LAB 5: Network Analysis
Instructions below updated for ArcGIS 9.3
Click here for ArcGIS 9.1/9.2 version
Suggested time for completion: One week
ArcGIS 9 provides fairly comprehensive utilities
for network analysis. This lab is designed to introduce you to the basics
of networks, including setting them up for analysis, and actually using them.
Answer question 1: Provide at least one example of a network analysis problem for five of the above listed trace tasks (find common ancestors, find connected, etc.) |
While the network functions in ArcGIS 9 are primarily designed for work with utilities (as can be seen in the build geometric network wizard's text that "a geometric network allows you to model the behavior of utility networks such as electrical or water networks), the included network tools can be used to an extent on any suitable data. For this lab, we will be creating a highway network and exploring network capabilities for transportation.
Download the data here (2.4 Mb) into your local work folder.
In this lab, we will be building a transportation
network based on a highway coverage for the the Pacific Northwest (asmnt_st).
This network will allow us to find the "best" path to various locations.
Answer question 2: Why did we set the new Time_Used field to
type Float? Why not Binary, Number, or Integer?
Answer question 3: What formula did you enter into the field calculator to calculate the new Time_Used value (write it as you entered it)? Why do we want to use this value, rather than either Speed_Limi or Length_Miles alone? |
Possible bugs:
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5.4.3 Setting up the highway network DISTANCE ED STUDENTS: STOP HERE! If you are using the student version of ArcGIS 9, sent to you by E-Campus, please use these substitute instructions from this point in the lab onward. And see here for the fix to a possible bug. All other students, PRESS ON!
You do not want complex edges in your network, the network features do not need to be snapped, and we want to use weights (Speed_limi: type integer, LENGTH: type single, and TIME: type single. Do not fill in the bitgate size field. To add a new weight, click on the icon). Select next, and assign weights to the fields
in the feature class as follows: Select next until you finish Note - If you did not define your fields with the correct type (i.e. integer, float, etc..) you may have trouble with this step. Finish the network building. If you bring up your geodatabase again in ArcCatalog, you will see new icons representative of the newly created network. |
Now open ArcMap, and add the highway network
feature dataset (the one you just created). With the dataset added, you
should have both highway junctions and edges displayed.
5.4.4 Displaying the highway network
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5.4.5 Network analysis
We are now going to run some simulations with
the network analyst. You are now the proud owner of the Pacific
Northwest Hazardous Waste Delivery Service. Your fleet of trucks needs
careful planning to ship deadly toxins from municipal HazMat sites to
regional centers. In our first case, a research hospital in Seattle
has a large supply of slightly radioactive heavy metals from their new
x-ray laboratory. You need to determine the most efficient route to
transport the material to the regional center located in Ogden, Utah..
Go ahead and place the Seattle and Ogden junction flags. Select "Find Path" as the trace task, and
click on the "solve" button. . The results might be difficult
to see unless your roads are not too coarsely displayed. |
Answer question 4: What did this do? What does the path look like (where does it go)? What might be "wrong" with this path in terms of it being the shortest route? |
Find path (part 2) Now let's try running the same analysis, except using the weight fields that we created earlier in the lab. To set up the network to use the weights, click on Network Analyst Toolbar --> Analysis --> Options. Select the Weights tab. Under "Edge weights" set both to-from and from-to weights to Speed_Limi. Since we do not have any junction weights, leave the junction weight as <None>. Click on OK. Now re-run the find path operation. Try calculating the path using each of the three weights that we set up (SPEED_LIMI, TIME, LENGTH). |
Answer question 5: Describe the difference between the paths created using the three different weights. Why do you think they differed? Which one should we use for our path to the waste facility? |
Barriers! Unfortunately for our company, the poor condition of the bridges in Oregon have made it politically impossible to send our waste through Oregon. The risk of an accident is too high according to the Oregon department of environmental quality. A path should be found with barriers in place.
Side trips Create a multi-stop path (or a path that must go through certain junctions) - simply place a junction flag on the junctions to be visited -- remember that the flags must be placed in the order that the stops will be made.
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Your map for Lab 5: Make a map of the journey to turn in. |
Answer question 6: You have been hired to do network analysis to coordinate delivery for a local pizza parlor. What data sets would you need/want, what would the data sets need to contain (i.e., what fields would you require for your analysis), and how would you set up the network for use? (This question requires a fairly detailed answer so spend a bit of time thinking about this one.) |
In this lab, you learned about basic network analysis --
including creating and setting up a network -- in ArcGIS 9.
Lab originally created by Nicholas Matzke and Sarah Battersby
UC Santa Barbara, Department of Geography
© Regents of the University of California; redistributed by permission
Modified by Dawn Wright, Jeremiah Knoche, Michele Dailey, and Tracy Kugler, OSU Geosciences
http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/buffgis/Arc9Labs/Lab5/lab5.html