Assignment
2a - Metes and Bounds
Lab 1 prepared you with the technical GIS
concepts that you will need to complete this assignment.
Metes and bounds is an archaic system of property boundary description. To describe a boundary, a known point-of-beginning is used. All subsequent measurements relate to the point-of-beginning. This lab is based on a "real world" example of a metes and bounds description.
Background: You work for an engineering firm that has performed a survey and environmental analysis on a property that is being sold. Neither the owner nor the buyer understands the metes and bounds description that has been generated from the survey. Therefore, there is a need to clearly communicate the property boundary, along with a proposed road easement, graphically, to help eliminate the possibility of misunderstandings on the sale.
You will also need to determine the square
footage of the property and the road easement. The total price of the property
is based on the square footage of the original property minus the square
footage of the road easement, with a cost applied to the result of $5.50 per
square foot.
For this assignment and others, we will be
using a map that is divided into Sections, Township and Range, also referred to
as the PLSS. The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is a way of subdividing and
describing land in the
Assignment: Download the attached zipped shape files:
Unzip the files into a new folder called
Lab 2a on your hard drive – for this lab, save your map document as Lab2a.
1. Open a Blank Map and before you begin
the lab, click on File in the top menu and go down to and select Map
Document Properties. In the Map Document Properties window
go down to Path names and click on the box next to Store Relative Path
Names to Data Sources. If you ever need to move the map document from one
drive to another or from one computer to another, this makes it so the document
is not folder dependent. If you need to move the map document (.mxd) make sure
you copy the folder(s) with all of the shapefiles and map document. This will
alleviate trying to add them all again. If you have everything on your hard
drive, and you are good about creating efficient work spaces, this may never be
an issue.
Add the Plat and
Sections shapefiles to ArcMap – un-check the Plat layer
leaving only the Sections layer visible.
Using the same
steps as in Lab 1, create two new Shape Files (polygon feature type) for new
parcel and easement maps (see below - use Catalog to create the shapefiles with
polygon feature type and add State Plane Coordinates when prompted).
Go to Catalog, right click on your Lab 2a
folder – go to New – Shapefile – name it New_Parcel - select - polygon
for the feature type and click on Select - Projected Coordinate System
– State
Plane – NAD 1927 – Utah Central. Repeat the steps and
create another shapefile called Easement. If the coordinate system information
were not given to you, you could get it from the base layers you are using for
the project. Once the data are added to ArcMap, you will see units in feet in
the lower right window. 
This is an indication that the data are
projected and you will become familiar with the units, feet indicate State
Plane Projection and meters indicates UTM. Right click on
one of the shapefiles (Plat or Sections) you just added to the window - and go
down to Properties and select the Source tab. This
will give you all the projection information you need, which is Projected
Coordinate Systems - State Plane - NAD1927 - Utah_Central). Now you are
ready to begin the process of entering the following metes and bounds
descriptions into the first Shape File which will be New_Parcel (ArcGIS does not accept spaces in their naming
convention, so we use underscores in many names).
First go into the Editor Toolbar - “Editor”
> “Options” > “Units” and change direction type to “quadrant bearing” and
direction units to “Degrees Minutes Seconds”.
Now find the appropriate section corner,
from the Sections layer, to use as your start point. Find the
needed Section by doing a query using Select by Attribute (Selection Pull
down Menu). 
To create the query first make sure the Layer
says Sections. In the middle window you will see FID, AREA, select
the appropriate Field by double clicking on Section (There are a few fields with sections or sections1 in the
name; be sure the Field is "section")
this will make it appear in the window below, where the query begins to appear.
Next "single" click on the "=" key and then
click on Get Unique Values and double click on the Section number you need to
begin this task (15). Click on apply and the query will be run - the result
will highlighted in the Section polygon, and you will notice that there are
several section 15's (12 boxes) that are highlighted. You will use the south
east corner of all of the sections, to begin your segment. Close the query
window.
Now begin
digitizing the New Parcel shapefile and enter the descriptions for each line
segment in the polygon, using Editor, with the information below
for both parts a and b.
Read the a section below
(metes and bounds description) first for the new parcel and then look at the detailed instructions
below.
a. Original
property: Commencing North 852.28 feet and West 657.15 feet from the
Southeast corner of Section 15, Township 5 South, Range 1 East, Salt Lake Base
and Meridian, and running thence South 12°57'35" East 172.30 feet; thence
North 89°27'02" West 125.80 feet along the North side of a concrete
retaining wall; thence South 4°56'27" West 144.36 feet along the West side
of a concrete retaining wall; thence North 88°49'39" West 125.02 feet
along a chain link fence; thence South 1°40'26" West 103.48 feet along a
chain link fence; thence North 89°50'32" West 90.26 feet along a chain
link fence; thence North 89°15'18" West along an old fence 267.97 feet;
thence continuing North 89°24'55" West along an old fence 612.03 feet;
thence North 0°04'54" West 401.43 feet along an old fence; thence East
1198.37 feet to beginning.
To begin, put your first
point at the southeast corner of all the section 15's and putting the cursor
just off the point, right click. 
You should see a new context
menu appear with several options, select the Length option and type in
852.28 and press the Enter button; the point will automatically be
extended 852.28 feet, but with the ability to move it in any direction. Right
click again and select the Direction button and input N 0-0-0 E (doesn't
matter if this is E or W) - press the Enter button again and it will
place the point the correct distance and the correct direction. (You can do the
same thing by selecting the Direction/Length tool). Now you need to go west
657.15 feet, right click and select the Direction/Length tool and type in S
90-0-0 W and 657.15. (The reason you type 90 at the beginning, is because you
set the units in the Editor Toolbar/Options to Quadrant bearing, so you are
using the North, South, East, West quadrants when you input the direction. To
go west, you must first go 90 degrees either north or south and then 0 degrees
West). This will get you to the beginning point for your new parcel. Section 15
is within Township 5 South and Range 1 East, Salt Lake Base and
b. Easement: Beginning at a point which is 846.28 feet
North and 655.67 feet West from the Southeast corner of Section 15, Township 5
South, Range 1 East, S.L.B.& M., and running thence West 110.36 feet;
thence westerly along a curve to the left, having a radius of 387.00 feet,
through a central angle of 22°21'10" a distance of 150.98 feet, said curve
having a chord bearing South 78°49'25" West a distance of 150.03 feet to a
point of tangency of reverse curvature; thence westerly along a curve to the
right, having a radius of 413.00 feet, through a central angle of
22°18'39" a distance of 160.82 feet, said curve having a chord bearing
South 78°50'41" West a distance of 159.81 feet to a point of tangency;
thence West 785.39 feet; thence North 00°04'54" West 66.12 feet; thence
along a fence East 1198.37 feet to a point on a projected fence line; thence
along said fence and fence line projection South 12°57'35" East 6.18 feet
to the point of beginning.
You will use the same
procedure that you used to create the new parcel shapefile to create the new
easement shapefile; the only difference is that you will add a new tool. So
when it gives you a direction and length, use the Direction/Length tool.
When the description says the segment has a radius and central angle and
distance, then you use the Length tool first to input the distance, then
in the same drop down menu, use the Tangent Curve tool for the radius
and angle. For each box where you input the information, there is a drop down
menu, choose radius in one and Delta Angle in the other, I always put the Delta
Angle in the top box. In the description, skip over the two segments that begin
with "said curve having a chord ......... of reverse curvature;" and
"said curve .......... point of tangency;" - these are descriptions
only, not meant to be used for
input. Your easement should look like this:
3. Now, check the Plat layer
to make it visible (active). How does your property boundary compare to the
property boundary in the Parcels layer? Use the
"ruler" tool in the "Tools" toolbar 
to measure
the differences at several places and write these down.
4. How does the Easement layer
fit with the Parcel layer that you just created? Are there
any discrepancies? Describe them in a textbox at the bottom of your map (use
a blockout if necessary). To create a blockout, use the Drawing toolbar select
the square or rectangle shape - you can re-size it using the handles when you
click on it. Use the Text tool in the same toolbar to add the text.
5. Now calculate the area of both
shapefiles you created using the Calculate Geometry option.
Add a new field to the new parcel and
easement attribute tables called "Area" and select
"Double" for Type, this will allow you to have a number beyond the
decimal point. Right click in the box at the top of the column where Area is
typed in and select "Calculate Geometry", you can be in
or out of the Edit Mode. You may get a warning if you are outside the Edit
mode, but it is quicker, for this calculation it doesn't matter. You will see a
box that is checked by default next to: "Use coordinate system of data
source". Go with this - it also gives you the units, which are based
on the State Plane coordinate system with units in feet. The fact that your
shapefile is projected, gives you the ability to calculate area. Click on OK
and you will see the area number appear automatically in your area column as in
the graphic above. Repeat for both shapefiles New_Parcel and Easement.
6. Now add a new
field called “Cost” to both shapefiles (using the “double” option again) and
this will represent the value of the parcel and easement. Using Field
Calculator, calculate the cost using the price per square foot of
$5.50. Your calculation will read Cost = then double click on area and single
click the * and type in a space and 5.50. That will give you the cost.
When you see the
number in the Attribute table, you can right click - go down to properties and
change the number from "numeric" to "currency". Click on
“Numeric” and click “Currency”. The number in your Attribute table will change
automatically.
Turn in:
A .jpg of your
map with the original property boundary (Parcel) and the easement boundary
overlain on the Plat map. The map must have a title, a north arrow, and a scale
bar. Place a neat line around the map boundary – you will find this in the same
menu as the north arrow and scale bar in Layout View. Using the Draw toolbar,
use the rectangle tool to place a box on the map and then with the text tool, describe
the square feet for both polygons, the value ($) of each polygon, and the cost
of the parcel minus the easement. Also add a general statement about how
far off you were from the parcel on the Plat map.
Your final map
should look like the attached file – the numbers should be in the ball park,
not exact.