Data Overview
The PSF data centre is designed for three access methods. Users need to be certain which access is needed.
Access Method 1
For the manual access and viewing metadata (and sometimes downloading data) using a standard web browser,
- TYPICAL USE – researcher looking to search, browsing and examination of metadata, literature references, data downloads, and quick mapping,
Choices available:
- search capability to access iso-19115 North American Protocol (NAP) metadata,
- data files for download, if available. This option might be favoured by persons wishing to manipulate datasets after downloading
- link to external websites, if needed,
- map presentations where multiple layers can be assembled and viewed in Google Earth (blue square, if available) and locally in an Interactive map (so labelled),
- clickable thumbnail extracted from the relative page in the atlas (opens as full screen upon clicking), and
- subtle but important listing as pdf (clickable Adobe symbol on right and adjacent to each title)
Access Method 2
- TYPICAL USE – GIS user wishing to create maps
There is a computer-computer approach, following OGC standards:
- http://soggy.zoology.ubc.ca:8080/geoserver/WMS for georeferenced data images,
- http://soggy.zoology.ubc.ca:8080/geoserver/WFS to access the features (numerical values),
- http://soggy.zoology.ubc.ca:8080/geoserver/WCS for georeferenced rasters (gridded data) – presently none,
For this automated approach, special geospatial tools must be used.
Choices available:
- Data subsets can be selected and downloaded, where possible. Users must refer to the abstract for instructions, because each dataset protocol may be slightly different.
- These contents can be accessed, re-styled and re-projected using any GIS system such as a commercial product like ESRI or open source product like QGIS.
In contrast to (Access Method 3), all features can be viewed and downloaded
Access Method 3
- TYPICAL USE – detailed examination of data layers for gis applications and data/images for reports
Choices available:
- as Open Layers for a quick look, including shape file information listing via clicks (if information is available)
- as Google Earth link via a ‘kml’ button
- as Geographic Markup Language (GML)
- in a huge number of WMS formats in a drop-down list (e.g. for possible inclusion in reports)
- as Comma-separated values (CSV) in WFS format
in this view, a maximum of 50 features may be downloaded
Access Method 4
Filter Spatial Data for Viewing and Download
TYPICAL USE – Perform filtering on datasets available from the GeoServer page, so that the specified information of interest can be viewed or downloaded.
Choices available:
- Download the data as Comma-separated values (CSV)
- View the data as Geographic Markup Language (GML)