Exercise 5.

Map projection and Geo-referencing an Image

All the data for this Exercise are located in the directory \D\GIS Training\ Exercise 5 file
folder.

5.1 Changing projection (Define Projection and Project/raster project)

You have a shapefile and it’s looking a bit out place. The data is not where it should be on the
map. What should you do when a shapefile is located in the wrong location? When working with
ArcGIS projections, you need to run the define projection tool or the project tool. Which one do
you need though?

Define Projection Tool

“Define Projection” in ArcGIS is what you use when the data has no defined coordinate
system. The ArcGIS error message would look like: “Unknown Spatial Reference”.

When you run the “Define Projection” tool, the tool does not change the projection. It only
changes the metadata describing the current projection of the dataset. The metadata that
this tool creates is a .prj, .tfw, .aux within your existing dataset.

Steps:

1. Open ArcMap  add ‘Top_BahirDar1.tif’  accept the error message by clicking Ok

2. Right click on the layer  properties  view the information embedded under source tab
Question 5. 1: Does the map has spatial reference?

3. Search for Define Projection tool by inserting this key word in search window
4. Click the define projection tool from Data Management toolbox
5. Browse to your working directory and add Top_BahirDar1.tif as input feature
dataset/feature class

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6. Define the coordinate system by clicking spatial reference browser
7. Projected Coordinate SystemsUtmWGS 1984WGS 1984 UTM Zone 37NOK
8. Check again the data source and its spatial reference from properties dialogbox.

Project Tool

The ArcGIS Project tool changes the projected coordinate system of your data to another
coordinate system. For example, you have a dataset that is currently in latitude and longitude
(projected coordinate system) called D_WGS_1984. If you want to transform this data to
Cartesian coordinate system WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_37N. The “Project” tool in ArcGIS should
be used in this [Link] Project tool changes the projected coordinate system in the shape file,
geodatabase, raster, etc
Steps:
1. Navigate to ArcToolbox→Data Management Tools→ Projection and transformations
double click raster project tool (Search for raster Project).
2. Click the browse button and navigate to the D:\GIS Training\ add T0p_BahirDar2.tif
Question 5.2: What do you understand from the map displayed and the source layer of the
datasets properties.
3. Browse button and navigate to your working directory  type the output name as
‘a1_BDT0P’
4. Set the output Coordinate System as. Projected Coordinate SystemsUtmWGS
1984WGS 1984 UTM Zone 37NOK
5. Or, you can click Import and choose the data source whose coordinate system you want to
copy.
6. OK
7. Next time the dataset is added to ArcMap, it will be projected accordingly.
Question 5.3: Compare both dataset. What do you conclude?

5.2 Geo-referencing an Image

Background

Geo-referencing tool in ESRI ArcGIS is important to geo-reference, or, to fit a map into a known
coordinate system. The geo-referencing tool gallows the alignment of images to a known map
coordinate system, which is defined by the map or Ground Control points (GCPs).

This exercise describes how to georeference a digital image (raster data set) in ArcMap. In some
cases, one of your data sources may be in the form of a paper map, a scanned version of a paper
map, or some other digital image which does not contain spatial reference information. Scanning
a paper map produces a raster data set that can then be used in a GIS project, once it has been
georeferenced.

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In general, the georeferencing involves the following steps:

1. Identification of appropriate reference data.

 You need a georeferenced data set in the desired coordinate system (preferably the
same as your scanned map ) which you will use to align with and georeference your
raster data (target data).
 Or you need labeled coordinates on the scanned image/map with X and Y
values.
2. Selection of control points (based on common features)
3. Transformation of the target data to align with the reference data.
4. If you plan to use your newly-georeferenced raster for analysis, or in some other GIS
program that does not recognize the georeferencing information created by ArcMap, you
should rectify it.

For this training we will going to use single spatially unreferenced Topo map of Bahir Dar
area (D|GIS Training\Exercise 5\ T0p_BahirDar.tif) . Follow the steps:

1. Open ArcMap  Click Customize  toolbars  Click Georeferencing

2. Add a raster image to your Arc Map window from (D: \GIS Training\Exercise
5\T0p_BahirDar3.tif). You may get a message asking if you want to build
pyramids; click Yes. You will also get a message stating that spatial reference information
is missing. Click OK.
3. Add Ethio town shadflies to your ArcMap window again.

Question 5.4. Is their spatial agreement between the two layers? If No, why?

4. Right click on T0p_BahirDar3.tif from Arc Map window  Data frame properties 
coordinate system  set the Projected coordinate system to WGS 1984 UTM zone 37N.
5. Select Top_BahirDar3.tif as indicated bellow.
6. Click on Georeferencing  Uncheck the box in front of Auto Adjust not to update the
display with each link.

Selection of control points

7. Select at least four Ground control points (GCP) from the four Corners of
Top_BahirDar3.tif image.
Exercise 5.4: Fill in the table bellow based on example provided for GCP1

GCP X (Easting) Y (Northing)

1 310000 1272000
2
3
4

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 Adding GCP

8. Zoom in to your GCP one and Click on the align (Add control point) button
Your cursor becomes sign
9. Click on intersection point of X and Y values  then right click and select Input X
and Y and enter the X and Y target locations in to the dialog  ok
10. If you made a mistake while digitizing or if the intersection point is not properly
placed then  right  click cancel point

11. Repeat step 8 and 9 to enter GCP2, 3 and 4. You need a minimum of three links for a first-
order transformation, six links for a second order, and 10 links for a third order. Higher
orders can fit a more complicated surface to the input points. A first order transformation is
sufficient for our purposes.
12. Open the 'View Link Table'. select Georeferencing  click Update Display to view
your results.
13. See the Total RMSE for the whole and residual error of each link from the table.
14. If Residual of some of the points is too high, select the bad link  click on Zoom to
selected link  and click on the 'X' to delete the link (delete link),
15. Re-digitize the GCP again and check RMS error. If RMSE is acceptable proceed to the
next step.
16. Click Georeferencing and click Update Georeferencing to save the transformation
information you made. DO NOT CLICK UPDATE GEOREFERENCING MORE
THAN ONCE. This will result in the image being distorted. If you mistakenly do this,
remove the layer and delete the accessory .tfw and .aux files from the data folder before
reloading the data (The files will be rebuilt using internal information).

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 Image Rectification

You can permanently save the transformation of the image itself by selecting Rectify from the
Georeferencing menu, if you plan to perform analysis with it or want to use it with another
software package. For data that represents discrete or “thematic” values (as with a land use/land
cover map) choose the nearest neighbor resample type. The other resample types are for
continuous data types like satellite imagery and aerial photos, which will “smooth” the values for
each cell.

Steps:

17. Click on Georeferencing→Rectify

18. When using the rectify tool, First change the Output Location (a folder) to your ‘Exercise
five’ DIRECTORY -- THEN you are able to change the format to 'TIFF'. Use all of the other
defaults before you click 'Save'.
19. Add the file you saved with default (T0p_BahirDar1.img) name from your folder called
Exercise five.

Exercise 5.5

1. What difference do you found between the Original image and the rectified one?
2. What GIS-related problem did you encounter during the GIS software georeferencing
process? __________________________________________________________________
3. When georeferencing an image, why do you think it is important to collect detailed
descriptive attribute information along with the spatial information?
__________________________________________________________________
4. What does a low RMS value indicate; does it imply an accurate registration and hence good
rectification results? Why?

Tips: A low RMS error should not be confused with an accurate rectification. For example,
using the minimum number of control points required by the used transformation function, zero
RMS should be given. Nevertheless, the transformation may contain substantial errors, because
the fact that the function perfectly fits this minimum number of points does not mean that also
fits the rest of the map. In fact, the RMSE only indicates how well the transformation function
could be calibrated to the control points.

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Exercise 6. Creating a new shapefile and digitizing basics in ArcMap

Before creating shapefile you have to think what feature type you are going to digitize (e.g.
point, line and polygone) and the extent of your scale. Now we want to digitize four features (
lake, road, contour line, river and tukul) from rectified image of Bahir Dar area Topo map.

6.1 create a new shapefile (features)

We will be creating our shapefile within ArcCatalog and then adding it to ArcMap
1. Click ArcCatalog button from open ArcMap project.
2. Navigate to you working directory structured to the right of the widow. If not connected
right click on Folder Connection and connect to your folder called Exercise 6.
3. Right click on the folder where you would like to create the new shapefile (For our case
select Exercise 6)  NewShapefile
4. In the Create New Shapefile Dialog, write a file name (E.g. Lake) in the Name box.
5. Next we must tell the computer whether we are creating a point file, a polyline file, or a
polygon file. Choose polygone in the ‘Feature Type’ dropdown box .
6. Choose a projection by clicking the edit… button.

We also have the option to tell the computer the coordinate system we wish the data to be
displayed in.

7. Select the edit button. The Spatial Reference Properties dialog box will open.
8. Choose the Select button to choose a predefined coordinate system.
9. Open the Projected Coordinate SystemsUtmWGS 1984Northern Hemisphere
 WGS 1984 UTM Zone 37N  ok. Although ArcMap can “project on the fly” it is
important to use the same projection for all map layers in a project in order to preserve
accuracy .
10. Once you have returned to the Spatial Reference Properties dialog box click ‘OK’.

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The Lake file now appears in the Contents Tab of the Catalog Display. We can now create the
column headings (fields) for our attribute table that we insert information after digitizing. To add
filed follow the steps.

1. Double click on the ‘Lake’ file in the contents tab of the catalog display. The Shapefile
Properties dialog box opens.
2. Select the Fields tab. The fields titled FID, Shape, and id are automatically added to each
shapefile. We are going to add a field.
OR Open attribute table of “Lake” from layer  Click table option  select Add field as
you did last week.
3. Select the box in the Field Name column under Id. You can now type directly into the box.
4. Call this field “Lake_name”
NB: When creating new fields, keep in mind that ArcGIS will reject titles that have too many
characters and titles with spaces.
5. In the Data Type, select Text from the drop-down box.
6. Under Field Properties we may choose the number of characters to be allowed in this field.
For our purposes we will keep the default of 50.
7. Click ‘OK’
Exercise 6.1 Add another field called Lake Area and Lake depth repeating step 3 to 5.

Exercise 6.2 Apply the above procedure and create shapefile of Road, Contour, Church and
Tukul,

We are now going to add our new shapefile (Lake, Road, Contour, church and Tukul) to
ArcMap. When we add the new shapefiles it will appear in the table of contents but nothing will
appear on the screen. This is because we have not yet created any points for our shapefile.

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Open new ArcMap from  Select the add data button  Navigate to your working directory 
press CTRL and select all shapefiles you just created Click ‘Add’.

6.2 Manual (on-screen) digitizing

Add the rectified Bahir Dar area image from Exercise 5. In order to digitize new features from
the map Editor tool bar have to be activated.

1. Add the rectified imageas a base layer and the newly created shapefiles on top.
2. Bring up the Editor toolbar by right-clicking anywhere on the top button bar of ArcMap
and choosing Editor.
OR go to the menu bar and select Customize Toolbars  Editor

3. From the Editor toolbar select Editor > Start Editing. The computer may will ask you
which file you wish to edit. Select theshapefile you want to digitize.
NB: For a polygon, single-click each node and double-click to close the polygon. For a
line, single-click each node and double-click to finish. For a point, click once for each
feature. Choose stop digitizing in the Editor button when complete

4. Activate snapping toolbar. Click on the Editor drop-down menu  Snapping click on
the snapping toolbar.
5. On the Editor Toolbar select the task Create New Feature by clicking on this icon:

6. A “Create Features” window will open on the right side of the screen. We will be creating
points, so you may need to click the drop-down and choose Filter By > Point as shown
below. Or click on Tukul shapefile  click on Point from Construction tool

7. Now the point icon on your Editor toolbar should be active. Click Tukul  click on Point
icon from Construction tool o. You’ll notice that your cursor changes to an arrow with a
point.

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8. On main toolbar click Window Magnifier to open Magnifier window
The magnifier window works like a magnifying glass: as you pass the window over the
data, you see a magnified view of the location under the window. Moving the window does
not affect the current map display.

9. By zooming in to Tukuls from the image draw a point over top of each. To place a new
point on the map, left click once with the mouse. Each time you click on the map it will
create a new point.
10. Save you edits at every interval save what you did, if your computer turns off due to light.
To save go back to the Editor Toolbar and select Editor  Save Edits.
11. Right-click on the RED vertex while you are digitizing to get extra commands:
o Delete vertex  removes the last vertex you digitized
o FlipChange the direction of the [Link]. Takes you to the beginning of the
sketch you are digitizing
o Trimremoves a user specified portion from the sketch you are digitizing
o Delete Sketchremoves the sketch you are digitizing
o Finish part finish creating a part of a feature, so you can add another with the
same attribute

12. When you have finished placing all of your points on the map, go back to the Editor
Toolbar and select Editor > Save Edits.
13. After you have saved your edits select Editor Stop Editing.
14. Uncheck all layers except Tukul and you will see that the shapefile you created now
contains the points you traced.
15. Right click on Tukul  Open Attribute Table. The new points also show in your attribute
table.
16. From here we will input the fields (E.g. house hold names, family size ….. ) that you
might collect from the field or the map.

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Exercise 6.3 Digitize road, contour, lake and church. Add attribute information of each feature to
the attribute table of each.

6.3 Create new feature by removing existing common boundaries between different
Regions

1. Create Eth_Region shapefile and add to Arc map

2. Add Ethio_regions shape file
3. Click on the ‘Select Features’ icon
4. Hold down the shift button on your keyboard and left click on all regions one by one
5. If the editor toolbar is not visible, go to the menu bar and select ‘Customize > Toolbars >
Editor’.
6. Once your Editor toolbar is visible, select Editor Start Editing.
7. The computer will ask you which folder you wish to edit within. Click on the Eth_Region
shapefile you created
8. This will cause the software to choose the correct source data for that shapefile to edit.
9. Click OK to close the dialog box.
10. Go to the Editor Toolbar once again and select Editor > Union.
11. Click the ‘Clear Selected Features’ icon
All of the regions we selected are now visible as one single region within the Eth_Region
shapefile.

6.4 Editing existing features

Modifications to an existing layer can be made using the Modify Feature task, rather than
Create New Feature. Using the Edit Tool individual vertices can be moved, added or
deleted. Right-click the vertices with the edit tool to see all options available.

1. Edito  start editing

2. Click on the target feature(shapefile) you want to modify from upper right corner (E.g Lake)

3. Click on Edit Button

4. Click on a feature (Lake) to be modified from the screen (Notice that the vertices become
visible)
5. Click on any Vertex and Right-click on it
6. This pops up a number of editing commands
Delete→ removes the selected vertex
Trim→ removes a user-defined length from the selected feature
Flip→ toggles between the start and end of the feature
Properties→ displays the coordinates of the vertices that make up the selected
Feature.
7. When finished click on Editor →Stop Editing →Yes

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