Geographic Information System (GIS) &

Global Positioning System (GPS)

RE211
.
Week 3 Tutorial 3 : Vector Attribute Data

PNGUNRE
Vudal Camps

2025 Semester One (1)

Mr Rohan Bola
 Objective
In this topic we describe how attribute data are
associated with vector features and can be used
to symbolize data.
Keywords:
Attribute, database, fields, data, vector,
symbology
 Vector Attribute Data
Overview
• Vector data provide a way to represent real world
features within the GIS environment.
• A feature is anything you can see on the landscape.
Imagine you are standing on the top of a hill. Looking
down you can see houses, roads, trees, rivers, and so on
(see Figure 9).
• Each one of these things would be a feature when we
represent them in a GIS Application. Vector features have
attributes, which consist of text or numerical information
that describe the features.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Figure 19: Maps come to life when colour and different symbols are
used to help you to tell one type of feature from the next. Can you tell
the difference between rivers, roads and contours using the map on
the left? Using the map on the right it is much easier to see the
different features
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
• In this topic we will look at how attribute data can help us to
make interesting and informative maps. In the previous topic on
vector data, we briefly explained that attribute data are used to
describe vector features. Take a look at the house pictures in
Figure 20 below.
• The geometry of these house features is a polygon (based on the
floor plan of the house), the attributes we have recorded are
roof color, whether there is a balcony, and the year the house
was built. Note that attributes don’t have to be visible things -
they can describe things we know about the feature such as the
year it was built. In a GIS Application, we can represent this
feature type in a houses polygon layer, and the attributes in an
attribute table (see Figure 21).
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Figure 20: Every feature has characteristics that we can describe. These
can be visible things, or things we know about the feature (e.g. year built).
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Figure 21: A houses layer. House features have attributes that describe the
houses’ roof colour and other properties. The attribute table (lower image) lists the
attributes for the house areas shown on the map. When a feature is highlighted in
the table, it will appear as a yellow polygon on the map
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
The fact that features have attributes as well geometry in a GIS Application
opens up many possibili- ties. For example we can use the attribute values
to tell the GIS what colours and style to use when drawing features (see
Figure 22). The process of setting colours and drawing styles is often
referred to as setting feature symbology.
Attribute data can also be useful when creating map labels. Most GIS
Applications will have a facility to select an attribute that should be used to
label each feature.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Figure 22: In a GIS Application, we can draw features differently depending
on their attributes. On the left we have drawn house polygons with the same
colour as the roof attribute. On the right we colour coded houses according to
whether they have a balcony or not
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
• If you have ever searched a map for a place name or a specific feature, you will know
how time consuming it can be. Having attribute data can make searching for a specific
feature quick and easy. In Figure 23 you can see an example of an attribute search in a
GIS.
• Finally, attribute data can be very useful in carrying out spatial analysis. Spatial
analysis combines the spatial information stored in the geometry of features with their
attribute information. This allows us to study features and how they relate to each other.
There are many types of spatial analysis that can be carried out, for example, you could
use GIS to find out how many red roofed houses occur in a particular area. If you have
tree features, you could use GIS to try to find out which species might be affected if a
piece of land is developed. We can use the attributes stored for water samples along a
river course to understand where pollution is entering into the stream. The possibilities
are endless! In a later topic we will be exploring spatial analysis in more detail.

• Before we move on to attribute data in more detail, let’s take a quick recap:

• Features are real world things such as roads, property boundaries, electrical substation
sites and so on. A feature has a geometry (which determines if it is a point, polyline or
polygon) and attributes (which describe the feature). This is shown in Figure 24.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Figure 23: In a GIS Application, we can also search for features based on their
attributes. Here we see a search for houses with black roofs. Results are shown
in yellow in the map, turquoise on the table

Figure 24: Vector features at a glance.

 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Attributes in detail

• Attributes for a vector feature are stored in a table. A table is like a

spreadsheet. Each column in the table is called a field. Each row in the
table is a record.
• Table 4 shows a simple example of how an attribute table looks in a GIS.
The records in the attribute table in a GIS each correspond to one
feature. Usually the information in the attribute table is stored in some
kind of database.
• The GIS application links the attribute records with the feature geometry
so that you can find records in the table by selecting features on the map,
and find features on the map by selecting features in the table.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Table 4: An attribute table has fields (columns) and records (in rows)
Field 1: Year Built Field 2: Roof Color Field 3: Balcony

Record 1 1998 Red Yes

Record 2 2000 Black No

Record 3 2001 Silver Yes

Each field in the attribute table contains contains a specific type of data -
text, numeric or date. De- ciding what attributes to use for a feature requires
some thought and planning. In our house example earlier on in this topic, we
chose roof colour, presence of a balcony and month of construction as
attributes of interest. We could just as easily have chosen other aspects of a
house such as:
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
➢ number of rooms
➢ number of occupants
➢ type of dwelling (RDP House, block of flats, shack, brick house etc)
➢ year the house was built
➢ area of floor space in the house
➢ and so on....

• With so many options, how do we make a good choice as to what attributes

are needed for a feature? It usually boils down to what you plan to do with the
data. If you want to produce a colour coded map showing houses by age, it will
make sense to have a ’Year Built’ attribute for your feature. If you know for sure
you will never use this type of map, it is better to not store the information.
Collecting and storing unneeded information is a bad idea because of the cost
and time required to research and capture the information. Very often we
obtain vector data from companies, friends or the government. In these cases
it is usually not possible to request specific attributes and we have to make do
with what we get.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Single Symbols

If a feature is symbolised without using any attribute table data, it can only be
drawn in a simple way. For example with point features you can set the colour
and marker (circle, square, star etc.) but that is all. You cannot tell the GIS to
draw the features based on one of its properties in the attribute table. In order to
do that, you need to use either a graduated, continuous or unique value
symbol. These are described in detail in the sections that follow.
A GIS application will normally allow you to set the symbology of a layer using
a dialog box such as the one shown in Figure 25a. In this dialog box you can
choose colours and symbol styles. Depending on the geometry type of a layer,
different options may be shown. For example with point layers you can choose
a marker style. With line and polygon layers there is no marker style option,
but instead you can select a line style and colour such as dashed orange for
gravel roads, solid orange for minor roads, and so on (as shown in 25b). With
polygon layers you also have the option of setting a fill style and colour.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Figure 25: Setting the symbology of a vector layer

(a) When using simple symbols, the feature is drawn (a) There are different options when defining
without using an attribute to control how it looks. simple symbols for polyline and polygon
This is the dialog for point features. features.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Graduated Symbols

Sometimes vector features represent things with a changing numerical value.

Contour lines are a good example of this. Each contour usually has an
attribute value called ’height’ that contains information about what height that
contour represents. In Figure 23 earlier in this topic we showed contours all
drawn with the same colour. Adding colour to the contours can help us to
interpret the meanings of contours. For example we can draw low lying areas
with one colour, mid-altitude areas In this module, you will create a basic map
which will be used later as a basis for further demonstrations of QGIS
functionality.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Figure 26: The height attribute of contours can be used to Figure 27: Our map after setting graduated
separate the contours into 3 classes. Contours between 980m colours for our contours.
and 1120m will be drawn in brown, those between 1120m and
1240m in green and those between 1240m and 1500m in
purple
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Setting colours based on discrete groups of attribute values is called Graduated

Symbology in QGIS. The process is shown in Figure 26 and 27. Graduated
symbols are most useful when you want to show clear differences
between features with attribute values in different value ranges. The GIS
Application will analyse the attribute data (e.g. height) and, based on the
number of classes you request, create groupings for you. This process is
illustrated in Table 5.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Continuous Colour Symbols

In the previous section on Graduated Color symbols we saw that we can

draw features in discrete groups or classes. Sometimes it is useful to draw
features in a color range from one color to another. The GIS Application
will use a numerical attribute value from a feature (e.g. contour heights or
pollution levels in a stream) to decide which color to use. Table 6 shows
how the attribute value is used to define a continuous range of colors.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Within the GIS Application we can open /choose to use Unique Value
symbology for a layer. The GIS will scan through all the different string
values in the attribute field and build a list of unique strings or numbers.
Each unique value can then be assigned a colour and style. This is shown
in Figure 30.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
When the GIS draws the layer, it will look at the attributes of each feature before
drawing it to the screen. Based on the value in the chosen field in the attribute
table, the road line will be drawn with suitable colour and line style (and fill style if
its a polygon feature). This is shown in Figure 31
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)

Things to be aware of

Deciding which attributes and symbology to use requires some planning. Before
you start collecting any GeoSpatial data, you should ensure you know what
attributes are needed and how it will be symbolised. It is very difficult to go back
and re-collect data if you plan poorly the first time around. Remember also that the
goal of collecting attribute data is to allow you to analyse and interpret spatial
information. How you do this depends on the questions you are trying to answer.
Symbology is a visual language that allows people to see and understand your
attribute data based on the colours and symbols you use. Because of this you
should put a lot of thought into how you symbolise your maps in order to make
them easy to understand.
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
What have we learned?

Let’s wrap up what we covered in this worksheet:

➢ Vector features have attributes

➢ Attributes describe the properties of the feature
➢ The attributes are stored in a table
➢ Rows in the table are called records
➢ There is one record per feature in the vector layer
➢ Columns in the table are called fields
➢ Fields represent properties of the feature e.g. height, roof colour etc.
➢ Fields can contain numerical, string (any text) and date information
➢ The attribute data for a feature can be used to determine how it is symbolized
➢ Graduated colour symbology groups the data into discrete classes
➢ Continuous colour symbology assigns colours from a colour range to the
features based on their attributes
➢ Unique value symbology associates each different value in the chosen
attribute column with a different symbol (colour and style)
➢ If the attribute of a vector layer is not used to determine its symbology, it is
drawn using a single symbol only
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Now you try!

Here are some ideas for you to try with your learners:

• Using the table that you created in the last topic, add a new column for the symbology
type you would use for each feature type and have the learners identify which
symbology type they would use (see Table 8 for an example).
• Try to identify which symbology types you would use for the following types of vector
features:points showing pH level of soil samples taken around your schoollines
showing a road network in a citypolygons for houses with an attribute that shows
whether it is made of brick, wood or ’other’ material.
Something to think about

If you don’t have a computer available, you can use transparency sheets and a 1:50
000 map sheet to experiment with different symbology types. For example place a
transparency sheet over the map and using different coloured koki pens, draw in red
all contour lines below 900m (or similar) and in green all lines above or equal to
900m. Can you think of how to reproduce other symbology types using the same
technique?
 Vector Attribute Data (cont’d)
Table 8: An example of a table that defines the feature types and the kind of symbology
you would use for each.

What’s next?
In the section that follows we will take a closer look at data capture. We will put the things we
have learned about vector data and attributes into practice by creating new data.