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Using the MIDA
Interactive Map
This page presents a brief description
of how to use the Marine Irish Digital Atlas interactive map.
The description applies to the Internet Explorer browser running
on a Windows operating system. There may be slight variations
with other browsers and other operating systems. (See
video to learn how to open the interactive map.)
Page Layout
Overview Map
The overview map presents a simple
map of Ireland with a red box indicating the area which is visible
within the main map. You can move to another location on the
main map by clicking within the overview map; the main map is
re-drawn at the current scale, centred on the mouse-click location.
Main Map Window
The layers turned on for display in
the layer list are presented in this window. Vector layers are
presented on top of raster layers. If you turn on more than
one raster layer, only the last one loaded will be visible.
The cursor changes to a hand when in the main map. The coordinates
(in Irish National Grid) under the cursor location are reported
in the Status Bar. Use the tools
to navigate within the window or to query vector features.
The window is watermarked with "MIDA".
Layer List
The Layer List displays the names of
the layers that are currently loaded in the interactive map.
A layer can be turned on or off for display in the map by clicking
on the check-box next to its name. Once you change the status
of the check-box, the map reloads automatically.
Layers have a particular "scale" at which they are displayed;
this is done so that a highly detailed data layer is not displayed
at a broad scale (zoomed out), where the detail would be lost,
and it would take a long time to draw. Layers with a low level
of detail are not displayed at high scales (zoomed in). The
scales at which data layers display are set at the time the
map is configured, and cannot be altered by the users.
A default set of layers
is provided when the dynamic mapping system is started. These
may be turned on by clicking on the check-box next to the name.
The coastline layer is permanently turned on for display and
its check-box is shown in grey, which indicates that its display
status cannot be changed.
Click once on a layer name to see information about it in the
Information tab. This information may be
viewed irrespective of the display status.
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A new pop-up window opens.
All data layers are organised in a hierarchical system
of folders organised in four major categories. To open
a folder, click on the folder name. To add a layer to
the interactive map, click on the check-box to add a
tick. To remove layers click on the check-box to remove
a tick. When you have chosen all layers to add and/or
remove, click Update. To close the window without
updating the layer list click Close.
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The legend appears as an
integral part of the Layer List and is indicated as
a + beside a layer name. To view the legend for any
layer, click once on the + and the legend will open
directly below the layer name. To close the legend click
once on the -. (See
video to learn how to display the legend.)
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Navigational Tools
The toolbar underneath the main map
window contains a number of mapping tools. A brief description
of each follows:
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When a tool is chosen it changes
its colour from light orange to dark orange.
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Status Bar
When the mouse is moved within the
main map window, the geographical co-ordinates, in Irish National
Grid (metres), of the current mouse position is shown to the
left of the status bar. When layers are being loaded in the
map, progress can be seen to the right of the area.
Information Area
By clicking on one of the four tabs different functionality may be accessed.
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General information about the
content of the layer, currently highlighted in bold in
the Layer List, is shown.
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thematic area to which the layer belongs may be accessed
via the INFO button. (See
video to learn how the Info button works.) |
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The following icons provide access to
additional functionality:
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Metadata |
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Download
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metadata can be viewed for each layer. Full metadata is
available only if the data owner supplied it.(See
video about metadata.) |
Download geospatial
data from the MIDA or from the data owner’s website.
Data downloaded from the MIDA is stored in a compressed
file. This file contains the data, the Discovery metadata
and the full metadata (if it exists). |
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Discovery metadata for a layer
covering the island of Ireland. |
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Download data for the island
of Ireland. |
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Discovery metadata for a layer
covering the Republic of Ireland only. |
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Download data for the Republic
of Ireland only. |
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Discovery metadata for a layer
covering Northern Ireland only. |
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Download data for Northern Ireland
only. |
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Discovery metadata for a layer
covering sea areas. |
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Download data for sea areas. |
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The user may zoom
to a specific geographical area or may automatically load
all layers associated with a number of predefined thematic
areas.
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Geographical areas include:
(See
video)
- The Island of Ireland
- The Republic of Ireland
- Northern Ireland
- The four provinces
- The 18 coastal counties
- Seven city and county Buroughs
- Five sea areas
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Predefined thematic
areas include: (See
video)
- Biology/Habitats
- Boundaries
- Imagery
- Infrastructure
- Oceanography
- Physical Features
- Protected Areas
- Tourism/Leisure
- Wildlife
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The
links tab provides quick links to other
parts of the atlas.
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The search
tab provides a tool to search the Discovery Metadata
database for data layers. You can search on the following
fields within the metadata database: (See
video to learn how to use the search tool.)
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| Title: |
The title by which
the data layer is known |
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Keyword: |
One or more keywords are associated
with each data layer |
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Theme: |
One or more thematic areas are
associated with each data layer |
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Region: |
A named geographical region
which is fully contained within the data layer |
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Downloadable: |
A list of all the layers that
can be downloaded from the MIDA or from the data owners’
web sites |
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Area: |
Select a geographical area which
is fully enclosed within the data layer |
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You can also carry out an advanced
search, which allows combinations of the above fields
or the possibility to search for any words within the
Discovery Metadata records.
Comprehensive help is available
for the search facility. |
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