from the web, add layers from files, and add map notes. You can also get directions and add the route as a layer.
Living Atlas and ArcGIS Online layers include world traffic, land cover, demographics, and so on. Most of these layers are free to use on your maps and can be viewed by anyone.
How to compare patterns across layers
How to compare patterns across layers
For this activity, you will compare the geographic patterns you see across your map layers by toggling each layer on and off. Use the eye icon to the right of the layer name in the Layers pane to turn a layer's visibility on or off.
A Guide
Look at one layer alone. Turn off everything else using the eye icon. Pick a fixed view of your city and don't move the map—panning or zooming between layers makes it difficult to compare patterns.
Describe and make note of what you see before moving on. Where are the high values? The low values? Write it down in the terms below.
Toggle back and forth. Turn one layer off and the other on, repeatedly, watching the same part of the map.
Check the legend each time. Two layers can look similar and mean opposite things, confirm which end of the color ramp is high.
Questions to ask yourself:
Do the patterns match? Where specifically do they line up, and where do they clearly not?
Is either pattern following something physical: a highway, a river, a rail line, an industrial corridor, the edge of downtown?
Does the relationship hold across the whole city, or only in one neighborhood?
We will spend a lot of time talking about this, but useful words for describing a spatial distribution: clustered / concentrated, scattered / dispersed, even, patchy, along a corridor, at the center, at the edges or periphery, north/south/east/west side, adjacent to, separated from. "There is a concentration of high values on the east side, near the interstate" is a description. "It varies" is not.
Two layers that look alike on a map is a starting point for a question. These layers also use different geographic units, some are census tracts, some are block groups, and TRI sites are individual points. When you describe a relationship, say what you see, then say what you would need to know to find out more about the relationship/pattern.
Add a layer of your choice
Add a layer of your choice
Search for any topic that comes to mind and see what you find. Add a layer you find interesting.
You will now explore the median household income and your layer of choice.
Choose a place to explore (choose a medium/large size city in the United States)
Choose a place to explore (choose a medium/large size city in the United States)
Note: not all layers you find will provide coverage of your area of interest.
→ Use the search tool to search for a city with which you are familiar. Zoom in and click any area of your choice. The area’s median household income details appear.
→ Select Bookmarks on the left toolbar → select Add bookmark and provide a title → click Add
Review Questions (provide short responses in a word processing document)
Describe the spatial distribution of income. Where are the high‐income areas? Where are the low‐income areas? Use cardinal directions or place names in your response.
Describe the geography / spatial distribution of your chosen layer.
Speculate on what may account for these differences? What landscape features (social, economic, natural) may help explain the location of clusters?
Add two more layers, stay zoomed in to the city of your choice
Add two more layers, stay zoomed in to the city of your choice
First, turn off the layers currently displayed on your map. Use the eye icon to the right of the layer name.
Race and ethnicity predominance data layer:
→ On the left toolbar select “+ Add” → “Browse layers” → select “Living Atlas”
→ Search for “ACS Race and Hispanic Origin Variables - Boundaries” in the Living Atlas
→ Click the three horizontal dots to the right of the layer name → click “Rename” and title the layer “Race and Ethnicity Predominance (%)”
Note: you can drag the layers on your map to any order you choose using the six dot icon to the left of the layer name.
You are asked repeatedly whether there is a relationship between two layers. There are of course limites and pitfalls to simple cartographic inference such as this. Keep in mind...
You are looking at areas, not people. A tract with high asthma prevalence and a high share of low-income households does not tell you that low-income residents are the ones with asthma. This is an ecological fallacy.
The unit of analysis shapes the pattern. Your layers are drawn at different geographies (Census Tracts, Block Groups, facility point locations). The same data aggregated differently can produce a stronger relationship, a weaker one, or none. This is called the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP).
Two things can align because a third factor is what actualy drives both. Residential patterns, land use, industrial siting, transportation, and housing policy are entangled. Visual overlap is consistent with many causal stories, including ones where neither variable affects the other.
Apparent relationships on a map are where environmental justice research starts. They help us ask questions, that we will then explore more deeply with futher mapping and spatial analysis techniques.
Review Questions (provide short responses in a word processing document)
Describe the spatial distribution (or geography of) race and ethnicity in the city. Incorporate your local knowledge if possible.
Save your map
→ Click the eye icon next to the layer to deselect, then move on to adding your next layer.
Official CDC datasets focused on health disparities were removed on Jan. 28th, 2025. ESRI initially created a backup but then removed this file for a number of weeks. It was added back to the ESRI Living Atlas data library during the summer of 2025.
You do not need these files for this activity, but as needed in the future, backups of these data can be found here: https://archive.org/download/20250128-cdc-datasets.
Asthma prevalence
→ On the left toolbar select “+ Add” → “Browse layers” → select “Living Atlas”
→ Search for “Asthma prevalence”
→ Select "PLACES: Local Data for Better Health" from the Centers for Disease Control
Dataset: PLACES: Local Data for Better Health (choose the most recent year available)
Indictor of interest contained in the layer: Asthma crude prevalence. The estimated annual prevalence rate (percentage) of adults aged 18 and over who report currently having asthma and also reported previously being told by a doctor/nurse/health professional that they had asthma.
Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control data product (link to metadata)
→ Click “Add to map”
→ Before moving on, click on the source link above to learn more about the data.
You have added a Group Layer. These contain several individual layers representing different geographic summary levels (e.g, data aggregated to state boundaries, county boundaries, and Zip code areas).
→ Click ont the three dot icon to the right of the group layer name, and ungroup the group layer by selecting
"Ungroup."
→ Using the three dot icon to the right of the individual layer name, remove all health data layers except the "Tracts" layer. Census Tracts are approximately the size of neighborhoods, and contain 1,200 - 8,000 people.
→ Rename the tracts layer to “Asthma prevalence (%)”
Next, you will symbolize (color) the layer by the attribute that represents the prevalence of asthma:
→ With the Asthma prevalence (%) layer selected in the layer list, click the “Styles” option on the right side
toolbar
→ Under step 1,
First, remove the "Lack of health insurance crude prevalence attribute
Next, click + Field and select the "Current asthma crude
prevalence (%)” attribute
→ Click Add
→ Under Step 2 Pick a style chose Counts and Amounts (color)
→ Select Style options
→ Click on Symbol style and choose a color scheme
→ Click “DONE”
→ Click ”DONE” again
Take some time to explore and compare the distribution of the indicators by turning the layers on and off.
Take note of what you see.
Review questions (provide short responses in a word processing document)
Describe the geography of asthma prevalence in your chosen city.
Is there any observable relationship between the spatial distribution of asthma and that of income or race/ethnicity?
Add a remotely sensed imagery layer
Add a remotely sensed imagery layer
Healthy vegetation data layer
Click the Add button again, and then click Browse Living Atlas Layers.
→ Search for USA NAIP Imagery.
→ Click the “USA NAIP Imagery: Color Infrared” layer, and click Add to Map.
Reading a color infrared image
Reading a color infrared image
This map is a false-color infrared image. In this type of image, healthy vegetation appears as bright red.
Note that this is not a photograph of what your eye would see. It is a false-color composite: the camera records near-infrared light, and the map displays that infrared band as red. Healthy plants reflect near-infrared strongly. The brighter and more saturated the red, the more actively growing vegetation is in that spot.
As with the previous two layers, navigate around the map and explore the image layer.
Review questions (provide short responses in a word processing document)
Describe the geography of healthy / unhealthy vegetation in your chosen area.
Is there any observable relationship between the spatial distribution of vegetitation health and the other indictors you have added?
Add a point layer: Toxic Release Inventory Sites
Add a point layer: Toxic Release Inventory Sites
→ Search the Living Atlas for “toxic release inventory” sites.
→ Add the “EPA Facility Registry Service - Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)” layer from EPA Geospatial.
→ Rename the layer with a shorter, descriptive title (e.g,, Toxic release facilities).
This layer provides facility information for the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). TRI is EPA's publicly available database that contains more than 650 toxic chemicals used by industry groups and federal facilities that are being manufactured, treated, transported, or released into the environment.
What TRI shows
Facilities report only if they hit certain thresholds: are in a covered idustrial sector, 10+ employees, listed chemical above a set amount. Small facilities, uncovered sectors, agriculture, and traffic are all absent.
The numbers are self-reported estimates. A point is an address, not an exposure — releases travel. Pounds are not risk.
An area having no TRI points does not mean no pollution.
Save your map!
Review questions (provide short responses in a word processing document)
Are there any areas with a high concentration of TRI sites?
Is there any relationship between the location of TRI sites and the other data layers you have explored?
You have now successfully added different types of geographic data layers to your GIS map. Once you've saved your map, it appears in Content and you can edit the item details.
Submit on Brightspace
Submit on Brightspace
A word processing document (Google Doc or Word doc) with your response to the questions posed throughout the tutorial
The URL link for your Web Map. Copy and paste the url into the word processing document you submit.
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