APPENDIX 7 GIS PROCEDURES
The assessment of populations and coast line length was undertaken using Arc- GIS software, combined with Scottish outline map from UK Borders map library, the DataZone map in Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics database and the 2006 population estimates by Data Zone from the SNS database. Final procedures were as follows
1. The data zone estimates for 10-14, 14-19 and ALL ages were downloaded as a csv file from SNS and converted to a dbf file within Excel.
2. The .shp map of the data zone was downloaded and added to a new map in Arc- GIS.
3. The ,dbf file was added to the map and joined with the data-zone map.
4. Population estimates for the age classes were obtained using the statistics option in the attribute file.
5. Data Zones on the mainland were selected using the selection tool. It should be noted that on occasions, most notably the Small Isles and the Summer Isles, the relevant data zone on the mainland incorporated very small population islands (the total population of the whole zone is less than 150). The population of the selected mainland areas was obtained from the selected items in the attribute table.
6. Two features were created; the coastline of the mainland and the Scotland England Border, using the sketch tool option in the Arc- GIS editor. (Note that this required definition in Arc-Catalog and loading into Arc-Map)
7. The total length of the coastline and the borders was estimated from the attribute table after defining and calculating the lengths of each segment.
8. The total length for the islands was obtained from the Scotland Outline map downloaded from UK Borders map library. This was unfortunately not possible for the mainland because the relevant feature included inland waters and the border. On the other hand each island is an individual feature.
9. The Selection by Location tool on the Arc-Map main menu provides a means of identifying any data zone within a buffer zone of specified width for a specified feature This was done for 1, 2, 5 10 and 25km buffers of the Coastline feature. The statistics for the selected data zones was obtained from the attribute table.
10. Finally population data for the islands was obtained by subtraction.