The purpose of this assignment is to explore the distribution of poverty rate in southeast Pennsylvania as it relates to school districts.
Method
I. Before attempting any operations in ArcMap we must first make sure the projected coordinate system for the “tracts” and “school districts” shape files are in the standard form. We use “NAD 1983 UTM” for the majority of maps.
a. If the file does not have coordinates or is “unknown” we have to change them so they are using the correct coordinates. Check coordinates by right-clicking on the file and selecting Properties, then Source and look at the Geographic Coordinate system.
b. If “”: go to toolbox Data Management tools Projections and Transformations Define Projection. Then drag the file into the Input Dataset or Feature Class spot. Below and to the right click the icon with the hand and paper to select a location where you’re mapping (NAD1983). Coordinate system should be set.
c. This can only be performed on a G:\ file (flash drive) and not the S:\ drive so name it something like Tracts_Project.
d. Repeat for the school districts file.
e. Now drag the new projected files into ArcMap along with the sf3_tracts3 file.
II. Join the sf3_tracts table to the tracts_utm shape file tables.
a. In the ArcMap Table of Contents, right click on tracts, choose ‘Joins and Relates’, and then choose ‘Join’.
b. At the very top drop down menu choose ‘Join attributes from a table’.
c. For number 1, choose ‘STFID’. The field will serve as the basis for us to join the sf3_tracts database file to the tracts shape file table. For number 2, choose ‘sf1_tracts’. This is the table to join onto the tracts shape file table. For number 3, choose ‘STFID’. This is the field in the sf1_tracts table used for the join.
d. Press the OK button (click Yes on the pop up window)
III. Calculate the poverty rates by first creating a new field (call it something like PovRate) in the attribute table.
a. Open the tracts shape file attribute table. In the upper left hand corner select the Table Options menu and click “Add Field” and make sure the “Float” option is selected as the type.
b. Next Select by attribute those tracts for which the poverty level has been checked for at least 1 person (P087001>0) [If you don’t do this step, you will be attempting to divide by 0]. Enter "sf3_tracts.P087001" > 0 and press okay.
c. Now that the tracts are selected, right click on the tracts layer and export it by going down to Data Export data. Save it as something like AllBut0. Then turn off the tract file.
d. Now open the AllBut0 attribute table and calculate the PovRate field. First, right click on the field and click on “Field Calculator.” PovRate = P087002/P087001.
e. Right click the PovRate field and sort in descending order. Manually select the top 5 values on the table. Once the top 5 are selected, create another layer by exporting the data again and name it something like Top 5. Clear selection.
IV. The next goal is to find the individual school districts that intersect with the top 5 most impoverished tracts.
a. Use a Select by location to highlight the school districts that are related to the top 5 most impoverished tracts.
b. For the target layer, select the school districts layer and select the Top 5 layer as the source. The related school districts should be selected.
c. Create another layer for the individually selected school districts by right clicking on the school districts layer and exporting the data