GIS 5050 Week 5 - Adding XY Data Points and Geocoding

 


During week 5 the lab assignment had two parts. The first part of the assignment focused on adding XY data to a map and the second part of the assignment asked students to geocode school buildings in Manatee County, Florida. Both parts of the assignment taught students that data often comes in formats that are not "ready-made", such as shapefiles or feature classes. Often the data is tabular or has to be made tabular to be used in a GIS. For the first part of the assignment we input coordinate information into an Excel file and saved it as a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file that could be loaded in ArcGIS Pro. This also included using the Project Tool to give the data the appropriate projection/spatial reference. 

Part two of the assignment, which focused on geocoding, was a bit more intensive. Once the raw tabular data about the schools in Manatee County, Fl, was obtained students had to modify the data in Excel to make it usable in an address locator. We were also introduced to TIGER/LINE shapefiles consisting of reliable address data from the US Census Bureau Geography Program. The tabular school data, along with the TIGER/LINE shapefiles were used to geocode the school locations. This assignment definitely provided a bit of a challenge as we encountered issues, such as schools having a postal address but no street address or street addresses not having the proper suffix as a part of the address. However, it was a great learning experience and I definitely have a few new tricks in Excel to add to my repertoire.  My geocoded Manatee County School data can be seen in the image above but is best viewed  via web map at  https://arcg.is/1LbDW1. 

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