Voyager layer updates and improvements
Voyager layer updates and improvements
Posted February 1, 2018PacIOOS recently implemented performance improvements and other updates across several data layers served through PacIOOS Voyager. NOAA’s shallow-water benthic habitat maps (seafloor benthic habitats) as well as marine species distribution maps compiled from multiple survey periods, survey methods, and organizations (biology fish and wildlife distributions) have both been migrated on the back end from MapServer to GeoServer. Additionally, they have been split into individual layers by island and species, respectively. Together, these improvements vastly increase the display speed for dynamic online mapping and query capabilities, provide additional output formats, and bring these data in line with the hundreds of other GIS layers already offered through PacIOOS GeoServer.
To explore these freshly migrated layers in greater detail, please visit the PacIOOS data catalog, where you will now find formal metadata and various data access mechanisms for 37 benthic habitat data sets across the Pacific, including biological cover types, geomorphological structures, and geographic zones underlying American Samoa, Guam, CNMI, and Hawaiʻi; and 29 species distribution maps around Hawaiʻi, including several species of dolphins, whales, sea turtles, Hawaiian monk seals, and sharks.
NOAA shallow-water benthic habitat map for the Maug Islands in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) showing biological cover types, including live coral and several types of algae; click here for metadata or click the image below to view in Voyager:
Distribution map of false killer whales compiled from satellite tracking of tagged organisms and direct human observations via shipborne and aerial surveys; click here for metadata or click the image below to view in Voyager:
Other recent updates involve the hazards hazards: basemaps sub-category of Voyager. Under tsunami evac zones, we have now added the “extreme” tsunami evacuation zone. This and the normal tsunami evacuation zone, furthermore, pull directly from Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Web Map Services (WMS) provided by the State of Hawaiʻi GIS Program’s Geospatial Data Portal. Thanks to the interoperability that adopting open standards and a web services architecture provides, Voyager can now ingest these maps dynamically, automatically reflecting any future updates from the State without further ado.
Voyager screenshot of the extreme (yellow) and normal (red) tsunami evacation zones along Oʻahu’s South Shore; click the image below to view in Voyager:
A similar update was made to the FEMA flood hazard zones and associated floodway layer, now pulling directly from the State’s WMS. Links to these data sources have been updated in Voyager’s informative pop-up windows and other documentation to steer users to the State’s Geospatial Data Portal for attribution and direct data access.
Voyager screenshot of FEMA flood hazard zones along Oʻahu’s South Shore; click below to view in Voyager:
