INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
ITLS6111: Spatial Analytics
Weight: 25%
This individual assignment aims to assess your ability to (a) perform spatial analyses and (b)
comminute your analysis results through effective map designs and data visualisation. The
assignment requires you to design three maps under the same ArcGIS Pro project. The
requirements and their weights/points for each map are described below.
Your submission is in the form of PDF file (could be converted from power point slides .ppt
or pptx file) and ArcGIS Pro project (.aprx file).
Requirement for the ArcGIS Pro project file (.aprx) submission
This file is used to cross-check your work, particularly your set-up. You will need this file to
export the three maps required below. While no mark is allocated to this part, you should set
up the project, maps, layouts, dashboards, etc. in a way that others can use them without any
difficulty (this is very important for group project at the end of the semester). The PDF file is
then simply an “export” of your set up for sharing (e.g., export layout to pdf). You can find
this function on page 49 of the Workshop1 slides.
Requirement for the slide submission (.pdf file)
This is used for marking your work. Each slide includes one map. The submitted file should
have exactly 4 pages in total, including one cover page that has your student ID (don’t
include your name to allow anonymous marking) and the name of this unit (ITLS6111). You
are free to design the slides as you so wish but the focus should be on the maps/visualisations
you show, instead of the slides themselves.
Each map should have a clear and succinct title that describes the message you want your
maps to convey. The title can be a part of your map (i.e., added using ArcGIS Pro insert
Straight text), but you can add the title separately using text on the power point slide. Each
map should be exported to an image file (such as .JPEG or .PNG, .PDF) for inclusion on the
slide/pdf file.

Map 1 (7 points): Create a map of the neighbourhood around your home. This map should
cover an area of about 1.5 x 2.5 kilometres. The map should clearly identify your house,
local and main streets, nearby bus stops, train lines/stations (if any) and all the major features
such as supermarkets, shopping centres, churches, etc. that you can find from the
SYD_CulturalFeatures in the SydneyInfrastructure.gdb or elsewhere (e.g., Living Atlas,
ArcGIS online, Open Street Map). You should be selective of what ‘cultural features’ to
include or exclude. [Tips: put yourself into the position of a tourist who first visits your
neighbourhood to design a map that has the information that the tourist may care about] (3
points)
Label important features of your map as appropriate. Add symbols to your map to make it
easier for the users: a symbol for your house, supermarkets, a north arrow, scale, legend, and
map title. Again, you should be selective of what symbols/styles to use (or not to use). (2
points)
2

You should use an inset map to show the location of your neighbourhood relative to the City
of Sydney (2 points).
Tips and instructions:
• For those of you who are not living in the Sydney metropolitan area, you can use any
address in Sydney metropolitan area (such as the International House of the University
of Sydney or your relative’s home address) as your “home address” for the purpose of
designing this pin map.
• For those of you who live in a relatively new neighbourhood where the SYD_street
layer in the SydneyInfrastructure.gdb does not include your local roads/streets, you
can insert a “base map” to add the local streets to your neighbourhood map. See the
screenshot below to find this toolbar. Note that this map requires you to design a
neighbourhood map from the base layers provided, and hence, you should limit the use
of a base map. You will have an opportunity to work with a fuller/more up-to-date
street network dataset later in the unit when you are more capable of handling large
datasets.
• See the workshop 1 slide 58 for how-to add your home address to a map.
Map 2 (9 points): Use the provided train stations and patronage data which can be found in
the Opal.gdb inside the ITLS6111Data.zip) to compute and show the number of tap-off at
each train station between 5:00 PM and 6:59 PM time window (4 points). The meaning of
the fields/variables in this dataset are as follows:
• Mode = mode of transport
• Num_jny = number of journeys between an Origin and Destination pairs during
each time window (hourly)
• ts_nm = transit stop name of the Origin (name of tap on stop)
• tapon_hour = the hour when the tap on occurred
• tapoff_hour = the hour when the tap off occurred
• tag2_ts_nm = transit stop name of the Destination (name of tap off stop)
• olat & olong = latitude and longitude of the Origin (tap on location)
• dlat & dlong = latitude and longitude of the Destination (tap on location)
• ignore other variables which are external IDs
Note that the tapon-tapoff data are truncated to hour, meaning that a tap-on (or tap-off) time
between 7:00 AM and 7:59 AM, for example, is shown as 7:00 AM in the dataset.
Using your spatial data analysis and visualisation skills, estimate and show, on the same map
or in an inset map, the total number of people that live within 1.2 km from each of the top 15
busiest stations during this time window. You can use the latest Census data at the SA1 level
from the 2021 Australian Census (SA1_population_2021 in the CensusData.gdb) to estimate
the number of people based on their usual place of residence (4 points). [Tips: you should
perform a catchment analysis – see week 4 workshop page 29 onwards]
Ensure you label your map appropriately (1 point).
3

Map 3 (9 points): The rental crisis in Australia presents a significant challenge for foreign
students seeking accommodation. With an unprecedented surge in demand post-Covid19 and
a limited supply of affordable rental properties, renters are facing steep rental prices, fierce
competition, and scarce availability. This situation is exacerbated in major cities like Sydney,
where educational institutions predominantly attract international students. The crisis not
only affects the housing affordability but also impacts students' experience as many are
forced to explore alternative options, such as shared accommodations or residing in distant
suburbs.
Using the data collected from the NSW Government Department of Community and Justices
(provided in weeklyRent_postcode.csv file), you are requested to design a Dashboard to
describe how bad the rental crisis in Sydney is. You should show:
1) How median weekly rent cost has changed across postcodes between 2019 and 2023
for a 3-bedroom house. The dashboard should allow the user to click on any postcode
in NSW to explore the trend of weekly rental cost via pop-up configuration (this is not
marked, but I encourage you to explore, at least knowing that it is possible to do this).
The export layout (for submission) should focus only on the postcode of your
current home. If your postcode does not have data, show the data in the nearest
postcode to your home [Tips: the best method to convey this information may be in a
form of a chart] (3 points)
2) Create a map to show the median weekly rent cost for a 3-bedroom house across
NSW in the 2023 December quarter (latest data published by the Department). (4.5
points)

How would you set up your layout is a challenge for you to solve (1.5 marks). Thus, put on
your critical thinking hat and visual eyes. This video from Esri may be handy.

Meaning of data fields:
• dwt = dwelling type
• beds = number of bedrooms,
• Mar-19 to Dec-23 fields indicate the median weekly rent cost for the corresponding
quarter and year (e.g., Sep-23 is the September quarter of 2023).
• Cells with -999 values indicate missing data.

Final tips:
• If you characterise yourselves as a HD student, then paying attention to details is a
must.
• Assuming you keep up to date with lectures and workshops, you should be able to do
Map 1 and Map 3 now (week 3). Map 2 requires knowledge covered in Week 4. You
may want to google around for how to “configure pop-up in ArcGIS Pro”, or
“configure layout in ArcGIS Pro”. Plenty of tutorial videos are available on YouTube.
• Any questions, please post on Canvas Discussions board.