Geocode fire data

Understanding fire risk depends on understanding data about past fire incidents. It's important not only to know when and to whom incidents are occurring, but also where.

In this tutorial, you'll open a spreadsheet of incident data in Microsoft Excel. Then, using the ArcGIS for Excel add-in, you'll map the data, allowing you to visualize its trends and spatial patterns. Lastly, you'll publish the map online so you can share it and use the data for further analysis.

This tutorial was last tested on September 24, 2024.

Requirements

• ArcGIS organizational account with a Publisher, Facilitator, or Administrator role (see options for software access)
• Microsoft Excel with a Microsoft 365 subscription
• ArcGIS for Excel

Geocode fire data

Download the data

First, you'll download a spreadsheet with fire incident data, compiled from public FEMA datasets. You'll open the spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel and use ArcGIS for Excel to sign in to your ArcGIS account.

1. Download the Naperville_2021_Fire_Incident_Calls Excel spreadsheet.
2. Start Microsoft Excel. If necessary, sign in to your Microsoft 365 account.

   Note:

   ArcGIS for Excel requires a supported license or version of Microsoft Excel. To ensure your Microsoft Excel license is supported for ArcGIS for Excel, check the table of supported licenses and versions.

3. On the Excel home page, click Open.

   

   Note:

   Depending on the version of Excel you're using, your software may differ from the example images.

4. Browse to and open the Naperville_2021_Fire_Incident_Calls spreadsheet you downloaded.

   The spreadsheet opens in Microsoft Excel.

   

   Note:

   If you see a notification stating that the spreadsheet opened in Protected View, click Enable Editing.

5. Explore the spreadsheet.

   The spreadsheet contains a large amount of data. Each row is for an incident that was responded to by the fire department of Naperville, Illinois, in 2021. There are a total of 5,601 incidents.

   Note:

   For the purposes of this tutorial, the spreadsheet contains only a subset of the total number of fire incidents reported in Naperville in 2021.

   Each incident includes categories of information associated with it, indicated by the columns in the spreadsheet. These columns include basic information about the incident, including its ID, address, date, and so on. There is also information about the actions taken by the fire department after they responded to the incident and the number of personnel who responded.

   The X and Y columns contain the latitude and longitude of each incident. Using these columns, you can map the data. Doing so will allow you to visualize the location of all 5,601 incidents, which will help you where fire incidents are occurring.

   Next, you'll use ArcGIS for Excel to map the data.

6. On the ribbon, click the ArcGIS tab.

   

   Note:

   If you don't see the ArcGIS tab, download and install ArcGIS for Excel. If you've already installed ArcGIS for Excel, see Welcome to ArcGIS for Excel or Frequently asked questions to find a possible solution.

7. In the Map group, click Show Map.

   

   The ArcGIS for Excel pane appears, if it was not already open. If this is your first time using ArcGIS for Excel, you may see a welcome message with options to learn more.

8. If you see an Add data from Excel message, click Skip and click Yes, let me help to allow anonymous data collection.
9. If you see a message informing you that you're already signed in, click to continue. If you're prompted to sign in, sign in using your licensed ArcGIS account.

   Note:

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

   The pane changes to show a map. Right now, the map doesn't include your spreadsheet's data on it. The only information on the map is provided by the basemap, which contains basic geographic context about major geographic features.

   Tip:

   You can expand the map by dragging the side of the ArcGIS for Excel pane.

   Several of the options for interacting with the map aren't available until you sign in to your ArcGIS account. You may have already signed in, but if not, you'll sign in now.

10. If you're not already signed in to your ArcGIS account, click the Settings button.

    Note:

    If you're already signed in, the Settings button icon will show your account's profile picture.

    

11. Click Sign In. Sign in using your licensed ArcGIS account.

    The map reloads, this time with all options enabled.

Map the data

Next, you'll use ArcGIS for Excel to map the data in the spreadsheet using its coordinate data.

1. In the ArcGIS for Excel pane, click the Layers button.

   

   The Layers pane appears, showing the layers on the map. A layer is a set of geographic data that can be displayed on a map. Currently, there are no layers on the map except for the basemap.

   To show the fire incidents on the map, you'll need to geocode them to create a layer. Geocoding is the process of taking geographic identifiers (such as an address, a place's description, or a pair of coordinates) and mapping them. Your sheet has X and Y coordinate data, which you'll use to geocode the fire incidents.

2. In the Layers pane, click the Add from Excel button.

   

   The Add layer tool appears. By default, your fire incident data sheet is chosen as the data to add. The tool has also automatically identified coordinate fields from your dataset. (If it hadn't automatically identified them, you could set them manually.)

3. Confirm that the following parameters are chosen:
   • For Data, confirm that Fire_Incident_Data_Napervil_0 is chosen.
   • Confirm that First row contains headers is checked.
   • For Location types, confirm that Coordinates is chosen.
   • For Longitude (X), confirm that X is chosen.
   • For Latitude (Y), confirm that Y is chosen.
   • For Spatial reference, confirm that WGS 1984 is chosen.

   

4. Click Add.

   The data is added to the map. The map changes its extent and points are added to it. Each point corresponds to a fire incident from the spreadsheet. Before you continue, you'll rename the layer you created to give it a more descriptive name.

5. In the Layers pane, double-click Fire_Incident_Data_Napervil_0!A1:BY5602 to edit the layer name. Type Naperville 2021 Fire Incident Calls, add your name or initials, and press Enter.

   Tip:

   Later, you'll publish this layer to your ArcGIS organization. Published layer names must be unique within your organization, so adding your name or initials will help ensure it is unique.

   

6. Close the Layers pane.

   

   Most of the points are clustered together, with a few points located outside the city. The points outside the city are there because the Naperville Fire Department responded to them, even if they didn't occur in Naperville.

Explore the map

Next, you'll explore the geocoded data.

1. On the map, use the scroll wheel to zoom in or out. Click and drag the map to pan it from side to side or up and down.

   From the spatial distribution of the data, it's clear that most fire incidents occur in residential areas. Springbrook Prairie, a large nature preserve in the middle of the city, had very few fire incidents.

   

2. Zoom in until you can see the individual buildings where fire incidents occurred.

   

   The buildings and roads are part of the basemap and give geographic context to your layer of fire incidents.

3. Click any point on the map.

   A pop-up appears. The pop-up contains all of the information in the spreadsheet about that fire incident.

   

4. Scroll through the pop-up to see all of the information. When finished, close the pop-up.

   You can also change the basemap to view different geographic context.

5. Click the Basemap button.

   

6. In the list of basemaps, choose Imagery with Labels. Close the Basemap pane.

   Now, the map shows satellite imagery of the area, giving a visualization of the buildings where fire incidents occurred in 2021.

   

   Note:

   Optionally, try changing the basemap to some of the other available basemaps. What can you learn from different basemaps?

7. Explore the map. When finished, click the Default extent button.

   

   You return to the full extent of the data.

8. Change the basemap to Topographic. Close the Basemap pane.
9. Save the spreadsheet.

Publish the map

Lastly, you'll publish the map you created to ArcGIS Online, where it can be shared.

1. On the map, click the Share | Export button.

   

   To share the map, you need to give it some basic metadata, which will help others understand what your map shows. You'll also choose who the map will be shared with. You only want members of your firefighting organization to be able to access the map.

2. In the Share | Export pane, set the following parameters:
   • For Title, type Naperville 2021 Fire Incident Calls.
   • For Tags, type Firefighting, Geocoded Data.
   • For Summary, type A map showing fire incidents in Naperville, Illinois, in 2021.
   • For Share with, check My organization.

   

3. Scroll to the bottom of the Share | Export pane. For Unique feature identifiers, confirm that Object ID is chosen.

   To publish data, each record must have a unique identifier. An object ID field, which numbers records sequentially, is best for this purpose.

4. Click Share.

   The map is published to ArcGIS Online.

   Note:

   Because the map has many fire incidents, publishing may take a few minutes.

5. When the map is finished publishing, click Open.

   

   A new browser window or tab appears. If you're not already signed in to ArcGIS Online, you're prompted to sign in.

6. If necessary, sign in to your ArcGIS account (the same one you used to sign in to ArcGIS for Excel).

   The map's ArcGIS Online details page appears.

7. Click Open in Map Viewer.

   

   The map opens. Anyone in your ArcGIS organization can access and view your map, so you can share it with your colleagues.

In this tutorial, you mapped a spreadsheet of fire incidents using ArcGIS for Excel. You geocoded the data based on coordinate information and explored the data on the map. Lastly, you published the map to ArcGIS Online, allowing you to share it.

Mapping fire incident data is important for understanding spatial trends and preparing for future fire incidents.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• The Naperville 2021 Fire Incident Calls spreadsheet was compiled using Annual NFIRS Public Data managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Retrieved on October 26, 2023. This product uses the FEMA OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The federal government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from this data after the data has been retrieved from the agency's websites. See OpenFEMA Terms and Conditions for more information. Data on FEMA.gov is free of copyright and may be copied and distributed without permission.
• Topographic map sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community
• Imagery Hybrid map sources: Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community