User Guide

This page provides a practical guide to the AtlantECO GeoNode's terminology and basic functionalities like searching, visualising and downloading data layers. In addition, it explains how to create an interactive map from the data layers that can be used for further dissemination. Finally, it briefly shows how the data layers in the AtlantECO GeoNode can be accessed from the open-source desktop GIS software QGIS.

GeoNode terminology

Layers

Layers are a primary component of the GeoNode. They are publishable resources representing a spatial data source (e.g. AtlantECO MAPS) which are associated with metadata, ratings, and comments.

Documents

Documents are any other files (e.g. AtlantECO Base data tables). which are associated with metadata, ratings and comments. They can be linked to specific data layers or maps.

Remote Services

In GeoNode, externally hosted data layers (e.g. on EMODnet) can be added through remote services. GeoNode supports the following web service protocols:

Maps

Maps are combinations of various layers. They are fully interactive and can combine both layers in AtlantECO GeoNode as well as layers from remote services. Maps also contain other information such as map zoom and extent, layer ordering, filters, style and associated widgets.

How to search for data

From the AtlantECO GeoNode homepage you can use the free text search box to find layers, documents and maps that contain any matching text in the associated metadata.

Alternatively, you can browse the datasets by publication using the AtlantECO MAPS dropdown menu in the top bar.

To browse through all layers, maps or documents, you can click the respective buttons on the home screen or alternatively access the Data > Layers tab, the Data > Documents tab or the Maps > Explore Maps tab from the top bar respectively. This will open a search page which lists all layers, maps or documents that match your query. You can order the list of data by date, name or popularity. You can further refine your search using the different dropdown menus on the right, which allow to filter by:

  • Text: free-text search field. This is recommended if you are looking for data on a specific species as it will auto-recommend content matching that query.
  • Keywords: one or more hierarchical keywords. This allows you to browse through species, species groups, parameters, etc. for which data is available. Due to the considerable number of species for which data is available, it takes a few moments to load.
  • Type: the data type (raster, vector, remote, document or map).
  • Categories: the standardised ISO Geospatial Topic Category.
  • Responsible: the person responsible or the point of contact for the data.
  • Groups: the GeoNode groups to which data provider, creator or distributor belongs (e.g. their institute).
  • Group Categories: The category to which this group belongs.
  • Date: The publication date of the layer, document or map.
  • Regions: The standard region associated which the layer, map or linked document.
  • Extent: The geographic extent of the layer, map or document that overlaps with the extent of the interactive mini map. Pan and zoom in the mini map to refine your search.

How to visualise data and metadata

Clicking on the data layer of interest will open up the layer overview page with an interactive map of the data layer, its basic metadata and buttons to download the data layer, view detailed metadata, visualise the data in full screen mode, or download the metadata.

The interactive map allows you to visualise the data layer. You are able to pan (drag & drop), zoom (scroll or +/- button) and interact with the data by clicking a specific location on the map. This will return the value of the raster at this location. In case the layer has a time dimension, you are able to step through the time steps with the back and forward buttons or play the timesteps as an animation with the play/pause button. The background map can be altered by clicking the background layer thumbnail in the lower right and selecting the background layer of choice. On the right, you can view the legend for the data, links to maps that are using this layer, the available styles for the layer, and the data responsible, point of contact and metadata author.

Below the map, under the Info tab, you are able to view basic metadata of the layer like title, license, abstract, publication date, keywords, category, region and owner. To view the full set of metadata, click on the "Metadata Detail" button in the top right. Under the attributes tab, you find additional metadata on the attribute fields (in case of vector type data).

This requires you to be logged in with an AtlantECO GeoNode Account. To create one go here.

This page also offers social features through the Share, Ratings and Comments tabs. Under the Favorites tab, you can add the map to your GeoNode profile for easy access.

How to download data and metadata

Download data layer

Data layers can be downloaded through the "Download Layer" button in the top right. This will open the download layer menu.

Under the Images tab, you have the option to download a georeferenced image of the data in following formats:

  • JPEG
  • PDF
  • PNG

Under the Data tab, you can download the actual dataset in a format of choice. For raster data types following formats are available:

  • GeoTIFF

Download metadata

The metadata of a layer can be downloaded through the "Download Metadata" button in the top right. This will open the metadata download menu.

From this menu, the full metadata can be downloaded for viewing in simple text or html format. Furthermore, following standard metadata xml formats for machine parsing are supported:

  • ISO
  • FGDC
  • ebRIM
  • Dublin Core
  • DIF
  • Atom

How to create and share an interactive map

This requires you to be logged in with an AtlantECO GeoNode Account. To create one go here.

To create a new map, click the Maps > Create Map tab. Alternatively, from the layer search page, click the "+" icon next to the layers you wish to combine in a map. The selected maps are listed in the top left. To combine them in a map, click "Create a Map".

This will take you to the Map Composer, either an empty map with only base layer or the selected layers on top of the base layer. The basemap can be changed by clicking the background layer thumbnail in the lower right and selecting the background layer of choice. Open the layer menu by clicking the layers icon in the top left.

Add layers

To add data layers from the GeoNode click on the add layer button on the top left. This will open a catalogue window on the right-hand side. To add layers to your map select them and hit the Add Layers '+' button. When finished you may hit Done to close the dialog and go back to the map.

Reordering and removing Layers

Change the display order of the layers listed in the data tab by simply dragging and dropping their names. The order in the map will be updated to reflect that. You can show/hide the layer legend with the arrow on the right-hand side of the layer box. To turn a layer's visibility off simply press the eye symbol. You can also gradually change the layer opacity with the slider at the bottom of the layer box.

When you click a layer in the layer menu, it becomes highlighted in blue, and several buttons appear on the top of the menu. From left to right:

  • Zoom the map to the extent of the layer.
  • Change the settings for the layer (style to use, tooltip to display, etc.).
  • Delete the layer.
  • Download the data layer in the desired format.
  • Compare two overlying layers (tool demonstrated in the screenshot below).

Saving your map

Once a suitable set of layers and zoom level has been found it's time to save it so others can see it. From the top right menu icon, choose save as.

This opens a menu that allows you to add a thumbnail, title and description to your map.

Sharing a Map

Any map from the AtlantECO GeoNode can be shared through a link or embedded for use on another site or blog. To share a map, choose share from the top right menu icon. This generates the share link, or the iframe snippet to include in the html of another website.

Access the AtlantECO GeoNode in QGIS

QGIS is an open-source GIS tool that allows visualising and analysing geospatial data. It can be connected to the AtlantECO GeoNode to directly pull data into your own GIS project.

From the QGIS browser panel, right click GeoNode > New Connection.

In the resulting dialogue box, fill in a name for the GeoNode connection and the AtlantECO GeoNode URL: https://atlanteco-geonode.eu/ and click 'OK'.

From the QGIS browser panel, you can now load all the content from the AtlantECO GeoNode (note that due to the considerable number of layers, QGIS takes a while to render the content depending on your internet connection). It presents two menus:

  • WCS: This web coverage service allows you to load the data from the layers into QGIS. Use this if you want to visualise the data with your own color scale or perform analyses on the data.
  • WMS: This web mapping service allows you to add georeferenced images from the data to QGIS, using the color scale defined on the GeoNode. Use this for quick visualisation of a layer.