Open Access Practices for GIS

Pre-work to complete before class

Homework #1: Set up your OSF.io account

  1. Instantiate your Harvard OSF (Open Science Framework) account.
If you do not have a Harvard Key, you can make a free, non-affiliate account on osf.io.
  1. Select Create New Project.

Create a new project in OSF

  1. Name your new project Data Management Workshop.
Name a new project in OSF

Homework #2: Framing ideas

Read this article about balancing data safety and open science in an academic research context.

In-class workshop

1. Saving in reusable formats

Discussion

Keziah’s project

Tutorial materials in ArcGIS Online

While ESRI map package formats are the default, they are not backwards-compatible.

Map package fails in QGIS

ESRI map packages are not recognized by open source GIS software.

Tutorial materials in file exporer

ESRI map package file in a downloads folder

⚠️ If we want any of our data layers to be accessible, we need to export them to more persistent file formats.

Activity

We will start using an updated version of the original map package, which includes datasets at the stage of the completed tutorial, so instead of an ungeoreferenced map, we have a georeferenced map of 1891 NYC, and a new polygon file that starts to trace out historical boundaries.

Step 1: Open the source data
  1. Download ESRI_FILES.zip from the OSF.io example repository , and uncompress or extract the folder, so that you can double-click GEOREF_DIGITIZE.ppkg and open it in ArcGIS Pro.
Discussion
file geodatabase instructions

Defaults in ArcGIS Pro are problematic for data management.

Creating feature class

Creating feature class inside a file geodatabase.

wards feature class in ArcGIS layer pane

Newly defined feature class in the ArcGIS Pro layer pane.

file geodatabase file structure

What the?

file format texts from belle (shapefile, geojson, geopackage) Texts from Belle reminding you which formats to use 😸

Step 2: Export to Shapefile

  1. Navigate to Analysis → Tools

  2. Search for Export Features

  3. Under Input Features select Wards

  4. Click the folder icon next to Output Feature Class and choose a regular folder (not an ESRI file geodatabase) on your computer where you’d like to save the shapefile.

  5. Select Run

shapefile of wards

Step 3: Export to GeoJSON
  1. Navigate to Analysis → Tools
  2. Search for Features to JSON (Conversion)
  3. Under Input Features select Wards: 1
  4. Click the folder icon next to Output Feature Class and choose a regular folder (not an ESRI file geodatabase) on your computer where you'd like to save the .geoJSON
  5. Check (select) Output to GeoJSON
  6. Select Run
Discussion
Cap on OSF projects

OSF.io has a cap on storage.

OSF-addons

Storage integration options.

Step 4: Export to GeoTIFF

  1. Navigate to Analysis → Tools

  2. Search for Copy Raster

  3. Under Input Raster select manhattan.sid

  4. Choose an output location in a folder on your computer to save the output, and name the file.

  5. Under Format select TIFF format.

2. Upload data to OSF.io

  1. Zip up shapefile and geoTIFF files, separately

  2. Open OSF.io account and navigate to your Data Management Workshop project folder

  3. Organize project folders and discuss

  4. Upload the three datasets: zipped geoTIFF, zipped shapefile, and geoJSON

  5. Discuss file formats and relationships and segue into mockumentation exercise

3. Mockumentation

Look at example README files, and collaboratively create documentation for this project.

Resources

Example OSF repository

DIY documenatation guide

Make a consultation