If this help document does not answer your question, please send it to us at StreamNetGIS@psmfc.org
The StreamNet Interactive Mapper is a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) application designed with ESRI ArcIMS software to present StreamNet users with the graphic ability to find, query, and display fisheries information from StreamNet. For more information on the StreamNet project, please visit our About StreamNet PageThe application works by displaying a set of map layers in the map window in the center of the screen and allowing the user to interact with these layers with tools in the toolbar on the upper left side of the screen. Layers are scale-dependent, meaning that as you zoom in closer to an area on the map, you will be presented with a different set of layers, that provide more detail or features that cannot be viewed when zoomed out. Labels are also added to layer features on a scale-dependent basis to assist the user. To add more layers to the map, from the initial screen, zoom in to the area of your interest by either point and clicking or holding down the mouse button and drawing a zoom box to zoom in to an area. Zooming and panning can be further used to target in on the area of your interest. At a broad scale, the map will be broken up into the larger hydrographic basins of the Pacific Northwest. At a medium scale, these will be broken up into USGS subbasins (HUCs). At a fine scale, a land ownership layer will be used as a backdrop.
Most of the layers from the map are shown in the layer list in the lower left section of the screen and in the legend on the right side of the screen. The layer list is an interactive list that you can use to control the map and tools output. The 'visible' check box controls whether a layer is to be shown on the map. By toggling this button on or off for the layer you can add or remove it to the map display. Click the Refresh Map button to redraw the map after you have changed the visibility of a layer. As with a paper map, the legend shows the symbol(s) with which each layer is drawn on the map. The legend will reflect whatever layers you set to be visible. The 'active' radio button on the layer list controls which layer is currently chosen for use with the tools. It can be switched between layers, but only one layer may be active at a time because of the nature of the tools that affect layers. Some tools, like pan and zoom in, do not affect a specific layer, but others, like query and hyperlink are applied only to the active layer. See the tools section below for more details on what each tool does. The text window at the bottom of the screen sends you feedback based on requests you send to the application with the tools. For example, if you use the identify tool to identify information about a hatchery, the results, including the hatchery name and address, will be shown in a table format in the text window. These tables will typically include links (in the left-most column) to zoom the map to the feature that is returned. The application will also give a readout of other changes that are made to the map or layer list in the text window. To download GIS data or metadata for StreamNet GIS layers, click the 'Download GIS data/metadata' button next to the toolbar. This will open a separate window that is the StreamNet GIS data page. Only GIS data developed by the StreamNet project or associated agencies are included here - general map layers like land ownership or cities are not developed by StreamNet and are included with the application as background layers only. Fish Distribution Layers are treated differently than the other layers, and may be added individually. To show a fish distribution layer on the map, click the 'Show Fish Distribution' button next to the toolbar. A list of available species/run combinations will be shown - click the one that you are interested in and it will be rendered on the map. Note that because the fish distribution is generated as a dynamic image layer through a custom process, it is shown on the legend but is not available in the layer list or for use with tools. Only one fish distribution layer will be shown at a time to avoid potential confusion between different species. It is possible to display fish distribution at any scale but to achieve best results, view fish distribution when zoomed in to a finer level with the 1:100,000 scale streams as a background layer. Fish distribution represents areas of suitable habitat believed to be utilized by the species during some time of the year, as reported to StreamNet through the best professional judgement of fish biologists. This distribution does not differentiate between hatchery and wild populations. It should only be considered accurate to the 1:100,000 scale or if viewed at ground level, within several hundred feet, eventhough the mapping application will let you zoom in closer to see a higher level of precision than is true for the data. The Hyperlink tool is included under 'Tools' below but deserves special mention here because it includes some extra functionality beyond a standard hyperlink. We've designed the tool so that when you link on features from certain layers, a query is run of our database and results are returned in a new web page. These results show any information linked to the feature you've clicked on, and allow you to view and/or download custom reports of this information. For example, if hatcheries is your active layer and you activate the hyperlink tool and click on Yakima Hatchery on the map, a new web page will open up, showing a report of data categories for that hatchery like facility information, photograph(s), hatchery releases, etc. You could then click on any of these data categories to view a report of the information for this hatchery or to download the data. The layers that may be used as hyperlinks are streams (1:100,000 scale), hatcheries, subbasins, counties, and dams.Some of the tools and operations work with Selected Features. Features are selected in the active layer through the 'select' tools which allow you to pick it out on the map, or with the 'query' tool, which allows you to select it by querying for a condition that is true in the feature (example: query for streams that are tributaries of the Deschutes River). Once a feature is selected, it is highlighted in yellow or red. Multiple features may be selected at the same time. A list of selected record(s) is returned in the text box beneath the map. To automatically zoom to any selected feature, click the hyperlinked number that is next to the record in the text box. Some tools, like 'buffer' may be applied to the selected feature(s).
If you're having problems using the interactive mapper or if it things aren't displaying right on your screen, it may be due to a browser compatibility problem. This application was designed to use HTML output for maximum versatility with different browsers but it does use Java script and will not work properly on browsers that don't recognize Java or where users have turned off or possibly if they've modified the Java settings on their browser. The application should work with most modern browsers, including Internet Explorer (versions 4 and higher) and Netscape Navigator (versions 4.6 and higher).We've designed the application to work on a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels or greater. If you have a small monitor or have set the screen resolution to less than this, the application will be hard to use because the map area will be too small. If this is the case, try changing your monitor resolution to a larger size (at least 800x600 pixels).
It's best not to use the back and forward buttons on your browser to navigate the map. Instead, try using the 'zoom to previous extent' tool.
If the map is working okay but seems to get hung up at some point, try clicking the 'refresh map' button and/or the 'clear selections' button to reset the view. If you'd like to reload the page, do not use the refresh/reload button on the browser - this may not work because the application uses a combination of complex elements that may not be correctly restarted this way. Instead, bookmark the following link: 'http://www.streamnet.org/mapper.html' and click the bookmark when you'd like to restart the application. For Netscape users, if you have your security options at default settings, then you will be prompted to answer 'OK' whenever you send a request to the map via a tool because you are sending information to our server needed to perform this request. If you'd like to disable this prompt message, click the Netscape Security icon and unclick the box that says "Show a warning before sending unencrypted information to a Site." If you're still having a problem, please send us an email at StreamNetGIS@psmfc.org and we would be happy to help if we can.
The toolbar is located in the upper left hand section of the screen and includes a set of clickable buttons that each represents a different tool. The active tool is shown under the tool bar in the text readout "Selected Tool is:". A tool will also show a red square inside its button when selected. Some tools, like 'zoom to full extent' are applied instantaneously when you click them on the toolbar. Others, like 'zoom in', are selected via the toolbar, and then applied when you click or draw anywhere on the map with your mouse. Other tools, like 'identify' are layer-specific, meaning that they apply to the active layer only. To use these layer-specific tools, set a layer from the layer list as 'active', select the tool by clicking it in the toolbar, and then click on the map around a feature from the active layer to apply the tool to that feature. The table below shows each tool icon and describes what it does when used. None of the tools will break anything or make irreversible changes, so when in doubt about a tool, feel free to experiment with it! |
Zoom In | Click on the map to zoom in to see a smaller area, either by a single click to zoom in or by dragging and drawing a box to define a zoom area. |
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Zoom Out | Click on the map to zoom out to see a larger area. |
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Zoom To Full Extent | Click to zoom the map to the fullest possible extent of all layers. |
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Zoom To Active Layer | Click to zoom the map to the full extent of the active layer. |
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Zoom To Last Extent | Click to zoom the map to the previous extent that you were zoomed to. If desired, continue to click to see multiple previous extents. |
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Pan | Click and drag the map away to see an adjacent area in any direction. For example, if you'd like to see what is just south of the current view, click anywhere on the map with the mouse button and move the mouse up to drag the current map view up and to center the area to the south in the map view. |
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Measure | Click a point on the map to measure from. Wait a couple of seconds to let the application register the point and then click another point to measure to. A line will be drawn on the map to show the route. Continue to add points if you'd like to measure a complex route. A running distance total will be displayed in the text box. To clear the measurements and lines, click the 'Clear Selection' tool. |
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Click to print the current map. You will be prompted in the text box to enter a title for the map and then to click to create a print page. A new browser window will open with a preview of the printable map. If this looks good, use the print option from the browser window menu to print a copy of the map. For best results, print in landscape orientation (this can be set under properties before you print). | |
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Pan North | Click to pan the map one 'sheet' to the north (a sheet meaning the height of the current map extent). |
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Pan South | Click to pan the map one 'sheet' to the south (a sheet meaning the height of the current map extent). |
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Pan West | Click to pan the map one 'sheet' to the West (a sheet meaning the width of the current map extent). |
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Pan East | Click to pan the map one 'sheet' to the East (a sheet meaning the width of the current map extent). |
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Identify | Click a feature of the active layer to receive information about this feature in the text box. |
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Find | Click to search the active layer for feature records that contain a text string. A form will open in the text box to enter your text string in and all fields of the active layer will be searched for this text string. Any records containing this string will be returned in the text box; clicking the hyperlink in a record will zoom the map to view the feature. |
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Query | Click to query the fields of the active layer. A form will open in the text box; Use 'field' to select the field you wish to query, use 'operator' to define how to query it, and use 'value' to define the value you want, with optional use of the and/or/not conditions on the right; click 'Add to Query String' to build the query string. When finished with the query string, click 'execute' to return any records in the layer that meet the query condition(s). For more detailed instructions on how to use this tool see the Query Tool Instructions Page. |
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Buffer | A buffer is an area that is defined around a feature with a certain distance. Click to draw a buffer around selected feature(s) of the active layer (feature(s) must be selected to use this tool). A form will open in the text box where you can specify the size of the buffer in miles. Optionally, you can select another layer to identify all features from that layer that are within the buffer tolerance of the selected feature (check the 'display attributes' box when doing this to show the records that are within the buffer). The buffer will be drawn as a dark gray on the map, and if a selected layer was chosen, any features within the buffer will be listed in the text box. |
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Select Rectangle | Click and drag a rectangle on the map to select all features from the active layer that fall within the rectangle. Records will be highlighed in yellow and listed in the text box. |
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Clear Selection | Click to unselect all selected features and/or to remove all lines drawn with the 'measure' or 'select by line or polygon' tools. |
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Hyperlink (Get Data) | Click a feature in the active layer to access StreamNet data and reports for that feature. For example, if streams (1:100,000 scale) is the active layer, click a stream on the map and a separate window will open up with a report of accessible data for that stream. This tool only works with the streams (1:100,000 scale), subbasins, counties, and hatcheries layers. |