Manage data

In ArcGIS Pro, you typically work in a project that is saved on your computer. However, you don't always need to save a project. Sometimes your tasks involve data preparation and management, and you don't need to make maps or solve analysis problems. In these situations, you can start ArcGIS Pro without creating a project. You can then process your data and close the application without saving a project.

Overview

Manage data overview video

• Video length: 3:44.
• This video was created with ArcGIS Pro 2.3.

In this tutorial, you'll work with a number of datasets potentially useful to environmental restoration projects in and around the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. You'll preview and explore the data, examine its metadata, clip it to a focused area of interest, and process it for consistency of format and spatial reference. The goal is to organize a streamlined data collection in a geodatabase that can be shared by GIS professionals working on related projects in the same geographic area.

• Estimated time: 60 minutes (including optional section)
• Software requirements:
  • ArcGIS Pro

Download the data

The magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22, 2011, killed 185 people and caused massive property damage. In some badly damaged parts of the city, rebuilding houses and infrastructure was not a realistic option.

A building in the New Brighton neighborhood of Christchurch following the February 22, 2011, earthquake is shown. Photograph by Martin Luff. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons and used under the Creative Commons 2.0 license.

In one such area, the Otakaro Avon River Corridor, a plan was developed to create a green spine of walkways, biking trails, and wetlands leading from the Avon River to the sea. Elsewhere in the city and surrounding area, many biodiversity and restoration projects are being carried out.

You'll download data potentially relevant to restoration projects in and around Christchurch. The data comes from different sources, has different spatial extents and coordinate systems, and is in different file formats.

Note:

This tutorial uses a Microsoft Excel file. To work with Excel files in ArcGIS Pro, the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 driver must be installed on your computer. To check whether it's installed, in the Windows taskbar search box, type Settings. In the Apps & features pane, search for Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016. If it isn't there, see Guide to connecting to Excel files in ArcGIS Pro for installation instructions.

1. Go to the Manage data overview page on ArcGIS Online.
2. Click Download on the right side of the page.
3. In the Downloads folder on your computer, right-click Manage_data.zip and extract it to a convenient location, such as C:\Temp.

   Note:

   This tutorial is a learning exercise. However, the earthquake restoration projects in and around Christchurch—including the Otakaro Avon River Corridor Regeneration Plan—are real and ongoing. Information about the 2011 earthquake is available from many sources, including the Wikipedia 2011 Christchurch earthquake article.

Start ArcGIS Pro without a template

When you start ArcGIS Pro without a template, you are not prompted to create a project. However, you have the option to save your work as a project at any time during your ArcGIS Pro session.

This tutorial assumes that you are using some default application settings. You'll check these settings and change them if necessary before you start to work.

1. Start ArcGIS Pro and sign in if necessary.
2. On the start page, in the lower left corner, click Settings . (If you have a project open, click the Project tab instead.)
3. On the settings page, click the Options tab on the left. On the Options dialog box, under Application, click General.
4. Under Set general options for ArcGIS Pro, expand Start ArcGIS Pro. If necessary, click Show the start page.
5. Expand Create projects. Under Geodatabase, if necessary, click New default geodatabase for each project.

   

6. On the Options dialog box, under Application, click Metadata. If necessary, set Metadata style to Item Description.
7. Click OK.
8. If you changed either the start page setting or the default geodatabase setting, exit and restart ArcGIS Pro. Otherwise, click Back at the top of the settings page.
9. On the start page, under New, in the list of blank templates, click Start without a template (you can save it later).

   

   The application opens with no open views.

   Note:

   If you already have a project open, click the Project tab on the ribbon. On the settings page, click New on the left. Under Project Templates, click Start without a template (you can save it later). If you are prompted to save changes, click Yes or No according to your preference.

Add a folder connection

You'll open the catalog view, make a folder connection to the tutorial data, and browse the data.

1. On the ribbon, click the View tab. In the Windows group, click Reset Panes and click Reset Panes for Geoprocessing.

   This ensures that the Contents, Catalog, and Geoprocessing panes are open and that other panes are closed.

2. On the View tab, in the Windows group, click Catalog View .

   The catalog view opens. On the ribbon, the Catalog tab appears. The Contents pane updates to show the contents of the catalog.

   Note:

   The catalog view and Catalog pane are complementary. They have some functionality in common, but certain tasks, such as previewing data, can only be done in the catalog view. In this tutorial, you'll work with both the view and the pane. You'll also interact with the catalog through the Contents pane, which shows the contents of the active view, whether it's a map, a layout, or the catalog.

3. Make the Catalog pane active and confirm that the Project tab is selected. Expand the Databases and Folders collections.

   

   When you start ArcGIS Pro without a template, a default geodatabase and home folder are created in a temporary directory in your user profile. You'll change these defaults later.

   To access the tutorial data, you need to make a folder connection to it.

4. Make the catalog view active by clicking its view tab.

   

   Tip:

   If the items in the catalog view are formatted as tiles rather than as a list, click Column at the bottom of the catalog view.

5. On the ribbon, the Catalog tab is selected. In the Create group, click Add and click Add Folder Connection .
6. In the browse dialog box, browse to the location where you extracted the tutorial data (for example, C:\Temp). Click the Manage_Data folder to select it.

   

   You can click Show/Hide Details Panel under the search box to show or hide the details panel in the dialog box.

   Note:

   You don't need to add a connection to the Supplemental folder. If your active portal is ArcGIS Enterprise, you will use data in this folder later in the tutorial; otherwise, you don't need it.

7. Click OK.

   In the Catalog pane, the new folder connection appears under Folders.

8. In the Catalog pane, expand the Manage_Data folder.

   It contains three folders, two geodatabases, and a shapefile.

9. Expand all the folders and geodatabases and their contents.

   

   The folders contain shapefiles and an Excel file. Each geodatabase contains two or three feature classes.

   If you get an error when you expand ChristchurchHeritageSites.xlsx, see the note in the Download the data section, above. You need to install the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 driver.

Preview data

Most of this data is relevant to Christchurch restoration projects. You'll examine the datasets to learn more about them. You'll work in the catalog view and the Contents pane.

1. In the Contents pane (not the Catalog pane), under Project, expand Folders. Expand the Manage_Data folder and click Planning.gdb.

   

   The catalog view shows the two feature classes in the geodatabase: AvonRiver and PlanArea.

2. In the catalog view, click PlanArea.

   

   The details panel displays Metadata, Geography, and Table tabs for the selected feature class.

   Tip:

   If the details panel isn't showing, click the View tab on the ribbon. In the Options group, click Details Panel to select it. (This button is also located at the bottom of the catalog view.) In the catalog view, you can move the vertical separator between the list of items and the details panel.

3. In the details panel, click the Metadata tab if necessary. Review the PlanArea item description.
4. In the details panel, click the Geography tab.

   The spatial data is displayed on a light gray basemap.

5. On the Geography tab, click the feature on the map.

   The feature flashes and the Pop-up pane appears. The pop-up identifies the feature as Otakaro/Avon River Corridor Regeneration Plan. This is the area designated to be a green spine of walkways, bike paths, wetlands, and community spaces.

6. Click the Table tab and preview the attributes of the feature class.

   The table has one record with name and area attributes. To be familiar with the data, you should also know its coordinate system.

7. In the catalog view, right-click the PlanArea feature class and click Properties .
8. On the Feature Class Properties dialog box, on the Source tab, scroll down and expand Spatial Reference.

   

   The projected coordinate system is WGS 1984 Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere.

9. Click Cancel.
10. In the Contents pane, click the Boundaries geodatabase. In the catalog view, click CommunityBoards.
11. Preview the metadata, geography, and table of this feature class.
12. Open the CommunityBoards feature class properties and check its spatial reference.

    The projected coordinate system of this feature class is NZGD 2000 New Zealand Transverse Mercator. This is different from the coordinate system of the PlanArea feature class. Because New Zealand Transverse Mercator is a standard for New Zealand maps and data, one of your goals is to project all the datasets to this system.

13. Click Cancel.
14. Optionally, preview some of the other datasets in the Manage_Data folder.

Explore the data in a map

You'll add the datasets to a map to explore them further. You'll do this from the Catalog pane.

1. In the Catalog pane, make sure the contents of the Manage_Data folder are still expanded.
2. Press the Ctrl key and click the following datasets to select them. Don't select the Excel file, the text file, or the Parks shapefile.
   • Historic_Places
   • Native_Bird_River_and_Open_Water_Habitat
   • River_Centerlines
   • District_Plan_Zones_Open_Space
   • Flat_Land_Recovery
   • CommunityBoards
   • Districts
   • Region
   • AvonRiver
   • PlanArea
3. Right-click any of the selected datasets, point to Add to New , and click Map .

   A map view named Map opens. The Contents pane displays the map layers.

4. In the Catalog pane, click Parks.shp to select it. Drag it onto the map.

   

   Your layers will be symbolized in different colors. They may also draw in a slightly different order.

5. In the Contents pane, click the PlanArea layer to select it. Right-click the layer and click Zoom To Layer .

   

   Tip:

   If you don't see the PlanArea layer on the map, you may need to move it above the other polygon layers in the Contents pane. To move a layer, select it in the Contents pane and drag it up or down to the position you want. As you drag the layer, its position is indicated by a thin horizontal line.

6. Optionally, move the boundary layers (Districts, CommunityBoards, and Region) to the bottom of the Contents pane, just above the World Topographic Map basemap layer, so that they don't obscure features in other layers.
7. In the Contents pane, click the Region layer to select it. Right-click the layer and click Zoom To Layer .

   Much of your data extends well beyond Christchurch. To create a compact collection of data focused on the area of interest, you'll clip the datasets to a smaller extent. This means you need to find a layer, or a feature in a layer, that has the desired extent. You'll look first at the Districts layer.

8. In the Contents pane, click the Districts layer. Right-click the selected layer and click Attribute Table .

   Each district in the Districts layer is represented by a row in the attribute table.

9. In the table, find the row with the value Christchurch City in the TA2015_NAME field.
10. Click the row header (the gray square at the left edge of the row) to select the record.

    The corresponding feature is selected on the map.

11. In the row of tools at the top of the table, click Zoom To .

    

    The Christchurch City district is a small area but still larger than you need because it includes Banks Peninsula, a circular outcropping that is not part of the urban area.

12. In the row of tools at the top of the table, click Clear .
13. Close the Districts table.

    You could explore other layers for a feature to represent your area of interest, but instead you'll search ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.

Add data from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is a collection of authoritative geographic information curated by Esri.

Note:

If your active portal is ArcGIS Enterprise rather than ArcGIS Online, the layer added in this section is not available to you from ArcGIS Living Atlas. You can add an equivalent layer from the Supplemental folder in the data you downloaded. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, in the Layer group, click Add Data . In the browse dialog box, under Computer, browse to C:\Temp\Supplemental (or the directory where you downloaded the data). Click NZ Urban Rural Indicator boundaries 2020 - generalised.lyrx to select it and click OK. Continue with step 10 in this section.

1. Make the catalog view active.

   The Contents pane updates to reflect the catalog.

2. In the Contents pane, under Portal , click Living Atlas .

   You'll filter the ArcGIS Living Atlas content to display boundary features in New Zealand.

3. In the catalog view, next to the search box, click Filter . In the drop-down list of filters, expand Categories and expand Boundaries. Click the Administrative option.

   In the catalog view, the ArcGIS Living Atlas content is filtered to the selected category.

4. Close the drop-down list of filters.
5. In the catalog view search box, type New Zealand urban and press the Enter key.

   The list is further filtered by your search terms.

6. On the ribbon, click the View tab. In the Options group, click Details Panel to deselect it.

   The details panel is hidden, giving you more room to see the layer names and information about them.

7. At the bottom of the catalog view, click Tiles .

   The items display as tiles with thumbnail images.

8. Locate the NZ Urban Rural Indicator Areas 2021 feature layer.

   

9. Click the layer to select it. Right-click the selected layer and click Add To Map .
10. Make the map view active. Zoom in on the urban area of Christchurch, the large orange patch in the center of the view.

    

11. In the Contents pane, confirm that the NZ Urban Rural Indicator Areas 2021 layer is selected.
12. On the ribbon, click the Map tab, if necessary. In the Navigate group, click the Explore tool drop-down arrow and click Selected in Contents.

    Now, when you click a map feature, the Pop-up pane will show information for the layer (or layers) selected in the Contents pane.

13. On the map, click the Christchurch urban area.

    

    The feature flashes on the map. The Pop-up pane confirms that the feature represents the urban area of Christchurch. You'll use this feature to define your clip extent.

    You'll work with this layer throughout the tutorial, so you'll give it a shorter name.

14. Close the Pop-up pane.
15. In the Contents pane, right-click the NZ Urban Rural Indicator boundaries 2020 - generalised layer and click Properties .
16. On the Layer Properties dialog box, on the General tab, replace the current name with Urban Area.

    

17. Click OK.

    The layer is renamed in the Contents pane.

Create a geodatabase in a new folder

As you process and improve the starting data, you'll save your output datasets to a new geodatabase in a new folder. This is the geodatabase and folder you'll share with GIS specialists working on Christchurch restoration projects.

You'll set the new geodatabase and folder as the default locations for new data that you create. You'll also add the new folder to your list of favorites. Items that are favorites are readily available in any ArcGIS Pro project.

1. Make the catalog view active.
2. In the Contents pane, under Project, click Databases to select it. Right-click the selected item and click New File Geodatabase .
3. On the browse dialog box, browse to the folder where you extracted the tutorial data (for example, C:\Temp). Double-click the folder to open it.

   The Manage_Data and Supplemental folders are listed. You'll create another folder to contain the new geodatabase and other files. You can do this in the process of creating the geodatabase.

4. On the browse dialog box, click the New Item drop-down arrow and click Folder .

   

   The new folder is created. Its default name is editable.

5. Rename the folder ChristchurchRenewal and press the Enter key.

   The new folder is selected.

6. At the bottom of the browse dialog box, click Open to open the ChristchurchRenewal folder (which is empty).
7. In the Name text box, type ChristchurchData as the name of your new geodatabase. Click Save.

   The new geodatabase is created and displayed in the catalog view next to the default geodatabase that was created when you started ArcGIS Pro.

   

   The default geodatabase, marked with a home icon , is the one in which geoprocessing outputs are saved unless otherwise specified. Any geodatabase can be set as the default geodatabase.

8. In the catalog view, click ChristchurchData.gdb to select it.
9. On the ribbon, under Manage, click the Databases tab. In the Project group, click Make Default .

   The home icon now appears on the ChristchurchData geodatabase.

   You'll add a folder connection to the new ChristchurchRenewal folder so you can access it directly instead of browsing to it.

10. In the Contents pane, under Project, click Folders. Right-click the selected item and click Add Folder Connection .

    Tip:

    Earlier, you added a folder connection from the ribbon. You can also add connections from the Contents pane or the Catalog pane.

11. On the browse dialog box, browse to the folder that contains the tutorial data (for example, C:\Temp). Click the ChristchurchRenewal folder to select it.

    

12. Click OK.

    The new folder connection appears in the catalog view.

    You'll change the home folder in the same way that you changed the default geodatabase. The home folder is where output files that are not saved to a geodatabase (for example, layer files or shapefiles) are saved by default.

13. In the catalog view, click the ChristchurchRenewal folder connection to select it.
14. On the ribbon, under Manage, click the Folders tab. In the Project group, click Make Default .

    In the catalog view, the ChristchurchRenewal folder is designated as the home folder.

    

15. On the ribbon, on the Folders tab, in the Organize group, click Add To Favorites .
16. At the bottom of the Contents pane, expand Favorites to see the folder.

    As a favorite, this folder connection is now available in any ArcGIS Pro project.

    Tip:

    Favorites can be accessed from the Contents pane when the catalog view is active or from the Catalog pane when the Favorites tab is selected. Right-click a favorite and click Add To Project to add it to your current project, or click Add To New Projects to add it to all new projects automatically. To remove a favorite, right-click it and click Remove .

Clip data and save it to the new geodatabase

You'll clip most of the data in the Manage_Data folder to the Christchurch urban area, using the Clip geoprocessing tool. You'll run the tool as a batch tool, which allows you to process multiple input datasets in one operation. The output data will be saved to the ChristchurchData geodatabase. Any input shapefiles will be converted to geodatabase format automatically.

Clipping features changes their geometry. For example, a river that crosses the boundary of the Christchurch urban area will be split at the boundary. Only the segment that lies inside the boundary will be preserved.

As mentioned earlier, you want your new data to be in the New Zealand Transverse Mercator coordinate system. Before you run the Clip tool, you'll make a tool environment setting that projects the input datasets as needed to this coordinate system.

1. Make the map view active.
2. In the Contents pane, right-click the Urban Area layer, point to Selection, and click Make this the only selectable layer .
3. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, in the Selection group, click the Select tool . On the map, click the Christchurch urban area feature to select it.

   

   When you run the Clip tool, you'll specify the Urban Area layer as the clip layer. The tool will use the selected feature as the clip extent.

4. Make the Geoprocessing pane active. In the search box, type clip.

   In the search results, Clip (Analysis Tools) is the first result listed.

   

   Tip:

   To change the display of tools, at the bottom of the Geoprocessing pane, click Display tools with descriptions or Display tools as a list .

5. In the search results, right-click the Clip tool and click Batch.

   The Batch Clip tool opens. A batch tool is a temporary tool that allows you to process multiple input datasets or other parameters. Most geoprocessing tools can be run as batch tools. You can save a batch tool to make it permanent.

6. For Choose a batch parameter, confirm that Input Features or Dataset is selected. Uncheck the Add output datasets to an open map check box.

   

   You'll add the output datasets to a new map instead.

7. Click Next.
8. Next to Batch Input Features, click Add Many . At the bottom of the drop-down list, click Toggle All Checkboxes .

   All the layers in the map are selected. However, you don't want to clip all of them. The boundary layers should keep their territorial integrity, so you'll process them separately.

9. In the list of batch input features, uncheck the check boxes for the following layers:

   • CommunityBoards
   • Districts
   • Region

   

   The Urban Area layer is included with the input features to be clipped. That means that the layer will be clipped to its own selected feature, which is what you want.

10. At the bottom of the drop-down list, click Add.
11. For Clip Features, click the drop-down arrow and click Urban Area.
12. In the Output Feature Class box, delete the prefix Clip_OutFeatureClass_ from the output feature class name and leave the %Name% variable.

    Caution:

    Do not delete the entire path to the output geodatabase. Deleted paths may not regenerate correctly when you run batch tools.

    The output feature class path goes to the ChristchurchData geodatabase.

    

    The %Name% variable assigns the input layer name to the output dataset. Because you're saving the output data to a different location than the input data, you don't need a file name prefix (such as Clip_OutFeatureClass_) to prevent naming conflicts.

    Although map layers in different coordinate systems are aligned spatially through on-the-fly projection, you want your output data to be created in the standard NZGD 2000 New Zealand Transverse Mercator system. You'll make an environment setting to project the input datasets to this system as needed.

    Geoprocessing environment settings are parameters that are not built into a tool but are applied to the output data when the tool runs. In this case, the environment setting saves you from running the Project tool separately on datasets that are in the Web Mercator coordinate system.

13. At the top of the Batch Clip tool, click the Environments tab.
14. Next to Output Coordinate System, click Select coordinate system .
15. On the Coordinate System dialog box, under XY Coordinate Systems Available, expand Layers.

    The two coordinate systems used by layers in the map are listed.

16. Click NZGD 2000 New Zealand Transverse Mercator to select it.

    

17. Click OK.

    Input datasets in the Web Mercator coordinate system, such as PlanArea, will be projected to New Zealand Transverse Mercator when they are clipped.

18. In the Geoprocessing pane, click Run .

    When the tool finishes, a completion message appears at the bottom of the pane.

View the data in the geodatabase

You'll examine the new datasets in the ChristchurchData geodatabase.

1. Make the catalog view active.
2. In the Contents pane, under Project, expand Databases. Click ChristchurchData.gdb.
3. At the bottom of the catalog view, click Column to display items as a list.

   

   There are nine feature classes in the geodatabase.

4. Click the PlanArea feature class to select it. Open its feature class properties and check the spatial reference.

   

   The dataset has been projected to the New Zealand Transverse Mercator coordinate system as specified by your geoprocessing environment setting.

5. Click Cancel.

   You'll explore the data in a new map.

6. Click the AvonRiver feature class to select it. Press the Shift key and click Urban_Area to select all the feature classes.
7. Right-click any selected feature class and click Add To New > Map .

   A new map view named Map1 opens.

8. Make sure that Map1 is the active view. In the Contents pane, move the Urban_Area layer to a position just above the World Topographic Map basemap layer.

   

   Your symbol colors will be different.

9. In the Contents pane, press the Ctrl key and click the Urban Area layer to deselect it.
10. Zoom out on the map to confirm that all the layers are clipped to the extent of the Christchurch urban area.

    You no longer need to work with the first map.

11. Make the map view named Map active. Click Close on its view tab.

    Map1 is now the active view.

    Note:

    The closed map is still part of the project. It can be reopened from the Catalog pane, under Maps, or from the Contents pane when the catalog view is active.

Copy the boundary layers to the geodatabase

When you ran the Clip tool, you didn't process the boundary layers because you wanted to preserve their territorial integrity. However, the boundary layers cover the entire Canterbury region, a larger area than you need.

You'll make a spatial selection of the features in the CommunityBoards and Districts layers that have area in common with the Christchurch urban area. You'll copy the selected features to the ChristchurchData geodatabase without clipping them. You'll leave out the Region layer. It contains a single feature representing the Canterbury region and is too general for your needs.

1. On the ribbon, click the Map tab, if necessary. In the Selection group, click Select By Location .

   The Select By Location tool appears.

   Note:

   For convenience, some geoprocessing tools open in a floating window. You can also open these tools in the Geoprocessing pane.

   The Input Features parameter is used to specify the features you want to select. You want to select features from the CommunityBoards and Districts layers. These layers aren't in the map, so you need to browse to the datasets.

2. Next to the Input Features list, click Browse .
3. On the browse dialog box, under Project, click Folders. Browse to Manage_Data > Boundaries.gdb.

   

4. Press the Ctrl key and click CommunityBoards and Districts to select both feature classes. (Don't select Region.) Click OK.

   In the Select By Location window, the two datasets are added to the input features list.

5. Confirm that the Relationship parameter is set to Intersect.
6. For Selecting Features, click the drop-down arrow and click Urban_Area.

   

   The Select By Location tool makes selections on map layers. Since the CommunityBoards and Districts datasets aren't represented by map layers, the tool will create layers, add them to the map, and select the appropriate features.

7. Click OK.

   When the tool finishes, two layers, Districts_Layer1 and CommunityBoards_Layer1, are added to the map. At the bottom of the map view you see that 10 features are selected.

   

   To see the selected records you can open the layer attribute tables, but it's not necessary. You'll copy the selected features to new feature classes in the ChristchurchData geodatabase.

   The two boundary layers are relevant to your final data because restoration projects may be subject to local political administration. The extent of the layers is larger than your area of interest but smaller than the original extent of the data. More importantly, the boundaries of the 10 selected features remain intact.

   You'll run the Copy Features tool as a batch tool. Because the output datasets will use the names of the input layers, you'll rename the layers before you run the tool.

8. In the Contents pane, change the name Districts_Layer1 to Districts. Change the name CommunityBoards_Layer1 to CommunityBoards.

   Tip:

   Click the layer in the Contents pane to select it. Click it again to make its name editable. Press the Enter key to commit the change. Alternatively, double-click the layer to open the Layer Properties dialog box and change the name on the General tab.

9. At the top of the Geoprocessing pane, click Open Another Tool . In the list of options, click Open Another Tool to search for a tool you haven't used.
10. In the search box, type copy features.

    In the search results, Copy Features is the first result.

    

11. Right-click the Copy Features tool and click Batch.

    The Batch Copy Features tool opens. In this case, you'll accept the default setting to add the output datasets to the open map.

12. Under Choose a batch parameter, confirm that Input Features is selected and click Next.
13. Under Batch Input Features, click the parameter drop-down arrow (not the Add Many button) and click Districts.
14. In the next empty input features box, click the drop-down arrow and click CommunityBoards.
15. In the Output Feature Class text box, delete the prefix CopyFeatures_OutFeatureClass_ and leave the variable %Name%.

    Caution:

    Do not delete the entire path to the output geodatabase. Deleted paths may not regenerate as desired when running batch tools.

    

    You don't need to make an environment setting for this tool because both input feature classes are in the NZGD 2000 Transverse Mercator coordinate system.

16. In the Contents pane, turn off the CommunityBoards and Districts layers.

    This will reduce confusion when new layers with the same names are added to the map.

17. In the Geoprocessing pane, click Run .

    When the tool finishes, the new layers are added to the map. You no longer need the original layers with the selected features.

18. In the Contents pane, right-click the Districts layer (the one that is turned off) and click Remove .
19. Remove the input CommunityBoards layer (the one that is turned off) in the same way.

    Tip:

    If you make a mistake, click Undo on the Quick Access Toolbar to undo your most recent action.

20. In the Contents pane, move the Districts layer to a position just above the World Topographic Map basemap layer. Move the CommunityBoards layer above the Districts layer.
21. Right-click the Districts layer and click Zoom To Layer .

    

    Both layers extend beyond the Christchurch urban area because they are not clipped. However, only the features that intersect the urban area are included.

22. Make the catalog view active.

    The ChristchurchData geodatabase now includes the new CommunityBoards and Districts feature classes.

Update metadata

The metadata from your input datasets in the Manage_Data folder was copied to the new datasets in the ChristchurchData geodatabase. You'll review the metadata to correct spelling errors and update item descriptions. You'll also add thumbnail images.

1. In the catalog view, click the Native_Bird_River_and_Open_Water_Habitat feature class. Right-click the selected feature class and click Edit Metadata .

   A metadata view opens. Wavy red lines appear under several words. These include spelling errors, technical terms, and unusual place-names.

   Note:

   If you don't see the wavy red underlines, you need to enable spell-checking.

2. Scroll through the metadata view.

   The Description field contains two adjacent spelling mistakes.

   

3. Right-click the first mistake (acommpany) and click the suggested replacement accompany.

   The mistake is corrected and the red underline is removed.

4. Correct the spelling mistake Emvironment to Environment in the same way.

   Tip:

   See Proofing options for additional spell-checking capabilities.

   At the bottom of the Description field, a note describes changes that have been made to the original source data. You'll add another note.

5. In the Description field, click at the end of the text and press the Enter key to add a second bullet point.
6. Type or copy the following sentence: The data was converted to geodatabase format and clipped to the Christchurch urban area.
7. On the ribbon, on the Metadata tab, in the Manage Metadata group, click Save .
8. Close the metadata view.
9. On the ribbon, click the View tab. In the Options group, click Details Panel to select it. In the details panel, click the Metadata tab if necessary.

   The spelling errors in the description are fixed. The note you added appears at the bottom of the description.

10. In the details panel, click the Geography tab.

    The data is previewed on a light gray basemap.

11. On the ribbon, under Catalog View, click the Preview tab. In the Preview group, click Basemap and click Oceans.

    The basemap changes in the geography preview.

12. In the Preview group, click Create Thumbnail .
13. In the details panel, click the Metadata tab.

    You need to refresh the metadata to see the new thumbnail.

14. Click a different dataset in the catalog view and click Native_Bird_River_and_Open_Water_Habitat again.

    The metadata displays with the new thumbnail image.

    

15. Optionally, edit the item descriptions and create thumbnail images for some other datasets.

    Note:

    All the datasets have item descriptions except the Urban_Area feature class, which was derived from a ArcGIS Living Atlas layer. Optionally, you can import this item description:

    1. Select the feature class in the catalog view. On the ribbon, on the Catalog tab, in the Metadata group, click Import .
    2. On the Import Metadata dialog box, click Browse . Browse to Portal > Living Atlas and search for NZ Urban Rural Indicator Areas 2021.
    3. Click the layer to select it and click OK. Confirm that the layer URL is added to the Import Metadata dialog box.
    4. Click OK to import the metadata.

Save layer files

You have probably noticed in your working maps that default layer symbology isn't always ideal. It's not your job to make cartographic decisions about the Christchurch data, but it may be helpful to create a few layer files as a starting point for others to visualize the data.

A layer file saves the properties of a layer, such as its name and symbology, to a file on your computer. When the layer file is added to a map, these properties are applied to the layer automatically. As with any map layer, a layer file needs to reference a source dataset in order to display.

1. Make the map view active.
2. In the Contents pane, right-click the Historic_Places layer and click Zoom To Layer .
3. In the Contents pane, click the symbol under the Historic_Places layer name.

   The Symbology pane appears and displays options for formatting point symbols.

4. At the top of the Symbology pane, click the Gallery tab, if necessary. In the search box, type pin and press the Enter key.
5. Under ArcGIS 2D, click the Tear Pin 2 symbol to select it.

   

   The symbol is changed in the Contents pane and on the map.

6. In the Symbology pane, click the Properties tab.
7. Under Appearance, change Size to 12 pt and click Apply.
8. In the Contents pane, right-click the Historic_Places layer name, point to Sharing, and click Save As Layer File .

   The browse dialog box opens automatically to the ChristchurchRenewal home folder.

9. In the Name box, accept the default name, Historic_Places.lyrx. Click Save.
10. Optionally, create layer files for some other layers.

    For example, to symbolize the Urban_Area layer with a hollow fill symbol, search for outline in the symbol gallery. To find suitable symbols for the Parks and AvonRiver layers, search for park and water in the symbol gallery.

    While the map view is active, you'll reset the Explore tool setting that you changed earlier.

11. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, in the Navigate group, click the Explore drop-down arrow and click Topmost Layer.
12. Make the catalog view active. In the Contents pane, under Folders, click the ChristchurchRenewal folder to see the layer file.

    

    The ChristchurchData geodatabase is complete. The ChristchurchRenewal folder contains the geodatabase and your layer file (or layer files). The folder can now be shared on a network. Alternatively, it can be uploaded to ArcGIS Online in a compressed format or shared through email and other applications.

    You can also share individual datasets as web layers to ArcGIS Online. To learn about this workflow, see the Share a web map tutorial.

    During this tutorial, no project file was saved to your computer (unless you saved the project on your own). The ChristchurchRenewal folder and ChristchurchData geodatabase are saved independently of any ArcGIS Pro project. The working maps you made were useful for evaluating data and choosing input layers for tools, but you don't need to keep them.

13. If you're going on to the optional section, leave ArcGIS Pro open. Otherwise, on the ribbon, click the Project tab. In the list of tabs on the left, click Exit. Click No on the prompt to save changes.

Load data (optional)

Your data includes a feature class named Historic_Places. As you saw when you first browsed the contents of the Manage_Data folder, there is also an Excel file called ChristchurchHeritageSites. This file contains records for two locations that aren't included in the Historic_Places dataset.

You can add features from one dataset to another, a process called loading data, with the Append geoprocessing tool. The two heritage sites that you want to add are rows in an Excel sheet and must be converted to point features before you can load the data.

After you load the converted point features into the Historic_Places feature class, you don't need to keep them in a separate dataset. For this reason, you'll create the point features in a temporary memory workspace and load them into the Historic_Places dataset from this workspace. When you exit ArcGIS Pro, the memory workspace will be cleared.

1. Make the catalog view active, if necessary. In the Contents pane, under Databases, click the ChristchurchData geodatabase.
2. In the catalog view, click the Historic_Places feature class. Preview its metadata, geography, and table.

   The feature class contains 322 points of historic interest in the Christchurch urban area. The table attributes include Name and Address fields. The RegID field stores a numeric identifier of up to four digits.

3. In the Contents pane, under Folders, expand the Manage_Data folder, if necessary. Expand the Historic folder under it and click ChristchurchHeritageSites.xlsx to select it.
4. In the catalog view, click the HeritageSites$ sheet and preview its table.

   Note:

   If a red exclamation point appears next to ChristchurchHeritageSites.xlsx, you need to install the Microsoft Access Database Engine Driver. See the note in the Download the data section, above. After the driver is installed, on the Catalog tab, in the Organize group, click Refresh . You can now click ChristchurchHeritageSites.xlsx and see the HeritageSites$ sheet.

   The table has X and Y columns that store longitude and latitude values in decimal degrees. These coordinates allow you to convert the locations to spatial data.

   In addition, there are Name and Address columns. There are also several other columns, including one named RegisterNumber. This column stores numeric identifiers, just like the RegID field in the Historic_Places table.

   You'll add the Excel sheet as a table to the map and convert the table to point features. This will allow you to confirm that the two heritage sites don't already exist in the Historic_Places layer.

5. In the catalog view, right-click HeritageSites$ and click Add To Map1.
6. Make the map view active.

   At the bottom of the Contents pane, the HeritageSites$ table is listed under Standalone Tables.

7. Right-click the HeritageSites$ table and click Display XY Data .

   The Display XY Data tool appears.

   The Input Table parameter defaults correctly to HeritageSites$. The X Field and Y Field parameters default correctly to the X and Y fields in the table. The coordinate system defaults to GCS_WGS_1984. Most latitude-longitude values are stored in this system, so it's safe to assume this setting is correct.

8. In the Output Feature Class text box, delete the entire path. In the empty box, type memory\Sites.

   

   The path name memory\ specifies that the output will be written to the memory workspace rather than to a geodatabase. The name Sites can be any name that you choose.

9. Click OK.

   When the tool finishes, a layer named Sites is added to the top of the Contents pane.

10. In the Contents pane, right-click the Sites layer and click Zoom To Layer .
11. In the Contents pane, turn the Sites layer off and on to see that there are no features from the Historic_Sites layer at these two locations.

    This confirms that you can load the data from memory without duplicating existing features.

12. Make the catalog view active. In the Contents pane, under Databases, click ChristchurchData.gdb.
13. In the catalog view, click Historic_Places, if necessary, to select it. Right-click the selected feature class and click Load Data.

    The Append tool opens in the Geoprocessing pane. A message at the top of the pane alerts you that the tool does not create a dataset—it modifies an existing dataset. In the tool parameters, the Target Dataset is automatically set to Historic_Places. This is the dataset into which features will be loaded.

14. Click the Input Datasets drop-down arrow and click Sites.

    If the input and target datasets have exactly the same fields, you can use the default Field Matching Type setting: Input fields must match target fields. However, in this case, some of the fields don't match, so you need to change the setting.

15. Click the Field Matching Type drop-down arrow and click Use the field map to reconcile field differences.

    You can match fields manually when the field names are different but the attribute values are compatible.

    In the Field Map area of the tool, the output fields represent fields in the target dataset. The RegID and Accuracy fields are red because they don't have matching field names in the input dataset. The Name and Address fields are black because they do have matching field names.

    

16. In the list of output fields, confirm that RegID is selected (highlighted in gray). Click Add New Source. In the drop-down list of fields, check the box for the RegisterNumber field and click Add Selected.

    

    In the Output Fields list, RegID turns black because you matched it manually. When the data is loaded, values from the RegisterNumber field in the input table will be appended to the RegID field of the target table.

    You'll leave the Accuracy field unmatched because it doesn't have an equivalent attribute in the input dataset. When the tool runs, attributes will be processed as follows:

    • Fields in the input table that match fields in the target table will have their attribute values appended to the corresponding fields in the target table.
    • Unmatched fields in the input table, such as X and Y, will not be added to the target table.
    • Unmatched fields in the target table, such as Accuracy, will have <null> values for appended records.

    Note:

    The input dataset is not in the New Zealand Transverse Mercator coordinate system; it is in the WGS_1984 geographic coordinate system. However, when the features are loaded, they will be projected automatically.

17. Click Run .
18. When the tool finishes, in the catalog view, click Historic_Places. In the details panel, click the Table tab and scroll to the bottom of the table.

    

    Two records have been added to the table: one for a site called Moncks Cave and one for a site called Rotten Row Baches. The new records have values in the Name, Address, and RegID fields. The Accuracy field has <Null> values.

19. Make the map view active. In the Contents pane, turn off the Sites layer.

    

    The new features have been added to the Historic_Places layer in the correct locations.

    The ChristchurchData geodatabase is complete. The ChristchurchRenewal folder, containing the geodatabase, one or more layer files, and any documentation or readme files you want to add, is ready to be shared with restoration teams.

20. On the ribbon, click the Project tab. In the list on the left, click Exit. Click No on the prompt to save changes.

    When your ArcGIS Pro session ends, the memory workspace is cleared.