Data Gathering

Goals and Objectives: The goal of this lab was to download data from different sources on the web and to use this data in ArcGIS for creating a geodatabase. Also we learned more about using the Python Script which we used in projecting the data. The data we had to collect was for Trempealeau County, WI. Frac sand mining is a hot topic in this county, so I downloaded data that would help show how the mining is effecting the environment surrounding the mining sites.

General Methods: To obtain this data I went on five different websites that had information on the elevation, crop cover, land cover, railroad network, and the geodatabase for Trempealeau County, WI. The data downloaded off the site was delivered as a .zip file. I needed to extract the zip files to my working folder in order to view them properly. The websites that were used were the US Department of Transportation, the USGS National Map Viewer, the USDA Geospatial Data Gateway, the Trempealeau County Land Records, and the USDA NRCS Web Soil Survey. The links to the websites can be found below this paragraph.

Links

US Department of Transportation- http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_atlas_database/2014/polyline

USGS National Map Viewer- http://nationalmap.gov/viewer.html

USDA Geospatial Data Gateway- http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

Trempealeau County Land Records- http://www.tremplocounty.com/landrecords/

 

 

USDA NRCS Web Soil Survey- http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

 

 

 

Map Layers:

 

Cropland Cover from NASS raster

Land Cover from NLCD raster

Elevation from DEM raster




 Data Accuracy:

 

 

 

Conclusion: Some datasets are easier to find than others. Sometimes you can't find them at all and it makes the process more difficult for people who want to know if the data they are using is legitimate. This data could throw off the project and lead to many errors along the way. More websites need to start completing their metadata so that others can count on them as being a reliable source.