New online map with trail mileage - Mt Hood NF
Posted: September 26th, 2013, 8:40 am
The map below features the most accurate trail distances according to the USFS. If you click a trail then the endpoints for that trail segment will be circled and a popup will appear. The popup shows how the distance data was collected and has a link to the forest service detail page for this trail (if such a detail page exists). You can also click any of the symbols to see links to forest service detail pages.
Please see the “Tips” link in the upper left corner of the map. The “Tips” info includes some brief background on how this map was produced.
Bummer Dept: This map crashes Safari (iOS 6.1.3) on an iPhone 4S and 4th generation iPad. I am investigating. There is a report that it does work on Android but I do not have any Android devices myself.
(See more below the map)
The following link is a zoomed out view that shows all the data for this national forest. Since the map is a solid pile of symbols, you will need to zoom in for this to make any sense.
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... t_hood.txt
The data you see on this map resides in two data files. Those data files were produced by code I wrote which processes data from the forest service. In a like manner, similar maps for other national forests can also be produced. At the moment there are still a few manual steps in this process but they can readily be converted to code.
There are a number of features throughout the forest (campgrounds etc) for which the forest service does not have coordinates. Is anyone interested in cooperating to crowd-source that data and provide it to the FS?
Admittedly, I am a data geek with a database background. Here are a few key things (good and bad) that caught my eye as I tracked down the data for this map.
1. (Very good) The forest service’s GIS is open to the public in the sense that anyone with the right technical savvy can extract data.
2. (Bad) Each feature like a trailhead, trail, campground, boat launch, etc has a record in the forest service’s INFRA (Infrastructure) database. Note that trailhead and trail are different features and the forest service keeps track of different data for these two different features. The “trail” records that exist in the INFRA database apparently were not copied to the GIS (at least for the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie NF). These “trail” records do not contain the coordinates for the trail but instead contain data like which permit(s) are required to use the trail and the link that will display the forest service detail page for the trail.
3. (Very bad) The forest service’s GIS defines the data fields that are stored for each trail segment. That list of data fields does not include the “control number” that uniquely identifies each trail in the INFRA database. Attempting to match a trail segment to data about the entire trail by using trail name or trail number is fraught with peril.
Here is my recommendation. The forest service should:
A. Load their “trail” records from INFRA into the GIS
B. Load all “control” field data from INFRA to the GIS
C. Publish the data dictionary for the INFRA trail data and make it easy to find with a Google search. After extensive searching I am convinced that this critical document is not available on the public internet. I did find the data dictionary for roads but that document states up front that it does not apply to trails.
D. Provide a way for the reader to easily see if they are looking at the most recent version of this data dictionary.
Finally, I welcome all suggestions for how the map can be improved.
Please see the “Tips” link in the upper left corner of the map. The “Tips” info includes some brief background on how this map was produced.
Bummer Dept: This map crashes Safari (iOS 6.1.3) on an iPhone 4S and 4th generation iPad. I am investigating. There is a report that it does work on Android but I do not have any Android devices myself.
(See more below the map)
The following link is a zoomed out view that shows all the data for this national forest. Since the map is a solid pile of symbols, you will need to zoom in for this to make any sense.
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... t_hood.txt
The data you see on this map resides in two data files. Those data files were produced by code I wrote which processes data from the forest service. In a like manner, similar maps for other national forests can also be produced. At the moment there are still a few manual steps in this process but they can readily be converted to code.
There are a number of features throughout the forest (campgrounds etc) for which the forest service does not have coordinates. Is anyone interested in cooperating to crowd-source that data and provide it to the FS?
Admittedly, I am a data geek with a database background. Here are a few key things (good and bad) that caught my eye as I tracked down the data for this map.
1. (Very good) The forest service’s GIS is open to the public in the sense that anyone with the right technical savvy can extract data.
2. (Bad) Each feature like a trailhead, trail, campground, boat launch, etc has a record in the forest service’s INFRA (Infrastructure) database. Note that trailhead and trail are different features and the forest service keeps track of different data for these two different features. The “trail” records that exist in the INFRA database apparently were not copied to the GIS (at least for the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie NF). These “trail” records do not contain the coordinates for the trail but instead contain data like which permit(s) are required to use the trail and the link that will display the forest service detail page for the trail.
3. (Very bad) The forest service’s GIS defines the data fields that are stored for each trail segment. That list of data fields does not include the “control number” that uniquely identifies each trail in the INFRA database. Attempting to match a trail segment to data about the entire trail by using trail name or trail number is fraught with peril.
Here is my recommendation. The forest service should:
A. Load their “trail” records from INFRA into the GIS
B. Load all “control” field data from INFRA to the GIS
C. Publish the data dictionary for the INFRA trail data and make it easy to find with a Google search. After extensive searching I am convinced that this critical document is not available on the public internet. I did find the data dictionary for roads but that document states up front that it does not apply to trails.
D. Provide a way for the reader to easily see if they are looking at the most recent version of this data dictionary.
Finally, I welcome all suggestions for how the map can be improved.