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NaturalHistoryMuseum / scratchpads2

Scratchpads 2.0
http://scratchpads.org
GNU General Public License v2.0
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Implement vice-counties regions as alternatives to TDWG regions for a number of UK projects #3398

Closed informatics-dev closed 11 years ago

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Description:

Lots of older UK specimens only have VC identifications so this is useful for a number of NHM and other projects.

Shape files can be found at: http://www.nbn.org.uk/SpecialPages/WVCB-Download.aspx

Attachments:

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Katherine Bouton

Changed this to high as it is required by new NHM Project Seaweeds Issue Redmine issue 2986

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

Can somebody provide me with an example VC identifier please.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

Do we want to use Mean Low Water Mark (MLWM), 3-Mile or 12-Mile boundaries? I don't think it really matters, and would be more inclined to go with MLWM.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

The Polygons in the shape files are defined using OS Grid references rather than latitude/longitudes, additional work will therefore be required to convert them.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

A new site (http://maps.taxon.name/) has been created for testing this feature. This feature should also be tested with a cloned site. When cloning an existing site, the new URL of the clone MUST MUST MUST start with "maps" and SHOULD end with .taxon.name (e.g. http://maps.thymus.taxon.name/ or http://mapsantkey.taxon.name). If you accidentally move another site to this platform that does not have a URL starting with "maps", then please let me know ASAP, as all other Scratchpads 2 sites will be affected.

Each region at each level will need testing again, including all of the new Level 5 Vice Counties within Great Britain. Note, you may not be able to select Shetland (or Zetland as the NBN/Watson refers to it) by clicking on the map - this is a known issue.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Dimitrios Koureas

Tested on maps.taxon.name:

When Selecting by vice county (level 5) level 4 regions are selected when clicking outside the UK

Selections and deselections are very slow in response. Some times non-responsive at all. I cannot standardise the conditions that the system is non-responsive though.

Selecting by vice county level should also include the string (UK only)

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

  1. When Selecting by vice county (level 5) level 4 regions are selected when clicking outside the UK That is the expected behaviour.
  2. Selections and deselections are very slow in response. Some times non-responsive at all. I cannot standardise the conditions that the system is non-responsive though. I have just discovered that the GEOS PHP extension was not installed on Silica - it is likely that was the cause of this.
  3. Selecting by vice county level should also include the string (UK only) I have added the string, although in future we may be able to add other shape files that break Level 4 regions into smaller segments. If we do that, we will need to remove the "(UK only)" text.
informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Dimitrios Koureas

  1. System responsiveness to selections is largely improved.

  2. I cannot see the added string in the label of level 5

The spreadsheet import functionality for VCs worked also as expected. Further documentation should be added to the corresponding function.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

  1. System responsiveness to selections is largely improved. Note, the resolution of the VC data is very very fine, especially when compared with the TDWG regions. We could greatly improve the responsiveness of selecting VC areas if we could reduce the resolution of the VC data. Dimitris, as you're familiar with ArcGIS, you may well know if you are able to edit shape files and "smooth" polygons to reduce the number of points that are required to describe them? We may want to do this before we release this feature.
  2. I cannot see the added string in the label of level 5 You may have a cached copy of the Javascript (or it is cached on Quartz). I have just checked, and it is definitely there (see attached screenshot).
informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Dimitrios Koureas

  1. Smoothing polygons is a bit of a tricky job. It requires quite of a work in order to avoid topological errors (crossings and gaps). I will give it a try using both Bezier interpolation and PAEK to see what kind of smoothing we achieve, the fidelity of the produced polygons and the amount of errors produced.
informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Dimitrios Koureas

The attached file has a simplified version of VC. Extra points of the polygons have been removed with a 10 meters offset allowance. We can test if this makes any difference at all.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Dimitrios Koureas

A new version of the simplified polygons of VC has been added. A part of Zetland has been re-designed as the original .shp file had topological errors that did not allow to apply generalisation algorithms.

The attached file has been created with a max offset tolerance of 200m and a min polygon area of 2km exp2.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

I am reinstalling the http://maps.taxon.name/ . As I said above, please do not test this on a cloned site yet.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Dimitrios Koureas

The responsiveness has greatly improved. works as expected.

informatics-dev commented 11 years ago

Comment by Simon Rycroft

Branch merged with the master branch, the code is now live on the Sandbox.