Applying ArcGIS Online

for Establishing Hanoi Agriculture Map

Thanh Xuan Nguyen
Geography Department
Hanoi National University of Education
mrthanhxuan@gmail.com

Tien Yin Chou

GIS Research Center
Feng Chia University
jimmy@gis.tw

Thanh Van Hoang

PhD in Civil and Hydraulic Engineering
Feng Chia University
st_van@gis.tw

ABSTRACT
Geographic Information system (GIS) develops more and more strongly, GIS is being applied in many areas of
life, including agriculture. The appearance and development of cloud computing technology has opened the new
direction development of GIS technology. This paper refers to the exploitation applying ArcGIS Online - an application
on the cloud platform of ESRI to establish the agriculture Hanoi map. This map is a whole picture on the Hanoi
agriculture- one of the two special urban, the capital in Vietnam, consist of the structure agriculture land-use, the
structure and distribution of the main agriculture production, the territorial organization of agricultural production (the
urban farm belt). This map is displayed on web and allows sharing data online through internet.

Keywords: cloud GIS, urban agriculture, Hanoi agriculture, Hanoi agriculture map.

1 INTRODUCTION
Geographic Information System (GIS) develops more and more strongly, GIS is being applied
in many areas of life, including agriculture. There are many software applications of GIS, from
open source codes (GRASS GIS, QGIS, MapWindow GIS, uDig, etc) to commercial products
(Autodesk, Bentley Systems, ESRI, Mapinfo, etc) completed with diversified requirements on user
qualification, requirement on system, price. However, the appearance and the development of cloud
computing in several recent years opens a new opportunity for of GIS technology where all
information is stored, computerized, processed in Internet servers. We can work with such
information without understanding the technology and infrastructure of the cloud. It is easy for use
to access the cloud via an Internet-connected application and device [6]. ArcGIS Online from ESRI
is an example.
Some typical authors, namely J.H Von Thunen, A. Weber, W. Christaller, and C.R Bryant,
have worked with classic models and theories in the agricultural development in city. Hanoi is a
unique urban city in the centre of the Red River Delta, it is the capital, and the political, and
administrative headquarter of Vietnam , it is one of the two biggest economic centres. From 8/2008,
after the adjustment of the administrative boundary, Hanoi became one of 17 capital cities with the
biggest area in the world and one of 16 cities with the most crowded population in Asia [1].
Therefore, Hanoi agriculture has been boosted in research and development. Some typical research

have been done such as the Geography of Economic areas of Vietnam (Nguyen Minh Tue - 2009),
Geography of provinces and cities of Vietnam (Le Thong - 2010) [4,5], and Geography of Hanoi
(Lam Quang Doc - 2009) [1] , These especially are works which have built up Hanoi agriculture
map by GIS technology [1, 2, 3], but such maps are very vague.
Our research uses ArcGIS Online - a cloud application of ESRI to establish a general map in
special manner for Hanoi agriculture.
2 SUBJECTS AND METHOD
2.1 Research subjects
- ArcGIS Online:
This is a cloud-based system which can manage geographic contents to store and manage
maps, data and other geographic data. ArGIS Online allows us to access geographic data shared and
registered by Esri and GIS users from all over the world. Components of ArcGIS Online include:
Gallery (Map, Web Apps, Mobile Apps), Map, Groups, My Content, Search (Figure 1). Applicable
capacities of ArcGIS Online include: mapping, searching information, storing and managing data,
updating data, analyzing, sharing data. Requirements for application use: Internet-connected
personal devices (PC, laptop, smartphone, PDA, ) and account registered at ArcGIS.com (free
registration) [7].
In this research, the author pays particular attention to the capacity of mapping of ArcGIS
Online.

Figure 1: Components of ArcGIS Online at ArcGIS.com

- Hanoi agriculture:
Scope of research: Geographical coordinates of Hanoi are from 20053N to 21023N and
from 105044E to 106002E. Natural area of Hanoi is 3344.6 km2 (1% area of whole country). The
population in 2009 was approximately 6.5 million (7.5% population of whole country), including
29 districts and towns.
Time of research: Data of Hanoi agriculture was taken in the period of 2005 - 2009.
Content of research: Scope and structure of agricultural land use (land for agriculture, land for
forestry land for breeding aquatic product); distribution of main agricultural products (rice,
vegetables, beans, pigs, poultries), farming in specialized areas and main agricultural belts.
2.2 Research method
Method of analysis, comparison and summarization: When creating the Hanoi agriculture
map, basic characteristics of Hanoi agriculture in the relation with other provinces in the Red River
Delta and other cities directly under the central government of Vietnam should be paid attention to
in order to reveal its nature, development tendencies, relationships with other areas and relation.

characteristics of ArcGIS Online should be comprised with other GIS software in capacity of
display, analysis, management of spatial data and object properties to select image elements in the
map.
Statistical method: Agriculture in general and Hanoi agriculture in particular has a large data
volume from different sources. Using statistical method in the research and using data references
are the best way for us to have the fullest and general view of the object. The selective reliable data
sources: General Statistics Office, reports of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Development
Strategy Institute, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, National Institute of Agricultural
Planning and Projection Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Field investigation and survey: This is a necessary requirement to verify the accuracy of the
material sources and help the author update, supplement information and make evaluation in
objective manner.
Map and GIS technology use: Maps are very important tool in the research on socioeconomic geography. Map is lively picture and is a source of supplying plentiful knowledge of the
research objects. In this article, the author uses different GIS software such as Mapinfo, and ArcGIS
Desktop to edit data before using ArcGIS Online to establish Hanoi agriculture map.
3 RESULT
3.1 Procedure of using ArcGIS Online for map establishment
Through researching and using this application, we generalized the procedure of using
ArcGIS Online for the map establishment (Figure 2).
ArcGIS.com
CSV

Login
Create Map

POINT

LINE

KML

WMS

Base map

Add layer
ASWS

AREA

Editable layer

From file

SHP

CSV

Configure Pop-up

Print
Public

From web

GPX

Change Symbol

Share
Code embed

Group
for

Application

type

Figure 2: Procedure of using ArcGIS Online for map establishment

Link

3.2 Hanoi agriculture map

Hanoi agriculture map (Figure 3) includes the following data layers:
- Base map: Using OpenStreet Map of Esri (1)
- Administration: showing boundary and information about population, area of districts, towns (2)
- Structure of agricultural land use as per districts, towns (3)
- Area and productivity of rice (4)
- Area and productivity of vegetables and beans (5)
- Distribution of pigs (6)
- Distribution of cows (7)
- Distribution of poultries (8)
- Farming specialized areas and Agricultural production belts (9)
- Statistics: Presenting statistical data of some objects (pigs, cows) as per districts, towns (10)

Figure 3: Layers in Hanoi Agriculture Map

The map use many image forms: colours, signs, pop-up functions (insert pictures, diagrams,
information fields)
4 CONCLUSION
ArcGIS Online brings about new experiences to GIS users. Although capacity of data analysis
and processing of the application has not been more outstanding than the software on desktop, this
cloud application saves cost of infrastructure (payment for software or PCs upgrade), and boots the
capacity for good visual data display. The procedure set out by use (Figure 2) help use users easily
to establish maps.
The Hanoi agriculture map was created using ArcGIS Online, which supplied a general
overview of Hanoi agriculture: structure of agricultural land use, the situation of development and
distribution of main agricultural products, and organization of agricultural production territory
(farming in specialized areas and agricultural production belts). Using this data , people can
understand the status and developmental tendencies of Ha Noi agriculture.
The map data can be shared by many forms to different objects and increases efficiency of
product use and brings about many utilities to users.

REFERENCES
[1] Lam Quang Doc, Pham Khac Loi, Nguyen Minh Tue, Dang Duy Loi, (2009), Geography of Hanoi, Publishing
House of Hanoi National University of Education
[2] Le My Dung, (2011), Research on Hanoi Agriculture after 1/8/2008, Thesis of Master of Science in Geography,
Hanoi National University of Education
[3] Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, Frederic Borne, Pham Van Cu, (2005), Multi-criteria GIS Analysis for Peri-urban
Agriculture: a Case Study of Hanoi Province, Vietnam, Asian Conference on Remote Sensing 26th, Hanoi
[4] Le Thong (Chief Author), (2010), Geography of provinces and cities of Vietnam, Education Publishing House,
Hanoi
[5] Nguyen Minh Tue (Chief Author), 2009, Geography of economic areas of Vietnam, Education Publishing House,
Hanoi of Esri Vietnam
[6] Esri, (2011), GIS Through the Cloud, Clients Workshop Documents of Esri Vietnam
[7] www.ArcGIS.com