Sharpen Your GIS Skills: A Comprehensive Spatial Analysis Challenge in ArcGIS Pro

By Nicolas R. Malloy December 2, 2024

Welcome to “GIS Skills Challenge” where we invite you to rekindle and advance your geospatial expertise. This tutorial is tailored for those who have a foundational understanding of GIS but seek to deepen their proficiency in spatial analysis using ArcGIS Pro. Here, we bypass the basic step-by-step instructions and instead present you with a series of thought-provoking challenges. These exercises are designed to test and enhance your skills in managing spatial data, understanding map datums and projections, and performing complex spatial queries and analyses. Whether you’re brushing up your abilities after a hiatus or looking to refine your existing skills, this tutorial will guide you through the intricacies of ArcGIS Pro, reinforcing your capabilities in this powerful geospatial software.

What You Should Know

At this time, you should already have a level of practical experience with GIS. This tutorial assumes that you learned the following skills:

• Organizing folders and files into a standardized workspace.
• Acquiring data from public sources.
• Using Esri Help Documentation to figure out unfamiliar tools.
• Repair broken links to data sources.
• Locate and read metadata for specific datasets.
• Check the spatial reference system, datums, and map projections for specific datasets.
• Check the spatial reference of the map window in ArcGIS Pro.
• Add XY data to the map window in ArcGIS Pro.
• Perform a table-join operation.
• Add a new field to an attribute table.
• Calculate geometry on a field in the attributes table.
• Use the field calculator to solve problems.
• Symbolize data using graduated colors, symbols, and data classification methods (natural breaks, quantile, equal intervals, etc.)
• Perform both attribute and spatial queries to select features on a map.
• Export selected features to create new map layers.