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Help needed: I'm attempting (and failing) to organise habitat types in ArcGIS within symbology using unique values

SimpleMapper

Hi there, thanks for reading my post, I appreciate any help I can get!

So I'm looking to symbolise each habitat type for a location so I can assess the changes over time (I'm using 3 maps of the same location: 1990, 2007, 2021). However, when I attempt to symbolise and add unique values to my data, I have over a thousand unique values, all coded such as '2.84' as an example. Here are my values from the attribute table:

I'm really not sure what value to add to the symbology field to find the habitat coverage, and Ideally I would like to simplify the results so it looked something similar to this:

So basically I'm trying to understand the process that involves me from simplifying the habitat types so I can easily symbolise them, and read them. I hope this all makes sense and thank you.

Danny.

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Accepted answers

GoWest

Yes, you need to know the habitat type to enter into the record. If you do not know the habitat type, then you must do some research to know the habitat type. It is common to add another layer (or add another data source) to your map which has the Habitats, then you can visually see on the map which habitat your polygon is intersecting and update the row accordingly.

An experienced GIS user would run the "Intersect" tool to copy the Habitat value from the other layer and update the value in this new column. This saves a lot of work, so you don't have to manually research each 6000 row manually, but it is beyond the scope of this question.

If this answers your question, then please mark this question as the solution.

Thanks....and good luck!

All comments

GoWest

I would add a new field to your table and populate it with the unique habitat value. The new field could be named 'HABITAT_TYPE' and then for each row populate it with the type of habitat the row represents (i.e. Urban). After the field is populated for all rows, then use the Unique Values to symbolize based on the HABITAT_TYPE field.

If you have a lot of rows in your table, consider using the Field Calculator to populate the new field.

SimpleMapper

Thank you GoWest for helping me, it all makes a lot of sense.

How would I go about populating the new field with habitats? I'm confused myself for which row represents which habitat. Hope this question makes sense.

GoWest

Use the Select tool and select the polygon on the map. The corresponding row will be selected in the attribute table. Then type the name of the habitat into the new habitat field of the select row.

I also recommend the ArcGIS Pro Fundamentals course. It's great!
https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/5b733d0c8659c25ea7013df9/arcgis-pro-fundamentals/

SimpleMapper

Thanks again for helping.

I'm not sure if this is a silly question, but I'm wondering how I find out which each polygon/habitat is what (I have over 6000 rows). Since when I select a polygon, it doesn't inform me what habitat it is. Am I supposed to have this information provided to me, for which numbers and decimals in the attribute table represent in terms of habitat type?

Thanks for helping me this far.

GoWest

If this answers your question, then please mark this question as the solution.

Thanks....and good luck!

SimpleMapper

Thanks for answering my question!

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