Getting Started with Living Atlas

Assignment Introduction:

This lab is an introduction to ArcGIS Living Atlas. Living Atlas is an online layer catalog that can be used in making maps or analyzing data. The tutorial followed in this assignment was created by ArcGIS to teach users how to use the program. Figure 1 shows the home screen for the Living Atlas Website.

Figure 1. Living Atlas Website 

One of the layers explored in the tutorials is Soil Moisture 2000-Present. The layers located in the atlas must meet certain requirements set by ArcGIS, such as metadata. Figure 2 shows the soil moisture, which was curated by NASA. Another example of a layer located in the atlas is the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). This layer classifies land cover into different categories. This layer is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2. Soil Moisture 2000-Present

Figure 3. NLCD of Las Vegas

The Living Atlas can be very useful when combining different layers to convey data. The example used in this tutorial was using ArcGIS to help decide where to allocate resources during hurricanes. To do this, the path of Hurricane Irma was used. Another layer, Nursing Homes, was also added to show which nursing homes were going to be affected by the hurricane. Figure 4 shows this layout showing which nursing homes are in the risk area. 

Figure 4. Nursing Homes in the path of Hurricane Irma

One other good resource is Learn ArcGIS. This online website has many different lessons that can teach the program. Some of the lessons that I found interesting are:

•   Estimate Storage Capacity with Drone Imagery
• This lesson teaches you how to convert drone imagery into elevation layers using Drone2Map, this lesson interests me cause I think that its something practical that i could use. 
• Prepare for Search and Rescue Incidents
• This lesson teaches how to create a boundary map used in SAR operations. This relates to me as I am involved in a search and rescue organization. 
• Create an App
• You can use ArcGIS to create apps which can be utilized to show data more easily, this lesson shows how to create a app from using an online map. this could be useful to show clients data in a unique way.
• Georeference Imagery in ArcGIS Pro
• This lesson shows how you can slightly adjust raster data using photogrammetry which will line up with other GIS data. This is important because you need your data to be accurate before doing anything else. 
• Estimate Solar Power Potential
• This lesson shows a user how to show how much solar radiations the rooftops receive each year. This also seems that it could be very practical, something that could actually be done. 

Assignment Methods:

Another task included in this assignment was to created a map that used at least 5 layers from the Living Atlas. Here is the list of layers used in my map:

• US State Borders
• US Airports 
• US Healthcare Facilities
• US Major Interstates
• US Private Schools

Figure 5 shows the map created, which is select infrastructure in the state of Rhode Island. 

Figure 5. Select infrastructure in Rhode Island 

Assignment Conclusions:

Overall, this assignment showed exactly how useful the Living Atlas can be when creating maps, it can save you the time of having to gather certain information yourself.