CEE 8813 · Data Analytics for Transportation Safety · GIS module

GIS Labs

Nine interactive labs and two narrated animations for the four GIS lectures. They run on the course lab data: the GDOT crash sample, the District 7 curve inventory, the state routes and Georgia's 159 counties. Open them in lecture order, because the later labs build on the earlier ones.

GIS Basic

1. GIS Basic 2026.pptx

How GIS stores the world and how a classed map can tell different stories from the same numbers.

Slides 16–26 Data Model Lab Switch the lab layers between vector features and raster cells, untick one file of a shapefile to see what breaks, and compare with a file geodatabase. Open lab ↗ Slides 42–52 Classed Map Lab Classify the National Risk Index by county two ways side by side and watch which counties change class when only the method changes. Open lab ↗

GIS Coordinate System

2. GIS Coordinate System 2026.pptx

First the shape of the Earth and the datum, then how a projection flattens it onto paper.

Narrated · 2 parts, 3:20 and 3:40 From Datum to Projection Watch this first. Part 1 builds a datum, from latitude and longitude to the ellipsoid, the geoid and NAD 27, NAD 83 and WGS 84. Part 2 flattens it: projection surfaces, distortion, UTM, State Plane and Georgia Lambert. Watch ↗ Slides 2–8 Datum Lab Exaggerate the ellipsoid and the geoid, fit a local and a geocentric datum, and see how far one point moves between NAD 27, NAD 83 and WGS 84. Open lab ↗ Slides 9–24 Projection Light Lab Put a lamp inside a glass globe and cast Georgia onto a plane, cylinder or cone, tangent or secant, with UTM and Georgia Lambert presets. Open lab ↗

GIS Table Operations

3. GIS Table Operations 2026.pptx

Working with one attribute table, then putting two tables together by a key field.

Slides 2–15 Attribute Table Lab Display XY Data, sort, Select By Attributes, Add Field and Calculate Field, and summary statistics on the GDOT crash table. Open lab ↗ Slides 16–22 Join and Relate Lab Join and relate tables by a key field and see how one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one and many-to-many decide the rows you get back. Open lab ↗

GIS Spatial Analysis

4. GIS Spatial Analysis 2026.pptx

Selecting and joining by location, buffers around curves, and the milepoint way of asking the same question.

Slides 3–6 Spatial Join Lab Select crashes by location, join them to counties and curves, and check the county written in the crash report against the county on the map. Open lab ↗ Slides 7–11 · lab slides 16–19 Buffer Lab Buffer every District 7 curve by 150 ft, select the crashes inside, and see how the distance, the unit and the end type move the answer. Open lab ↗ Narrated · 4:26 Linear Referencing Watch before the lab. Follows one crash on SR 154 from its route ID and milepoint to a straight-line diagram, then compares milepoint and buffer answers and cuts the route into homogeneous segments. Watch ↗ Lectures 3–4 · after the buffer Linear Referencing Lab Read a GDOT route ID, turn curves and crashes into route events on a straight-line diagram, and compare the milepoint answer with the buffer. Open lab ↗

The lab layers

The four layers come from the ArcGIS practice lab, and each one is stored in a different coordinate system. ArcGIS Pro reprojects layers on the fly so they line up on the map. A geoprocessing tool measures in the coordinate system it runs in, which is why the Buffer Lab measures its 150 ft in the curves' State Plane feet.

LayerWhat it holdsCoordinate system
CollisionCrashes across Georgia on 1 October 2021, each with a GDOT route ID and milepoint. The labs use a 480-crash subset of the 1,491 in the CSV, with crash numbers replacedWGS 84 (latitude, longitude)
D7_Curve_Inventory_GT1,077 horizontal curves on District 7 state routesNAD 1983 State Plane Georgia West, US feet
GeorgiaRoadSegments_SRState-route segments with AADT, lanes and speed limit; the labs use the 5,563 in District 7NAD 1983 Georgia Statewide Lambert, US feet
GA_CountiesGeorgia's 159 counties with the FEMA National Risk IndexWGS 1984 Web Mercator, metres