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

Calculating a Volume with ArcGIS

Between two and three miles west of the river bend that you have looked at so often is a little hill peak that we would like to build a house on. We have to do some grading, because of the rugged terrain. We have surveyed the area and determined that if we create a flat surface at the 1020 contour elevation, we will have enough space to build and have a garden, a lawn, and maybe a tennis court. How many cubic feet of dirt would we have to deal with to flatten it out? We will use as data cole_TIN and our surveyor’s contour lines to determine the answer.

____ 47. Start ArcCatalog. From

___ IGIS-Arc_YourInitials\Trivial_GIS_Datasets

copy Four_contour_lines.shp to

___ IGIS-Arc_YourInitials\3-D_Data.

After looking at the geography of the lines, use Identify to determine the elevation, given by the field name CONTOUR, of the longest, and, in elevation, lowest line. ________. What is the elevation of the highest line? ________. Measuring up from the 1020 foot elevation to the top, what difference in altitude are we dealing with? ________ feet.

____ 48. Start ArcMap with a Blank map. Make sure the 3D Analyst Extension is turned on. Make sure the 3D Analyst toolbar is turned on. From ___IGIS-Arc_YourInitials\3-D_Data, add as data cole_TIN followed by Four_contour_lines.shp. Make the symbol for the contour lines bright red, size 2. The location of interest will show up as a red dot on the TIN. Find it and zoom in on the area of interest. See Figure ...