Estimate access to infrastructure

The United Nations considers rural access to all-season roads an indicator of resilient infrastructure, one of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Without road access, an area's economic development may stagnate.

In this tutorial, you'll act as an analyst in Japan's National Statistical Office. To promote sustainable development in the nation's rural areas, you'll estimate access to all-season roads. First, you'll add population and road data and limit your study area to rural regions. Then, you'll create a 2-kilometer buffer around all-season roads and calculate the percentage of the rural population within that buffer.

This tutorial was last tested on May 18, 2023, using ArcGIS Pro 3.1. If you're using a different version of ArcGIS Pro, you may encounter different functionality and results

Requirements

• ArcGIS Pro (see options for software access)
• Publisher or Administrator role in an ArcGIS organization or ArcGIS Enterprise

Limit the study area

Rather than analyze rural areas across all of Japan, you'll limit your study area to Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. First, you'll add Metropolitan Employment Area (MEA) data to a new project in ArcGIS Pro. MEAs are municipalities in which the core city population is at least 50,000 and the surrounding commuter population is at least 10,000. For your analysis, you'll define rural areas to be municipalities that are not MEAs (meaning their population is lower than the minimum value). Then, you'll extract rural areas from this dataset. Afterward, you'll add population data.

Add municipality boundary data

In Japan, the designation between rural and urban is based largely on employment and commuter ties to city centers. First, you'll add a layer that contains all the MEAs in Japan.

Note:

The definition of urban and rural areas varies by country. The distinction may be defined by population density, land use, distance between development, or other factors.

1. Start ArcGIS Pro. If prompted, sign in using your licensed ArcGIS account or ArcGIS Enterprise portal using a named user account.

   Note:

   If you don't have access to ArcGIS Pro or an ArcGIS organizational account, see options for software access.

   If you're signing in to an Enterprise account, ensure that ArcGIS Pro is configured to use your organization's portal.

   ArcGIS Pro opens. It contains a list of project templates under the heading New.

2. Under New Project, click Map.

   

3. In the Create a New Project window, for Name, type SDG_Japan. Click OK.

   A blank map project opens in ArcGIS Pro. Depending on your organization's settings, the default extent may vary. First, you'll change the basemap to one that will emphasize your data.

4. On the ribbon, click the Map tab. In the Layer group, click Basemap and choose Light Gray Canvas.

   

   The Light Gray Canvas basemap has a simplified appearance, so the data you add to the map will appear more prominently. Next, you'll add the MEA data.

5. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, in the Layer group, click the Add Data button.

   

   The Add Data window appears. You can add data from your computer, an ArcGIS Online organization or Enterprise portal, or ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. The MEA data is hosted in ArcGIS Online.

6. Under Portal, click ArcGIS Online. In the search box, type Metropolitan Employment Areas owner:Learn_ArcGIS and press Enter.

   

7. Click the Metropolitan Employment Areas layer and click OK.

   The layer is added to the map and the map extent changes to show Japan.

   

   Municipalities that fulfill the conditions to be an MEA are styled with various colors depending on their suburb category. Municipalities that aren't MEAs have no color. (Depending on your zoom extent, you may be able to see the boundaries between the municipalities.)

   Next, you will choose a projection that suits the Asia-Pacific region. In ArcGIS Pro, the map's default coordinate system is determined by the first layer (excluding basemaps) that is added, which was the Metropolitan Employment Areas layer.

8. In the Contents pane, right-click Map and click Properties.

   

   The Map Properties window appears.

9. In the Map Properties window, click the Coordinate Systems tab.

   The Current XY box tells you that the map's current coordinate system is WGS 1984 World Equidistant Cylindrical.

   

   In this tutorial, you want to measure and assess access to all-seasons roads, so you will use an equal-area projection.

10. In the search bar, type equal earth and press Enter.
11. In the XY Coordinate Systems Available list, click the arrow next to Projected Coordinate System to expand it. Expand World. Click Equal Earth (world) Asia-Pacific.

    

12. Click OK.

    The coordinate system updates.

    

Filter the data

Next, you'll filter the data. First, you'll create a definition query to show only municipalities in Shikoku. Then, you'll select the rural Shikoku municipalities based on MEA status and export them to a new feature class.

1. In the Contents pane, double-click MetropolitanEmploymentAreas. In the Layer Properties window that appears, click the Definition Query tab.

   A definition query allows you to display only features with specific attributes. In particular, your definition query will display municipalities in Shikoku's four provinces: Ehime, Kagawa, Kochi, and Tokushima.

2. Click New definition query.
3. For Definition Query 1, use the menus to create the expression Where PNAME includes the value(s) Ehime,Kagawa,Kochi,Tokushima.

   

4. Click Apply. Click OK.

   The filter is applied and only displays municipalities on the island of Shikoku.

5. Zoom in to the island of Shikoku.

   

   The municipalities that qualify as MEAs are those that are styled with a color. The other municipalities aren't MEAs, so you'll consider them rural. Geographically, most of the island is rural.

   

   Next, you'll select the rural municipalities and export them to a new feature class. You can make the selection by creating an expression, similar to the expression you made for the definition query.

6. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, in the Selection group, click Select By Attributes.

   

   The Select By Attributes window appears.

7. In the Select By Attributes window, set the following parameters:
   • Confirm that Input Rows is set to MetropolitanEmploymentAreas.
   • Confirm that Selection type is New selection.
   • For Expression, create the expression Where AREATYPE is equal to RURAL.

   

8. Click the Verify the SQL expression is valid button.

   

   If you correctly created the expression, a message appears confirming that your expression is valid. Validating an expression checks that the expression's syntax can be understood by the software. It does not guarantee that there are any features that fit the expression.

9. Click OK.

   Shikoku's rural municipalities (those that are not MEAs) are selected.

   

   Next, you'll export the selected features to a new layer. This layer will contain only the municipalities you're interested in analyzing.

10. On the ribbon, on the Analysis tab, in the Geoprocessing group, click the Tools button.

    

11. In the Geoprocessing pane, in the search bar, type copy features and click the Copy Features tool in the list of results.

    

    By default, layers will be copied to the project's default geodatabase, a special folder that you created when you created the project.

12. For Input Features, choose MetropolitanEmploymentAreas. For Output Feature Class, type Shikoku_Rural.

    

13. Click Run.

    The copied layer is added to the map. You no longer need the original feature layer showing all of the municipalities, so you'll remove it.

14. In the Contents pane, right-click MetropolitanEmploymentAreas and choose Remove.

    After you remove the layer, only the new Shikoku_Rural layer is visible.

    

15. On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Save button.

    

    Your project is saved.

Add population data

Now that you've identified rural municipalities in the Shikoku region of Japan, you'll add population data, which you'll need to calculate the percentage of population within 2 kilometers of all-season roads.

In Japan, population estimate data is collected at the cho-cho-moku level. Cho-cho-moku are small administrative regions within municipalities. First, you'll add a layer of all cho-cho-moku in Shikoku. Then, you'll clip the layer to contain only cho-cho-moku in rural municipalities.

1. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, in the Layer group, click Add Data.
2. In the Add Data window, if necessary, click ArcGIS Online. Search for Shikoku Cho-cho-moku owner:Learn_ArcGIS.

   

3. Select the Shikoku Cho-cho-moku layer and click OK.

   Note:

   The dataset has a large number of features and may take a few moments to load.

   The cho-cho-moku are added to the map.

   Next, you'll use another geoprocessing tool to clip the extent of the cho-cho-moku layer so that only cho-cho-moku in rural areas are shown. Cho-cho-moku are subdivisions of municipalities, so cho-cho-moku boundaries fit exactly within municipality boundaries.

4. In the Geoprocessing pane, click the Back button.

   

   Tip:

   If you closed the Geoprocessing pane, you can reopen it. On the ribbon, click the Analysis tab. In the Geoprocessing group, click Tools.

5. Search for and open the Clip tool.

   

6. For the Clip tool, enter the following parameters:

   • For Input Features, choose Shikoku Cho-cho-moku.
   • For Clip Features, choose Shikoku_Rural.
   • For Output Feature Class, change the output name to Shikoku_Rural_Population.

   

   Note:

   There may be a message in the Clip tool recommending the use of the Pairwise Clip tool instead. For this tutorial, you will use the Clip tool.

7. Click Run.

   The tool runs. After a few moments, the new layer is added to the map. Currently, you can't see the new layer because it is obscured by the original cho-cho-moku dataset.

8. In the Contents pane, right-click the Shikoku Cho-cho-moku layer and choose Remove.

   The clipped layer is now visible.

   

   You now have rural population data at the cho-cho-moku level for Shikoku.

9. Save the project.

You have added nationwide municipal data to a new map. You created a query to limit that data to Shikoku and created a new dataset with only rural municipalities. Then, you added population estimate data and clipped it to the rural municipalities. Your map now only contains data for your study area.

Next, you'll use this data to calculate the percentage of rural population within 2 kilometers of all-season roads.

Evaluate road access

Previously, you added and filtered municipality and population data to your map. Next, you'll add all-season road data. Then, you'll create a 2-kilometer buffer around the roads and estimate the percentage of rural population within that buffer. Your result will give an idea of how well the Shikoku region follows the United Nations' SDG Indicator 9.1.1, a measure of sustainable development.

Buffer road data

First, you'll add all-season road data to the map. An all-season road, according to the metadata for Indicator 9.1.1, is "a road that is motorable all year round by the prevailing means of rural transport (often a pick-up or a truck which does not have four-wheel-drive)."

For the Shikoku region, the emergency transportation road system best meets the requirements for an all-season road. You'll add this data to the map and create a 2-kilometer buffer around it.

1. If necessary, open your SDG_Japan project in ArcGIS Pro.

   You'll add the emergency transportation road data from ArcGIS Online. This dataset came from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which maintains National Land numerical information on a variety of transportation and land-use topics.

2. On the ribbon, click the Map tab. In the Layer group, click the Add Data button.
3. In the Add Data window, click ArcGIS Online and search for All-Season Emergency Roads owner:Learn_ArcGIS.
4. In the list of search results, select the All-Season Emergency Roads layer and click OK.

   The layer is added to the map.

   

   Next, you'll use a geoprocessing tool to create a 2-kilometer buffer around the roads.

5. On the ribbon, click the Analysis tab. In the Geoprocessing group, click Tools.
6. In the Geoprocessing pane, search for and open the Buffer tool.

   

7. In the Buffer tool pane, change the following parameters (do not run the tool yet):

   • For Input Features, choose All-Season Emergency Roads.
   • For Output Feature Class, change the output name to All_Season_2km_Buffer.
   • For Distance, type 2 and choose Kilometers.

   

   Note:

   There may be a message in the Buffer tool recommending the use of the Pairwise Buffer tool instead. For this tutorial, you will use the Buffer tool.

   These parameters will create a 2-kilometer buffer around each road feature on the map. Because the road features are connected to one another, this will lead to many overlapping buffers. You'll change the dissolve type so that instead of multiple buffer features, the output creates a single feature.

8. For Dissolve Type, choose Dissolve all output features into a single feature.

   

9. Click Run.

   The new layer is added to the map.

   

   Next, you'll clip the rural cho-cho-moku to the buffer. The output layer will show the portions of rural cho-cho-moku within 2 kilometers of an all-season road.

10. In the Geoprocessing pane, click the Back button. Search for and open the Clip tool.
11. In the Clip tool pane, enter the following parameters:
    • For Input Features or Dataset, choose Shikoku_Rural_Population.
    • For Clip Features, choose All_Season_2km_Buffer.
    • For Output Feature Class, change the output name to Rural_2km_Buffer.

    

12. Click Run.

    The layer is added to the map.

13. In the Contents pane, uncheck All-Season Emergency Roads, All_Season_2km_Buffer, Shikoku_Rural_Population, and Shikoku_Rural.

    The only layers that are visible are the Rural_2km_Buffer and basemap layers.

    

Estimate population by area

Unlike when you clipped the cho-cho-moku layer to the municipalities layer, the boundaries of the cho-cho-moku do not line up with the boundaries of the buffer. Because of this, only portions of many cho-cho-moku are represented in the clipped layer.

It wouldn't be accurate to use the full population of the cho-cho-moku for your estimations if only part of the cho-cho-moku is close to roads. To account for this problem, you'll calculate each cho-cho-moku's population proportional to its area within the buffer.

1. In the Contents pane, right-click the Shikoku_Rural_Population layer and choose Attribute Table.

   

   The attribute table for Shikoku_Rural_Population appears. The columns are fields, and the rows are each cho-cho-moku.

   In the Shape_Area field, the first cho-cho-moku area (ObjectID 1) has an area of 36,915,164 square meters.

2. Open the attribute table for Rural_2km_Buffer and look at the Shape_Area value for ObjectID 1.

   

   The area value is about 21,388,602 square meters, smaller than the value for the same area in the Shikoku_Rural_Population table because the Clip tool automatically calculates a new Shape_Area value after the tool runs.

   Next, you will calculate the rural population within the 2-kilometer buffer by joining data from the two layers and calculate the percentage of each cho-cho-moku's area.

3. In the attribute table for Rural_2km_Buffer, click the Add Field button.

   

   The fields view appears. In this view, you can add, edit, or remove fields. A new field has already been added to the bottom row. You'll change its settings.

4. In the new row, for Field Name, type Area_Proportion. For Alias, type Percent Area in Buffer. For Data Type, choose Double.

   

5. Click under the new field to add another new field. Give the field the following settings:

   • For Field Name, type Pop_Proportion.
   • For Alias, type Population in Buffer.
   • For Data Type, choose Long.

   In the attribute table, the new fields are added, but the data is currently null. You will calculate the values in later steps.

6. For the Shape_Area field, double-click the Alias cell and type Clip Area.

   

7. On the ribbon, on the Fields tab, in the Changes group, click Save.

   

8. In the Geoprocessing pane, search for and open the Join Field tool.

   

   The Join Field tool appears.

9. In the Join Field tool pane, set the following parameters:
   • For Input Table, choose Rural_2km_Buffer.
   • For Input Join Field, choose ID.
   • For Join Table, choose Shikoku_Rural_Population.
   • For Join Table Field, choose ID.
   • For Transfer Fields, choose Shape_Area.

   

10. Click Run.
11. Open the attribute table for Rural_2km_Buffer and scroll to the right.

    

    The fields from Shikoku_Rural_Population are now in the Rural_2km_Buffer layer's attribute table. The added Shape_Area field is the area of the entire cho-cho-moku.

12. Right-click the Shape_Area field and select Fields to open the fields view.
13. Double-click the Alias cell for Shape_Area_1 and rename it Cho-cho-moku area.

    

    Now you can calculate data for the null fields by creating an expression. First, you'll calculate the proportion of each cho-cho-moku's area in the 2-kilometer buffer.

14. Close the fields view. If prompted to save changes, click Yes.
15. In the attribute table for Rural_2km_Buffer, right-click the header for the Percent Area in Buffer field and choose Calculate Field.

    

    The Calculate Field tool appears. To find the proportion of area, you'll divide the clipped area by the cho-cho-moku area.

16. In the tool parameters, for Expression, in the Fields list, double-click Clip Area.

    

    The field is added to the expression.

17. Click the division symbol and double-click Cho-cho-moku area.

    

    Your final expression reads as follows:

    !Shape_Area! / !Shape_Area_1!

18. Click OK.

    The Percent Area in Buffer field now shows the amount of each cho-cho-moku within the 2-kilometer buffer, expressed as a rate or percentage. Using these values, you'll estimate the population of each cho-cho-moku that is within the buffer by multiplying the area rate (Percent Area in Buffer) by the total population (2015 Total Population).

19. In the attribute table for Rural_2km_Buffer, right-click the header for the Population in Buffer field and choose Calculate Field.
20. In the Calculate Field tool, delete the existing expression.
21. In the Fields column, double-click Percent Area in Buffer, click the multiply symbol, and double-click 2015 Total Population.

    

    The completed expression reads:

    !Area_Proportion! * !D0001!

22. Click OK.

    The Population in Buffer field is calculated. The result is an estimation of the population of each cho-cho-moku that is within the 2-kilometer buffer.

Summarize the total population

You've estimated the population within each cho-cho-moku that lives within the buffer. Next, you'll summarize these values to find the total population. Then, you'll compare that value to the total rural population in Shikoku to estimate the percentage of the population with access to all-season roads.

1. In the attribute table, right-click the ObjectID heading and choose Summarize.

   

   The Summary Statistics tool appears. This tool summarizes information in an attribute field based on parameters you specify. You'll run it to find the sum of all the population in the buffer.

2. In the Summary Statistics tool, enter the following parameters:
   • For Output Table, type Shikoku_Rural_Access.
   • For Statistics Field(s), for Field, choose Population in Buffer.
   • For Statistic Type, choose Sum.

   

3. Click OK.

   The tool runs and the Shikoku_Rural_Access table is added to the Contents pane, under Standalone Tables.

4. Close the Rural_2km_Buffer attribute table.

   Before you open the table you created, you'll run the Summary Statistics tool again. This time, you'll calculate the total rural population in Shikoku using the Shikoku_Rural_Population layer.

5. Open the Geoprocessing pane, and search for and open the Summary Statistics tool.
6. In the Summary Statistics tool, change the following parameters:

   • For Input Table, choose Shikoku_Rural_Population.
   • For Output Table, change the output name to Total_Rural_Population.
   • For Statistics Field(s), for Field, choose 2015 Total Population.
   • For Statistic Type, choose Sum.

7. Click Run.

   The Total_Rural_Population table is added to the Contents pane. Next, you'll compare the summarized values in the two tables.

8. In the Contents pane, right-click Shikoku_Rural_Access and choose Open.

   The table has three fields. The SUM_Pop_Proportion field has a value of 736,316. This value represents the estimated rural population living within 2 kilometers of an all-season road in the Shikoku region. You'll copy this value to compare it to the total rural population.

9. Double-click the SUM_Pop_Proportion value to edit it and press Ctrl+C to copy.

   

10. In the Contents pane, right-click the Total_Rural_Population table and choose Open.

    In this table, the SUM_D0001 field shows the total rural population in Shikoku: 872,986. You'll create a new field and calculate the percentage of the population with all-season road access.

11. In the table ribbon, click the Add Field button.

    The fields view appears.

12. In the new field, enter the following:

    • For Field Name, type Percent_Access.
    • For Alias, type Percent Rural Access.
    • For Data Type, choose Long.

13. On the ribbon, on the Fields tab, in the Changes group, click Save. Close the fields view.
14. In the Total_Rural_Population table, right-click the Percent Rural Access heading and choose Calculate Field.
15. In the Calculate Field tool, for Percent_Access =, press Ctrl+V to paste the value you copied earlier. Delete the decimal point and the values that follow the decimal point. Click the division sign and double-click SUM_D0001.

    

16. Add parentheses around the entire expression and type * 100.

    The complete expression reads:

    (736316 / !SUM_D0001!) * 100

    

17. Click OK.

    The calculation results show that about 84 percent of Shikoku's rural population lives within 2 kilometers of an all-season road.

    

18. Close the tables and save the project.

In this tutorial, you added all-season road data and performed proximity analysis by creating a 2-kilometer buffer around roads. You then estimated the population of each cho-cho-moku that intersected the buffer. Afterward, you determined the percentage of the total rural population that lives within 2 kilometers of an all-season road. Using the summary tables you created, you can now report on SDG Indicator 9.1.1 regarding the Shikoku region in Japan.

This workflow can be used for SDG Indicator 9.1.1 reporting in other regions or countries. The spatial analysis techniques you learned can also be employed to gain demographic insight on other key issues.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Metropolitan Employment Area (MEA) data was provided by the Center for Spatial Information Science at the University of Tokyo.
• Population data was provided by Esri Japan.
• Road data was provided by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
• Photo was provided by Bady Abbas on Unsplash.