When the website is first opened you will see an aerial photo of Niwot Ridge LTER sites, and associated boundaries in the main viewer window. A Toolbar is located on the left side of the page. Roll over the tools with your mouse pointer to identify them; click on a tool to make it active. The frames on the right side of the page contain the Legend and the Layer list. Use the scroll bar to view the entire legend. The legend width can be expanded or reduced by dragging the left border. The legend height can be expanded or reduced by dragging the bottom border. Visible map layers are shown with checked boxes; click the box next to an individual map layer (i.e. LTER plots) to turn it on or off and then click the 'Refresh Map' button located at the bottom of the Layer frame.
Note: Certain layers, such as the Orthophotos may obscure visible layers listed lower in the legend. Turning off the Orthophoto and the USGS Topographic map layers will allow the lower layers to be viewed. In addition, not all layers are available at all map scales.Using map tools:
Overview Map Toggle: [
] Turns the overview map on or off.
Zoom: [
]
The zoom tools can be used to increase or decrease the visible map area. A box may also be drawn with the cursor to zoom to the selected area.
Pan: [
]
The pan tool drags the display in the direction you move the mouse.
Identify tool: [
] Click on a layer to make it active, i.e. Vegetation map. Click on the identify tool. Click on the area of interest. An Identify Results window will open with information on the selected area if data is available.
Query Builder: [
] A query builder window opens for criteria selection. Double-click on the field of interest. Single-click on an operator (i.e. =). Double-click on the desired value. Your query should resemble this example: ALT_SITECO = '7A'. Click execute to display the query. Matching results will be highlighted in blue on the map and a tabular listing of information will be displayed.
Find: [
] Similar to the query builder, the find tool opens a window in which the user can select a value (i.e. PI name) to search for within a chosen layer (i.e. LTER plots). Results are listed in the window and can be zoomed to on the map.
Measure: [
] Click and hold down the mouse button to measure distances on the map.
Set Units: [
] Allows the user to change the map distance units.
Buffer: [
] Allows the user to buffer points, polygons, and lines.
Select by line/polygon: [
] Click on a layer to make it active. Click and hold down the mouse button to draw a selection line or area on the map. Features within the specified area will be selected.
Select by rectangle: [
] Click on a layer to make it active. Click and hold down the mouse button to draw a selection area on the map. Features within the specified area will be selected.
Clear All Selections: [
] Clears the current selection.
Print: [
] Prints the map.
Send comments/queries to Todd Ackerman (todda@culter.colorado.edu)