OBIS: Geodata
In this section you will find a demonstration how to browse data, search for specific datasets and view these data. If you want to edit geodata, e.g. import data or create maps you will find a demonstration in the chapter Adding and modifying data - Geodata.
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View list of available datasets
The start page of the geodata section appears and you get an overview of all geodata records. The link "Export CSV" gives the possibility to download a list of all records you see in the overview table. The menu on the left side offers different features like the import of data or the editing of maps. The tutorial will introduce these functions in the section Adding and modifying data - Geodata. At this stage you will learn how to browse for data, search data and view the geodata. Therefore you need to click on "details" in the row of a dataset you are interested in, e.g. the example "Southern Africa- Countries".
Metadata
A table appears with a three-fold box: "Metadata", "Document" and "View map data". Above the box you can see small arrows, by clicking you can navigate between the single data sheets of the data overview.
In the first section you get all the metadata linked to the dataset. You see a dataset description, responsible person/ organisation, spatial resolution, coordinate system and more. You can see only those fields, which contain information. Fields and domains without information were not displayed in the metadata form. But to ensure that most important metadata are available, those fields were marked as mandatory fields in the upload process. That means that the import of a new geodata set is only possible, if mandatory fields were filled. Otherwise import of data is not possible.
Document download
The second section contains documents available for download. A file with the TGZ file extension is a GZIP Compressed Tar Archive file. TGZ files can be opened with any popular compression/decompression program, the free 7-Zip tool being one example. Any of these types of programs will decompress (extract) the contents of a TGZ file. KML files were originally used by Keyhole mapping software developed by Keyhole, Inc. The company was acquired by Google in 2004 and KML files are now used by Google Earth and other Earth browser programs.
Below the table with documents for download you have the possibility to upload a new version or a new file.
Visualization of Geodata
In the third section geodata are listed, linked to the dataset. Click on the data of interest and visualization starts.
For the visualization process you will be redirected to JanusWeb, a product of Codematix GmbH Jena, which is an integral part of the information system. By default all layers connected to this dataset were displayed. You have the possibility to activate layers by clicking the respective checkboxes. On the right side a reference map is shown and a legend appears below.
The menu on the top of the map offers a set of tools to explore the map in detail:
- zoom by rectangle or center point selection
- zoom out to previous level
- zoom in to next level
- pan map extract
- go back to originally map extract
- use measure tool to measure distances, routes and areas
- info tool- one click onto the map shows attributes of the layers selected in legend
- print page
