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Built Environment 3
Background
Built Environment, Part 3 (ArcGIS) See the Guide and video for ArcGIS in the Toolbox within the course in 2BU. Increasingly in public health, mapping tools are being used to better understand where people live and the resources (e.g., parks) available to them within their communities. ArcGIS is one mapping tool that is available for examining the availability of resources as well as the demographic make-up of an area. ArcGIS can be used to identify high-risk populations to target for community health interventions. For example, the health status of low socioeconomic status (SES) communities is worse off than higher SES communities. Since income is a significant predictor of health outcomes, public health practitioners often use US Census Data to identify low SES areas for community-level health interventions. For this part of the built environment assignment, students will become familiar with ArcGIS.
Assignment
Students will need to use ArcGIS to identify 4 parks in their selected community that will later be used to conduct a “virtual assessment” using the PARA tool (Built Environment, Part 5).
Deliverables
Students will submit a document (MS Word or PDF format) with screenshots of three maps that include:
- A map that includes 4 labeled parks AND population density
- A map that includes 4 labeled parks AND income level
- A map that includes 4 labeled parks AND education level information for your community of focus.
For each map, include information about the income level, education level, and population density for the parks (see example in the Toolbox).
| Data Category | Description |
|---|---|
| ArcGIS Online Data |
What are they? These are streaming layers that can be included in our map. Does it cost any money? These are 100% free to use. Is it easy to use? The very easiest. Who creates this data? ESRI (the company who creates ArcGIS) populates a lot of the available data. Additionally, anyone with an ESRI account (including you all) can publish data via ArcGIS Online.
Are there disadvantages? Yes! There is very little analysis that can be conducted on data accessed this way. No worries though, as we are not conducting any analysis today. |
| Basemap | A basemap is the underlying map image that all other data is overlaid. |
| ACS (American Community Survey) | Beginning in 2010, the Census ACS survey replaced the Decennial Census for sampled research data. This is what we will use for income and education data. |
| Steps | Images |
|---|---|
| Step #1: Launch ArcGIS Online and Log In |  |
| Step #2: Click Map |  |
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Step #3: Save Map so there are less possible unfortunate accidents Any name you like is fine. |
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Step #4: Enable Search Bar to we can then Zoom to Houston, Texas |
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| Step #5: In the search box, type Houston. The pause a moment and select Houston, TX, USA. |  |
| Step #6: Explore other basemaps |  |
| Steps | Images |
|---|---|
| Step #1: Click the plus and select Browse Layers. |  |
| Step #2: Change My Content to ArcGIS Online. |  |
| Step #3: Search for Education. |  |
| Step #4: Click ACS Educational Attainment Variables - Boundaries. |  |
| Step #5: Read description and click Add to Map. |  |
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Step #5: Click Layers and then expand the ACS layer.
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| Step #6: Click the Legend icon to view the legend. |  |
Repeat steps for Adding ACS Education Data, but this time for ACS Medium Household Income.
| Steps | Images |
|---|---|
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Step #1: Two Ways to Toggle Visibility of Income and Education
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Repeat steps for Adding Data, but this time for 2021 USA Population Density.
Repeat steps for Adding Data, but this time for USA Parks.
| Steps | Images |
|---|---|
| Step #1: Click the Layers icon to view the four layers on our map. |  |
| Step #2: Click on a park polygon to view information about that park. |  |
| Step #3: Add a Sketch Layer to manually add a label. |  |
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Step #4: Add a pin for our park.
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Step #5: Add a label on our pin. Four Steps
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(Optional) Step #6: To continue to modify this Sketch Layer:
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Repeat for three additional parks.
Students will submit a document (MS Word or PDF format) with screenshots of three maps that include:
- A map that includes 4 labeled parks AND population density
- A map that includes 4 labeled parks AND income level
- A map that includes 4 labeled parks AND education level information for your community of focus.
| Steps | Images |
|---|---|
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Step #1: Click the Print icon on the left.
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Step #2: Configure Map
Then click Export. The link will appear below. It may take a few moments until the image is built. |
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