Explore map data

You are an urban planner in Portland, Oregon, tasked with presenting an urban tree management plan. Trees are an important intervention in urban environments that provide shade for pedestrians, minimize water runoff during heavy rainfall, and build climate resilience against increasingly frequent heat waves. You want to explore different types of spatial data available to you to inform your decision-making process.

As you work through the steps in this tutorial, you'll learn the following skills:

• Open a map from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World
• Explore the map using search, legend, and pop-ups
• Create a bookmark
• Access and interpret feature and imagery layers

Note:

This tutorial is part of a series about creating maps and apps with an ArcGIS public account.

This tutorial was last tested on April 11, 2025.

Requirements

• Free ArcGIS public account or a User or higher member role in an ArcGIS organization (see options for software access)

Explore map data

Examine the map and legend

First you'll access a layer from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World and explore it in a map.

1. Sign in to ArcGIS Online.

   Note:

   If you don't have an ArcGIS organizational account, you can sign up for a free public account.

2. On the top ribbon, click Content.

   

   On the content page, you can access, organize, browse, search, and work with content on the website. You can also add files from your device to create a new item in ArcGIS Online.

   In this tutorial, you will explore ArcGIS Living Atlas, which is a curated collection of geographic information from around the globe.

3. Click the Living Atlas tab.

   

   Most ArcGIS Living Atlas layers are free to use in maps and can be viewed by anyone.

   Note:

   Some layers are subscriber content or premium content, which require an ArcGIS organizational account and may consume credits. To learn more, see Use ArcGIS Living Atlas subscriber content in maps, scenes, and apps.

4. On the search bar, type national risk.

   

   Several results appear below. Each one has at least one badge associated with it.

   Note:

   Each item has at least one badge associated with it.

   

   The green Authoritative badge indicates that the organization that owns the item has been verified as an authoritative source. The blue Living Atlas badge indicates this item is included in ArcGIS Living Atlas. The blue Subscriber badge indicates that you must be signed in to an ArcGIS account to access this layer. When searching for data, it can be difficult to know which layers to use. These badges help you quickly find the highest quality and most trustworthy data. You can learn more at What's New with Authoritative Content.

5. Click the layer name for the National Risk Index Census Tracts layer.

   

   The layer's item page appears.

   Each item in ArcGIS Online includes an item page that contains its metadata. Metadata on the item details page includes the title, the type, and the source, author, last modified date, thumbnail, and tags related to the item. It can also include additional information such a summary and description, how accurate and recent the item is, restrictions associated with using and sharing the item, credits, and so on. This information can help others discover and validate the usefulness of the items.

   The National Risk Index Census Tracts layer provides relative Risk Index scores and ratings based on data for Expected Annual Loss due to natural hazards, Social Vulnerability, and Community Resilience. The layer was created and is managed by the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

6. On the item page, click Open in Map Viewer.

   

   The map opens in Map Viewer with the Layers and Properties panes open.

   

   Map Viewer includes two vertical toolbars—the Contents (dark) toolbar and the Settings (light) toolbar. Use the Contents toolbar to manage and view the map contents and work with the map. Use the Settings toolbar to access options for configuring and interacting with map layers and other map components.

   Tip:

   You can click the Expand or Collapse button at the bottom of each toolbar to expand or collapse them.

7. On the Contents (dark) toolbar, click Legend.

   

8. Examine the legend.

   

   The legend shows that the map currently displays a composite of the ratings for the 18 potential climate hazards. Red areas have a very high climate hazard risk rating and dark blue areas have a very low climate hazard risk rating.

   Next, you'll zoom (change the scale of the map to see more or less detail) and pan (shift the extent of the map to see different areas) to explore the map.

   You can zoom in three ways:

   • Click the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons.
   • Use the wheel on your mouse.
   • Press the Shift key while drawing a box around the area you want to zoom to.

9. Zoom and pan to examine the map.

   Where do you notice areas of very high risk? Where do you notice areas of very low risk?

You have explored a layer from ArcGIS Living Atlas and reviewed the legend. Next you will use more tools to explore the layer.

Use bookmarks and pop-ups

Next, you will create a bookmark. Bookmarks provide shortcuts to places on a map. When you click a bookmark, the map zooms to that location.

1. At the bottom of the map, click the Search tool.

   

   A search bar appears at the top of the map.

2. On the search bar, type Portland, OR and press Enter.

   

   The map zooms to the city of Portland, Oregon.

3. Close the Search result pop-up.

   You have used the search tool to zoom to the city of Portland. You can now better see the national risk index values across the census tracts in the city.

   

4. On the Contents toolbar, click Bookmarks.

   

   The Bookmarks pane appears.

5. In the Bookmarks pane, click Add bookmark.

   

6. For Title, type Portland and click Add.

   You now have a bookmark of this map extent, which shows the city of Portland in Oregon.

   You can zoom the map's initial extent by clicking Default map view.

7. Click the Default map view button.

   

   The map extent zooms to show the entire world. The default extent is so large since the layer includes data for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

8. On the Bookmarks pane, click the Portland bookmark.

   The map extent zooms back to Portland, Oregon.

   Next, you will explore the layer's pop-up.

9. Zoom in and click a census tract with a Very High rating.

   

   A pop-up appears, providing more information about the census tract, including its population. The informational elements that are tied to each location are called attributes.

   

   The pop-up contains detailed information about the tract, including the tract's population, climate hazard risk index and ratings data, and a breakdown of each individual hazard that contributed to the risk and rating scores.

10. Close the pop-up.

    You have explored a polygon feature layer that showed climate hazard risk ratings for each census tract in the United States. Next, you will explore an imagery layer and learn another way to open ArcGIS Living Atlas layers.

Explore an imagery layer

Next, you will explore another kind of layer. So far, you have explored a polygon feature layer that showed data within census tracts. An imagery layer is a based on raster data. Raster data is a grid of cells commonly used to store imagery and other information captured by remote sensing devices.

First, you'll hide the National Risk Index Census Tracts layer before you add the imagery layer.

1. On the Contents toolbar, click Layers.
2. In the Layers pane, next to National Risk Index Census Tracts, click the Visibility button.

   

   With the National Risk Index Census Tracts layer hidden, it will be easier to view the imagery layer you will now add.

3. In the Layers pane, click Add.

   The Add layer pane appears.

4. In the Add layer pane, click My Contents and choose Living Atlas.

   

5. In the search bar, type Heat Severity - USA and press Enter.

   In the list of results, there are multiple imagery layers named Heat Severity - USA, all owned by The Trust for Public Land.

6. In the list of results, find the Heat Severity - USA from the most recent year. On the item card, click the Add button.

   

   The imagery layer is added, and the Properties pane appears.

   Tip:

   It may take a few minutes for the layer to load. If necessary, zoom in closer to the center of Portland.

   

   Next, you will explore the Heat Severity - USA layer's item page to better understand what is included in this layer.

7. On the Properties pane, expand Information. On the Heat Severity - USA card, click the item page link button.

   

   The item page for the Heat Severity - USA 2023 layer appears in a new browser tab.

   The purpose of this layer is to show where certain areas of cities are hotter than the average temperature for that same city as a whole. Severity is measured on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being a relatively mild heat area (slightly above the mean for the city) in white or transparent, and 5 being a severe heat area (significantly above the mean for the city) in red.

In this tutorial, you have learned two ways to access ArcGIS Living Atlas layers and explored the item pages, legend, and pop-ups for a feature and imagery layer. You used the search tool, created a bookmark, and set a blending mode.

To learn more about creating maps and apps with an ArcGIS public account, try other tutorials in the series Tutorials for a public account experience.

Note:

For additional capabilities, including private sharing, publishing data, performing analysis, and more, make ArcGIS Online part of your GIS toolset by purchasing an ArcGIS organizational subscription. Subscriptions can include a variety of user types which makes it easy to match you and your team members with the necessary tools for your work. If you have an ArcGIS public account, you can convert your public account to an organizational account.

Acknowledgements

• National Risk Index Census Tracts is published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) using data from the following sources: FEMA, Compass, CDM Smith, ABS Consulting, Factor, Inc., Arizona State University, the Centers for Disease Control Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the University of South Carolina's Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute.
• Heat Severity - USA 2024, The Trust for Public Lands (TPL), United States Geological Survey (USGS), and Descartes Labs.
• World Topographic Map sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community
• © 2024 Adobe Stock. All rights reserved.