Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS: A Workbook Approach to Learning GIS, 3rd Edition

Changing Layer Properties

As noted, Landcover is displayed using a homogeneous color background with lines dividing polygons. The polygons represent different land uses. We can make the map display these different uses in a variety of ways.

____ 34. Bring up the Landcover Properties window again—this time by double-clicking the Landcover layer name. Choose the Symbology tab. You have your choice of five major possibilities of what to show. List them:

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Note that features are displayed with a Single symbol. (If you don’t see this, click the word Features.)

____ 35. Instead, let’s display the layer using Categories > Unique Values. For the Value field, pick LC_CODE, which, as you may recall, is an integer (100, 200, and so on). Click Add All Values to bring up the list of values and a random list of colors with which those values will be symbolized. Click Apply and OK in the Layer Properties window. A garish-looking map appears. Observe the map. Rather than being displayed with a single color, different polygons are shown with different colors, based on the value in the LC-CODE field.

____ 36. Label the polygons with text: Bring up the Landcover Properties window again. Click the Labels tab. Check the box that says Label features in this layer. Make the Label field read LC_CODE. Click Apply. Click OK. The land cover code appears in each polygon. Right-click on the Landcover name in ...