Buffering As One of The Most Common Geoprocessing Tools
Speaking of the geoprocessing tools in many cases means speaking of the geoprocessing tools in the geographic information system (GIS). Although there are more than 200 tools, for example, in ArcGIS, there are not more than 20 most commonly used of them. Among these 20, buffering may have one of the key roles in our current Lab project.
The mechanism of its work consists in creating buffer polygons around the input features. To apply this working in the up-to-date GIS programs versions, one should select “geoprocessing” tap at the top of the screen, and then – “buffer” option. The necessary feature can be dragged from the “Table of Contents” on the left and are needed to be put in the “Input Features” line of the opened window. After that, the file, containing the feature information, should be browsed for the “Output Feature Class” line. Once it is found, one may write the necessary buffering distance through the underscore with the word “Buffer” after it in the name of the file, for example: “PointShapefile_10kmBuffer”. Supposing that overlapping buffers are unwanted, an optional dissolve can be performed to remove them, using the “Dissolved” suffix after the distance scripting syntax parameter.
It is obvious, that buffering as the geospatial analysis tool fits most of all for a purpose of the security zone denoting. In order to fulfill the Lab project task the line, signifying Presidential Inauguration Parade route, should be buffered by means of the GIS program. This not only would mark it out on the map, but also would permit to detect potentially dangerous route sections and objects, suggesting the ways of securing them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. “Buffer (Analysis)”, ArcGIS 9.2 Desktop Help, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., January 13, 2009, accessed January 17, 2017, http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=Buffer%20(Analysis)
2. “Buffer”. ArcGIS for Desktop, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., Copyright 2016, accessed January 17, 2017, …
