Post 2: Python Scripts

Python is a language that is used to automate computing tasks through programs called scripts. The automation makes work easier, faster, and more accurate. Python is an open source language, free, and cross-platform. ESRI has taken advantage of Python for ArcGIS. These advantages include:

• Easy to learn and excellent for beginners, yet superb for experts
• Highly scalable, suitable for large projects or small one-off programs known as scripts
• Portable, cross-platform
• Embeddable (making ArcGIS scriptable)
• Stable and mature
• A large user community

Python extends across ArcGIS and becomes the language for data analysis, data conversion, data management, and map automation, helping increase productivity.

 Script 1:

Script 2: 

This script will assist in the completion and use network analysis in order to calculate the impact of trucking sand from mines to rail terminals on local roads. The mines must be active and cannot have a rail loading site station on-site. The script will entail setting up the variables, writing multiple SQL statements that meet the criteria of the mines, running queries, and selecting all mines that are within km from the rail road and removing them. 

After the script was ran there was 44 mines. The results of the script were completed including new feature classes such as mines0_norail_final. However, the rails_wtm feature class did not cut to fit the state of Wisconsin. All of the rails in the continuous US are still available. That will either need to be ran again or clipped to the state of Wisconsin.

Script 3: 

This script will use various geoprocessing tools to build models for the sand mining suitability and environmental risk in Trempealeau County, WI. This specifically includes building a sand mining suitability model, a sand mining risk model, and overlaying the results to find the best locations for sand mining with minimal environmental and community impacts.