application user guide -...

Houston-Galveston Area Council | Last Update:3/26/2018

1 ACE: Activity-Connectivity Explorer

Application User Guide

1. Screen View

1. Zoom in and Zoom out

2. Full Extent (Zoom to full region view)

3. Find My Location (Centers the map to your current location which requires additional

permission on your browser)

4. Extent Navigate Navigate the map to its previous or next extent

5. Find Location Find locations or search features on the map by a place name, a point of

interest, or an address including an intersection with street names ('Richmond at Timmons

Houston')

6. Links to Resource Links to Summary Viewer, User Guide and About ACE

7. Basic Widgets Print, Measurement, and Basemap Gallery

8. Advanced Widgets (Analytical Tools) Layer List, Legend, Search Summary Boundaries,

Search Hexagons, Create Boundary, Create Multi-Boundaries, Location Analysis, Add Data,

Enhance Query, and Select widgets.



2. Basic Widgets

1) Print

Click Print to open print options.

Select 'Layout' and 'Format'

Select 'Advanced’ Option

Click 'Print'



2) Measurement

Click Measurement to measure area, distance, and location.

Choose one of measurements and select units

Click on a spot on the map and move your mouse to another spot and double‐click.

*You can choose multiple points by single-clicking on multiple spots. Once you get to the end,

double-click and the measurement for the entire area/line will appear.

3) Basemap Gallery

Click Basemap to select a background map layer and switch among available basemaps

Start Point (one click)

Middle point (one click)

End point (double click)



3. Advanced Widgets (Analytical Tools)

1) Layer List

Click Layer List at the bottom of the page.

Click arrow next to 'ACE' to expand sub-layers under ACE layer

Check boxes of each layer to display layers



Click arrow next to the sub-layer to display map key for the layer

2) Legend

After selecting a layer(s) on Layer List, click Legend to see a layer's map legend.

3) Search Summary Boundaries

Click Search Summary Boundaries to display selected predefined percentiles of activity

population, employment, population, and intersection density, and see where varying activities

exist and overlap in the region. (Same as the Summary Viewer)



Select 'Activity Population Density'

Choose '12,000 + (80% cumulative density)' and Click 'Execute'



Click 'Tasks' tab and click Back arrow to make another selection

Select 'Intersection Density' and choose '100 + (80% cumulative density)' and Click 'Execute'



Click 'Layer List' and Check “Intersection Density_Query Result” and Activity

Population Density_Query Result”



4) Search Hexagons

There are 62,000 hexagons throughout the region. This tool helps find hexagon(s) with a similar

value in terms of density, index, and balance.

Click Search Hexagons to identify Hexagons with same conditions

There are multiple query options to search hexagons;

• Single Density Value: Activity Population Density, Employment Density, Household

Population Density, Intersection Density, Jobs/Household Density

• Density Values (Composite): find hexagon matching all conditions using Density Value

• Density Index (Composite): find hexagon matching all conditions using Index Value



Single Density Value Query: Activity Population Density Index

There are two query options; using Density or Index. You can put your values in a in "Between

Option". The default setting is from a minimum value (typically 0) to the maximum value of

151,632.

Type '10,000' on the first box of 'Activity Population Density (residents + jobs / sq mile). This

means you want to see all hexagons of Activity Population Density between 10,000 and 151,632

(Maximum density) per square mile.

Click 'Execute'



There are 1,034 hexagons selected with Activity Population Density value between 10,000 and

151.632.

Density Index (Composite)

Click 'Tasks' tab and click Back arrow to make another selection

Click ‘Density Index (Composite)’



* if you can't see all of the menu options, scroll down the side bar or drag at bottom of the

‘Search Hexagons’ window.

Type ‘0.8’ as the minimum value for 'Activity Population Density Index is between' and type

‘0.7’ as the minimum value for 'Intersection Density Index is between'. The relationship between

indicators are intersection.

Click 'Execute'



There are 182 hexagons selected with intersecting conditions for two indexes.

Click next “Density Index (Composite)” and switch to other query result.

5) Create Boundary

This tool generates boundaries based on selected hexagon(s).

Open Layer List



The 'Density Index (Composite) _Query Result' layer is generated from Search Hexagons tool.

Click Create Boundary

Select the layer 'Density Index(Composite)_Query Result'

Click 'Execute'



Click (Menu Details) next “The result is drawn on the map”.

Click 'View in Attribute Table' to view detail table information



There are 29 areas to be identified as centers with combined values. (Turn off 'Filter by Map

Extent' on the menu, if it is turn on)

Click icon one more to collapse the attribute table.

Click (Menu Details) and click “Create Layer”

Type “Density Index Result”

Open Layer List and see “Density Index Result” layer

Click (Menu Details) and click “Export to GeoJSON”



You can save “features.geojson” file on your computer.

Click Add Data Widget and select “File” Tap. Browse or Drop “Feature.geojson” file on

the widget.

You can see features _ 0 on the map. (* Geojson only allow to contain shape information.)



3) Create Multi-Boundaries

This tool generates boundaries from multiple selected hexagon(s) layers to compare the results.

Open Layer List (for this task you need two query results; above 0.8 Activity Population

Density Index and above 0.8 Intersection Density Index)

There are two operational layers; 'Intersection Density _Query Result' and 'Activity Population

Density_Query Result' from Search Hexagons

Click 'Create Multi-Boundaries' icon and there are two Create Boundary

widgets.

click 'Create Boundary 2' and 'Create Boundary 3' menu

In 'Create Boundary 2' window, Select 'Activity Population Density_Query Result' Layer

In 'Create Boundary 3' window, Select 'Intersection Density_Query Result' Layer



Click 'Execute' on both windows

Click and uncheck “Intersection Density _ Query Result" and "Activity Population

Density_Query Result"



Blue colored boundaries are areas of Activity Population Index above 0.8 and red colored

boundaries are areas of Intersection Density Index above 0.8. Currently, the application is

available to create three boundaries including 'Create Boundary'.

4. Location Analysis Widget

• Get detailed information for the exact area you need - including hand-drawn shapes

(point, line, area) and buffer analysis around a location.

• Access Ped-Bike Destinations, METRO Transit Facilities, Land Use Projection,

aggregated Hexagon grids to evaluate location potential.

1) Open Menu

Click 'Location Analysis'

Analysis control panel appears at the bottom of the application.



2) Locate Your Area

There are three different methods to locate your area; Draw Point , Draw Line , and

Draw Polygon .

(1) Locate your area using 'Find Address or place' or

navigation tool .

(2) Click icon

(3) Locate your mouse point at your location and add a point.

A blue point appears with address information.



3) Create Buffer

Move the control bar or type a specific number under 'Buffer Distance (Miles)' on the analysis

control panel. (If the buffer distance is 0, there is no selection in 'Draw Point' method.)

One-mile buffer circle appears on the map.



4) Results

Choose a different dataset. There will be information summarized within/intersected with the

buffer area.

Ped-Bike Destinations

METRO Transit Facilities



Land Use (current) with composition (acre)

Land Use (2045) with composition (acre)



Hexagon Grids (if you can't see proper hexagon shape, please reload the application.)

Accessibility Score

Click to download data (CSV format).

Click to generate report



5. Add Data Widget

The Add Data widget enables users to add data to the map by searching for layers in

ArcGIS Online, entering URLs, or uploading local files including shapefiles, CSV, GPX, and

GeoJSON. In this way, users can temporarily add layers to the map and remove them from the

map. However, they cannot save them to the map.

1. On the Search tab, choose the scope you want to search and click Add on a specific item to add

the layer to the map. The added layer will appear in the Layer List widget as well.

2. Click Remove to remove the layer from the map and the Layer List widget. Click Details to get

information about the layer.

3. Click the icon to only search layers within the map area. Clicking it turns the icon red so

you can search all layers in the scope.



o Click the Type drop-down list to search layers based on map service, feature service,

image service, vector tile service, KML, or WMS.

o Click the Sort By drop-down list to sort items by relevance, title, owner, rating, view, or

date.

4. To add layers by URL, click the URL tab next to the Search Tab. Choose a type and enter the

URL. Click Add to add the data to the map. The added layer will appear in the Layer List widget

as well. The following types are supported through the URL:

o ArcGIS Server web service

o WMS OGC web service

o KML

o GeoRSS

o CSV

For more information on CSV files, see CSV format information .

5. Click Sample URL(s) to see the URL format for each type.

6. Click the File tab to upload files locally. You can either drag and drop the file or browse to it. It

supports shapefiles in Zip format, and CSV, GPX and GeoJSON files.

http://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/csv-gpx.htm



7. To remove the layers added in step 5 and 7, click LAYERS in the lower right corner of the

widget. In the Layers panel, click the trash can icon next to the layer to remove it.

8. Click BACK in the lower right corner to return to the main panel.

6. Enhance Query Widget

The Enhance Query widget enables users to retrieve information from source data by executing a

user-defined custom query.

Click and select Activity Population Density” as “1: Select Data Layer”

Select “hp” as Query Value Field



Select “>” as The Operator

Type 1000 as Search Value

Click “Add to Query Expression” button

Then, you will see “hp > 1000” on Query Expression

Click “AND” button to add ADD on Query Expression



Type “j > 5000” on Query Expression

Click and check the result

Click and check Query result as Operational Layer



7. Select Widget

The Select widget enables users to interactively select features on the map and take actions on

the selected features.

Click Layer List widget and turn on a desired layer (“Accessibility Score”) to select it.

Click and check “Accessibility Score” to be activated.



Hover over the “Select” button. You can Select by Rectangle with the follow actions:

• Drag the pointer on the map to create a new selection.

• Press the Shift key while dragging the pointer on the map to add selected features to the

selection.

• Press the Ctrl key while dragging the pointer on the map to remove selected features from

the selection.

Click Select and draw on the map to select features.

The number of selected features display next to the layer.

Click next the Accessibility Score.



Click one of the actions, for example, Statistics. Choose the field you want to see for the

statistics.

Click Create Layer to create a new graphic layer on the map. You can turn it on and off in the

Layer List widget.



Click Export to CSV file if you check the Allow to export selected features option during the

configuration. A CSV file is generated locally for the feature set.

Select ‘Export to GeoJSON’

Go to a link below.

http://mapshaper.org/ (It works properly with Google Chrome Brower.)

Drop or select a GeoJSON file to import the file to the app. Export it as a shape file.

http://mapshaper.org/



8. Data Dictionary

• ID: Hexagon ID

Raw Value

• hh: number of household in 2017

• hp: number of household population excluding Group-Quarter population in 2017

• j: number of jobs in 2017

• jp: number of activity population (household population + jobs) in 20167

• int: number of intersection in 2017

• Ped-Bike Destination in 2017

• Houston METRO facilities in 2017

Clustering Density

• hh_s1: clustering household density (household/square mile)

• hp_s1: clustering household population density (household population/square mile)

• j_s1: clustering employment density (jobs/square mile)

• jp_s1: clustering activity population density (activity population/square mile)

• int_s1: clustering intersection density (intersection/square mile)

Index

• hh_s1_cum: household index (cumulative percentage) between 0 - 1

• hp_s1_cum: household population index (cumulative percentage) between 0 -1

• j_s1_cum: job index (cumulative percentage) between 0 - 1

• jp_s1_cum: activity population index (cumulative percentage) between 0 - 1

• int_s1_cum: intersection index (cumulative percentage) between 0 - 1

Ratio

• jobs_hh_ratio_s1: clustering jobs density/clustering household density ratio

Accessibility Score

• Activity Index: Activity population index between 0 – 100

• Connectivity Index: Intersection index between 0 – 100

• Amenity Index: Access to Ped-Bike destinations between 0 – 100

• Accessibility Score = Activity Index (40%) + Connectivity (30%) + Amenity Index

(30%) between 0 - 100

For questions or concerns please contact [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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