As I mentioned in
my previous blog post, for my Independent Research Project this semester I am working with a database of water quality data obtained by water quality volunteers with the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach. This data was collected between Jan 2013 and Oct 2014. In addition to this database, OCE1001 and OCE2013 Lab students have performed water quality sampling and analysis on the Tomoka River in Oct 2014, and Feb 2015.
Although I have not appropriately narrowed down the focus of my IRP, I have decided that I will be using ArcGIS 10.0 software to combine the data with a spatial component and create some type of water quality map that can be accessed by anyone who would like to access it.
So as a preliminary step, I have begun to start manipulating the data so that I will eventually be able to import the entire spreadsheet into ArcGIS. This is a major selling point, since ArcGIS is capable of importing data from a number of different sources; such as Oracle Databases, Access Databases, Excel Spreadsheets, and even CSV (comma separated value) Files. The first item I had to manipulate was the list of locations where the samples were obtained. In most cases, the Latitude and Longitude coordinates of the location were recorded in Degrees/Minutes/Seconds. In order to import the locations into ArcGIS however, the locations must first be converted into Decimal Degrees. This is quite simple, as there are 60 seconds in one minute, and 60 minutes in one degree. To convert to Decimal Degrees, first the seconds are divided by 60 to obtain the decimal value, which is then added to the minutes. The minutes+decimal are then divided by 60 once again to obtain the full decimal value which is then added to the degrees. This gives a full Decimal Degrees value which can then be imported as a point into ArcGIS.
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| All 31 water quality testing sites relative to map of Volusia County |
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| Zoomed in on the layer of testing sites |
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| Tomoka River Water Quality OCE1001/2013 Lab testing sites |
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| Same sites, different base map |
Janice P. Sec. 50. When you say water quality, what does that mean? What data will you be showing us?
ReplyDeleteSandy R. section 65. I have absolutely no idea what ArcGIS is. I see you have a bunch of maps posted but I don't know how you put data on them or how anyone would use this. Mind explaining?
ReplyDelete