Overview
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Explorer allows users to view and query spatial data layers, search for habitat that meet your criteria, zoom to different locations in the Great Lakes, add annotations to your map, and save and print the map that you created.
To learn more about the process of developing the GLAHF Explorer tool, please see our manuscript Goodspeed et al. (2016).
Map Area
- Select a Basemap
- Zoom Buttons
- Home Button
- Zoom to a location provided by your browser (accuracy varies by device)
- Scale Bar (bottom left)
- Insert Inset Map (viewed by clicking the arrow at the bottom right of the map area)
Layers
- Select the layers of interest by clicking the check box
- View the symbology for a layer by clicking the plus sign next to the layer name
- By clicking on the menu icon, users can:
- Adjust the order the layers are displayed
- Zoom to a layer
- Adjust the transparency of the layer
- View the layer metadata
Habitat Criteria
To use the function, select options for the layers you would like to include in your investigation. At the bottom, select whether you are interested in areas which match any or all of the criteria, and click “investigate” to see the results. The clear button removes the results from the map.
The tool will allow you to investigate any criteria, regardless of whether the resulting area is actually suitable habitat for any plant or animal species. Scientifically validated habitat maps can be viewed in the layers tool.
Draw
- Point – click once on the map. Points can also be moved by clicking on them and dragging.
- Circle – click and hold, and drag to increase the diameter of the circle.
- Polyline (line made up of multiple straight segments) – click once to start the line, and click to add vertices (corners), and double click to end the line.
- Freehand Polyline – click and hold, and drag in the desired shape.
- Polygon (shape with straight sides) – click once to start, click to add vertices (corners), and double click to close.
- Freehand Polygon – click and hold, and drag the cursor in the desired shape.
After you are happy with the object you have added, click stop drawing. At this point you can save your map or print it. The clear button removes all of the objects which have been added.
Search
- Attributes – This function displays the attributes for the selected layer, shows the values, and allows you to build a SQL query of the attributes for the selected layer. Your query can include multiple attribute fields.
- Spatial – This function allows you to draw an object, and select all the features in the target layer that intersect the drawn object. The search can be conducted to include a buffer around the object you add.
- Address – Zoom to the location for a street address, or city and state/province.
- Selection – Displays the features in the target layer which intersect with another layer.
Save
Export
Measure