Map

Introduction

Mapping Toolbar

Map Tools (move map, zoom, print, reset map, what's here, measure distance, erase)

Latitude and Longitude Reporting in Status Bar

Overview Window

Map Text

Map Contents

Select Layers Tab

Map Legend Tab

Introduction

The map page of the NABIS system lets you select and customise layers and display them in the map panel.  Interactive tools let you view and analyse a variety of information relating to our marine biodiversity and the management of our fisheries.

Mapping Toolbar

The Mapping Toolbar provides a suite of tools for use in the map window.

Map Tools

Name Description
Move Map The 'Move Map' tool lets you re-centre the map window.  By selecting the tool and clicking in the map window, the map window is centralised around the selected point. The 'Move Map' tool lets you move to view a different area of the map without changing the scale. You can either re-centre on a point or drag on the map to reveal more area.
  • Select the 'Move Map' tool from the toolbar,
  • Click on the map where you like the centre of the view to be, or
  • Click, hold and drag on the map window to reveal the adjacent area you want to view.
Zoom In The 'Zoom In' tool lets you zoom in on the map window.
  • Select the 'Zoom In' tool,
  • Click in the map window, which will make the map zoom in by 50%, or
  • Click, hold and drag a box in the map window, and the map window will zoom in to the extent of the drawn box.
Zoom Out The 'Zoom Out' tool lets you zoom out on the map window.
  • Select the 'Zoom Out' tool,
  • Click in the map window, this will make the map zoom out by 100% centred from the point selected.
Undo The 'Undo' tool lets you undo the last mapping action. Actions that can be undone include load or unload a layer, zoom in or zoom out, measure distance and erase.  Note that it will not undo change colour, hide/show layer, hide/show labels and reset map.
What's Here? The 'What's Here?' tool lets you investigate features on the map.
  • Select the 'What's Here?' tool from the toolbar,
  • Click on a point of interest on the map,
  • Information about features at the point selected, in any of the data layers displayed on the map, will appear,
  • This information may be printed using the 'File, Print' option on your browser menu,
  • To return to the map select 'Back' on your browser menu, or 'Map, Show Map' from the NABIS dropdown menu.

To return to the map select 'Back' on your browser menu, or use the return to map button at the bottom right of the page.

For further information about the 'What's Here?' tool, see 'What's Here?'

Print

The 'Print' tool presents your map in a printable layout or lets you save your map to an image, it gives you a print preview of your formatted map.

You will need to ensure that your browser print setting is set to the same orientation and page size, and then print using the File, Print option:

The print map tool takes you to a new page.  Here you make the selection of output type, of either a print layout or an image to save to file.

  

Print to printer

  • Choose the orientation of your page to print, landscape is recommended as it matches the normal dimensions of a computer screen and therefore the map page.
  • Choose the page size, A4 is recommended as it also matches the normal dimensions of a computer screen.
  • Type a title for you map into the title box.

           NOTE: if you are using Internet Explorer 6 you will need to configure your page setup to  

           allow the title to come through to the map:

o        Go to file>>page set up.

o        In the Header put "&w&bPage &p of &P"

o        In the footer put "&u&b&d"

o        Apply and close.

  • After clicking preview the title will be imbedded into the address bar but will print on your map.
  • Click preview.
  • From here either select back to change the settings, print, or return to the map to adjust as required.

 

Save an image

  • Choose an orientation for your image output.
  • Choose the size of the output file.
  • Choose an image size (quality), from low resolution and small file size of 96dpi to high resolution and large file size of 600dpi.
  • You can choose to either save the map, legend and logo separately or as one single image.
  • Click save as.
  • Browse to the location you want to save your image to.

 

Reset The 'Reset' tool removes all added information/map layers from the map.  It returns the map to the state it was in when you first entered the map page in your NABIS session.
Help The 'Help' tool opens the help files for the page you are currently viewing.
Zoom and Centre on The 'Zoom and Centre on' tool lets you zoom in to predefined areas and scales.
  • Select a location from the drop down list and the map window will be refreshed to go to the selected location and scale.
Zoom to The 'Zoom to' tool lets you zoom to a predefined scale.
  • Select a scale from the drop down list and the map window will be refreshed to the selected scale.
Measure Distance

The 'Measure Distance' tool lets you draw a straight line with a measured distance on the map.  If you draw one or more lines with the measure distance tool these will all use a single legend called “user geometries”.

  • Select the 'Measure Distance' tool from the toolbar.
  • Click once to start your measurement line and then click again at the point you want to finish (note you cannot begin or end a line within the area covered by the overview window or the green help text that appears across the top of the map window when you first select the measure distance tool.)
  • The map window refreshes and displays the line with its measurement in kilometres or metres as appropriate.
  • The length of the measured line should be labelled in the centre and above the line, this may not be visible if you have other labels in that location.  Zoom in to the centre of the line and the label will appear.
  • To remove the measure distance lines use the 'Erase' tool, the 'remove layer' tool in the legend or un-tick the layer from the current layers list in the select layers tree and click Update Map.

 

Erase The 'Erase' tool lets you erase all user geometries you have drawn.
  • Click on the 'Erase' tool to erase all drawn measurements.

Note: the 'Undo' tool differs from erase in that it only removes the last measurement you have drawn.

Return to top of page.

Latitude and Longitude Reporting in Status Bar

The status bar at the bottom of the map displays the latitude and longitude of the cursor position.  

The display is represented in decimal degrees (not Degrees Minutes Seconds) the hemisphere is indicated with either an E (east), W(west), N(north) or S(south). If the map is located past the extremities of 180° east/west and 90° north/south the latitude or longitude will no longer display. The display will continue if the mouse is shifted over the "Overview window" at the bottom right of the map window.  The latitude and longitude displayed is that of the main map not of the "Overview window".

The functionality will not work on an Internet Explorer 7 browser if it has been disabled or no enabled.You will need to check “Tools -> Internet Options” from the Internet Explorer menu then select the “Security” tab and the “Internet” zone then click on the “Custom Level” button, scroll down to the "Allow status bar updates via script" option and enable. You will need to restart your browser session.  

Mozilla Firefox does not allow this functionality.

Return to top of page.

Overview Window

The overview window is located at the bottom right of the map.  The overview window shows a larger extent beyond the map with the actual map as displayed as a red box. This gives the user an idea as to where they are situated in context with the larger area. When moving the map and zooming the red box changes to reflect the map size and location.

To move the map click on the overview window to re-centre the map.

Note that you cannot begin or end a measure distance line within the area of the overview window.

 

Return to top of page.

Map Text

The map text is located at the top left of the map.

  • NABIS - Crown copyright reserved indicates that the material on this web site is protected by crown copyright and anyone can utilise the information on the site free of charge and without permission of the agency provided that: The material is not altered and the source and copyright status of the material is acknowledged.
  • Latitude/Longitude WGS84 describes the datum the map is displayed in.
  • Map Scale indicates the current scale of the map, this measurement is taken at the vertical centre of the map.
  • Window Width indicates the approximate distance from one side of the map to the other, this is also measured at the vertical centre of the map.
  • Below the text is a scale bar with the approximate distance of the grey bar indicated below, this is also measured at the vertical centre of the map.

Return to top of page.

Map Contents

There are two tabs in the map contents panel on the left hand side of the map window, these are Select Layers and Map Legend.

Select Layers Tab

Layer Generation tools and Information layers are organised into a tree structure within the Select Layers tab. The numbers in brackets beside each item indicates the number of individual information layers available.

Layer Generation Tools

  • Commercial Catch

The 'Commercial Catch' tool lets you choose a species, fishing method, month, and fishing year to obtain a map of the distribution of Commercial Catch showing areas of high, medium, and low density of catch in kilograms. For further information about the Commercial Catch tool see Commercial Catch.

 

  • Commercial Fishing Effort

The 'Commercial Fishing Effort' tool lets you chose a vessel size, fishing method, month and fishing year to obtain a map of the distribution of Commercial Fishing Effort showing areas of high, medium, and low density of fishing effort in number of fishing days.  For furthur information about the Commercial Fishing Effort tool see Commercial Fishing Effort.

 

  • Import My Points

This tool enables you to import your own coordinate data (points, lines or polygons) to display on NABIS. For furthur information about the Import My Points tool see Import My Points.

Current Layers

The 'Current Layers' branch contains any information layers that are currently displayed on the map.

Environment

The Environment branch contains information layers relating to the marine environment.

Management

The Management branch contains information layers relating to the management of the marine environment.

Species Information

The Species Information branch contains species distribution and breeding colony information for selected marine species and sea birds.

Update Map

To load one or more layers to the map simultaneously click to place a tick in the boxes beside each layer and select 'Update Map'.  The selected layer(s) are added to the map window and legend.  To remove one or more layers simultaneosly; untick the box(es) and select 'Update Map'.

 

Metadata Link

To the left of each layer is a link to its metadata/layer details page.  It appears as a black "i". Clicking this will take you to a page which has information about that particular layer or dataset.

Return to top of page.

Map Legend Tab

The 'Map Legend' tab shows the layers that appear in the map window, it is a key to what is showing on the map. The legends are loaded from top to bottom in the same order as the map layers are loaded to the map.

Legend Image

The legend image shows how a layer will appear in the map.  For some biological layers coloured stars will show on the map when displayed at a broad scale.  These stars indicate areas where the species is found but would not be visible using the current scale.  The stars will alter to colour bands when you zoom in (e.g. marine mammal and seabird breeding colonies change to colour bands at 10km scale).

Active Layer

There is always one "Active" layer within a map but there cannot be more than one active layer.  There are various actions that can be performed on the active layer.  The active layer will be highlighted green, is the one with the expanded legend tile and with the layer tools displayed within the legend.  To change the Active layer click on the legend of the layer you wish to become the new active layer.

Layer tools

You can use the Layer tools on each legend tile to provide more information about the active layer or to change the display of the active layer.

Layer tool Description
Change Colour

Change Colour by selecting a new colour from a drop down menu. This function is only available for certain layers.

Example: This function can be useful if you are displaying two finfish layers with default colour violet, and wish to differentiate between them. Change one layer colour to blue so that they are easily distinguishable.

Hide Labels

 This tool lets you remove labels. A label is text that describes the feature. To turn labels back on select the Show Labels tool, which will appear in place of the hide labels tool when activated.
Hide Layer This tool lets you hide a layer in the map. Hide does not remove the Layer from the Legend but indicates in the legend that the layer is hidden. To redisplay the layer select 'Show Layer'.
Remove Layer This tool lets you remove the layer from the map and the legend.
Show Details/Metadata This tool lets you access the Metadata for the layer (information about the dataset or layer displayed). For further information about Metadata see Metadata.
What's Here? The 'What's Here?' tool lets you investigate features on the map.
  • Select the 'What's Here?' tool from the layer tool menu,
  • Click on a point of interest on the map,
  • Information about features at the point selected, in any of the data layers displayed on the map, will appear,
  • This information may be printed using the 'File, Print' option on your browser menu,
  • To return to the map select 'Back' on your browser menu, or 'Map, Show Map' from the NABIS dropdown menu.
For further information about the 'What's Here?' tool, see 'What's Here?'

Accuracy Levels

You may see a coloured triangle next to the layer title. This triangle is to alert you to possible problems with the data layer. The number in the triangle indicates the severity of the alert level applying to the layer.

  • Level 1: Low level alert: There are minor errors, omissions or inaccuracies in this layer.
  • Level 2: Medium level alert: There are errors, omissions or inaccuracies in this layer.
  • Level 3: High level alert: There are significant errors, omissions or inaccuracies in this layer.

To obtain more information about the Warnings/Problems please refer to the Details/Metadata of the layer.  You can also hover the mouse cursor over the triangle to see a description of the warning or problem.

Return to top of page.