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How to map species distribution polygons in Google maps

Page history last edited by Susannah O'Hanlon 15 years ago

 

 

How to make species distribution maps using Google maps

Species distributions are preferably required as polygon ranges.  If point distribution files are supplied these will either be buffered to 10 km radius (if there are only 1 or 2 points, or the points are very distributed), or used to create a minimum convex polygon hull.  Each point or polygon must be labelled with the species name, and tagged with attributes as follows:

You can use Google Maps on the internet to create polygon maps and send these to the SSC.  Google Earth is a downloadable application that can be used with Google Maps, and species distribution map files can be opened in both applications.

Why Share Data as KML?

Requirements for viewing Google Maps online

Google Maps currently supports the following web browsers:

http://maps.google.com/support/

You can view maps on any computer but to start creating maps in google maps, you need to have a google account and create a user profile in google.

You can create an account here:

https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount

Downloading Google Earth

You can also download Google Earth to view and create maps. 

Google Maps vs. Google Earth

Creating the maps

  1. Go to Google Maps http://maps.google.co.uk/ (or http://maps.google.com if you want to start off in the US!)
  2. Sign in to your google account if you have not already done so.

     

  3. Click on the 'My Maps' tab and then 'Create new map'.  Give your map a title.
  4. You are now ready to begin digitising your polygons.  Familiarise yourself with the zoom in/out (A) which can also be done using the middle scroll button of your mouse, the controls for moving around on the maps (B) (you can also grab and drag the map to move  around), and the three background views you can use to help you digitise (C).  The Map view is most useful for locating yourself using country borders and locations before you start to digitise your polygon, the Satellite view is useful to have as a backdrop when you are digitising around natural features such as mountains and other landscape discontinuities.

     

  5. The map-making toolbar controls are on the top left-hand-side of the map.  Hover over the buttons to see what their function is. 

     

  6. To create polygons, use the 'Draw a shape' tool on the right-hand-side of the map making toolbar (the blue polygon symbol).  Click round the area you want to create a distribution for.
  7. Once you double-click to finish the map, an attribute box comes up - type the species name as the title and add a numeric code by which you can identify the record in an associated Excel spreadsheet.  Download the template spreadsheet from here: Species attributes Spreadsheet Template.xls  The attribute field guidelines are here: Species attributes Spreadsheet Template.xls
  8. It is important to SAVE every time  you have finished creating a species record!

     

Saving and sharing your maps

Once you have completed your species maps for that dataset, you can save the maps on your computer as a KML file.

KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile.  It can be used to create points/placemarkers or polygons

Guide to KML files:

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tut.html

KMZ files are KML files that have been zipped along with related files such as image overlays.

To save  a KML file, click on View in Google Earth icon and choose the Save to Disk option (or if preferred, open first in Google Earth, then save in that application).

 

How to make species distribution maps using google maps - SOH - 6/11/08

 

 

 

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