Overview - This 1 or 2-day course introduces participants to the Spatial Analyst extension by working through several projects, including a solar siting analysis and a project to determine wildland fire hazard zones. A third project explores the process of analyzing water tables and the impact of irrigation, providing an opportunity to look at the Hydrology sample provided for ArcGIS.

Audience - ArcGIS Spatial Analyst (for ArcGIS 9.x) is for those who use ArcGIS but need to learn how to use ArcGIS Spatial Analyst with ModelBuilder to work with raster and vector data.

Goals -
• Apply the grid data model
• Access ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
• Convert data to grid format
• Manage grids
• Implement map algebra functions
• Use ArcGIS Spatial Analyst for distance modeling
• Create continuous surfaces
• Perform surface hydrology functions
• Apply basic modeling concepts
• Implement models

Topics Covered -
• ArcGIS Spatial Analyst: Overview of the extension; Understanding raster concepts; ArcGIS Spatial Analyst interface Grids: Comparing grid themes and feature themes; Querying grid themes
• Structure of grid themes: How to create grids; Grid storage and management
• Aligning themes: Grid registration and georeferencing; How projection affects analysis; Importing and exporting grids
• Conducting surface analyses: Calculating density; Choosing an interpolation method; Interpolating a continuous grid from sample points; Contours and hillshading; Visibility analysis
• Map algebra functions; Writing expressions; Expression syntax
• Calculating distance measurements: Euclidean distance; Cost distance; Finding the least-cost path
• Surface hydrology: Identifying watershed basins; Determining surface runoff characteristics
• Designing and implementing GIS models: Spatial modeling concepts and issues; Introduction to ModelBuilder functionality

Prerequisites and Recommendations - Completion of Introduction to ArcGIS or equivalent experience is required. Programming knowledge is not necessary.

Registrants for this course should know the following:
• Basic operating system skills (copying, deleting, and moving files and directories)
• Adding, renaming, and deleting themes
• Setting Data Frame properties (map and distance units, projection)
• Displaying layers using the Legend Editor
• Using ArcGIS menus, buttons, and tools
• Performing queries
• Converting layers to shapefiles
• Selecting records in Data Frames and tables
• Using ArcGIS online help