Geokov Map Maker Examples and Hints
You can conveniently make custom maps for outdoor recreation planning, trip reporting, field work/research, presentations, educational material, bulletins, etc. You do not need any GIS software expertise or map making knowledge. Use a variety of icons, import data layers and draw plots for forestry work,
environmental research, field sampling, wildlife habitat, sensitive areas, health, poverty, ... Watch the introductory video for an overview of the Map Maker functionlaity.
Here are some examples of making maps with the map maker. Follow the instructions on the web page regarding adding icons, lines and shapes to the map as well as importing data, adding
data layers and adjusting their opacity. Note that to position an icon inside a polygon, first add it to the map outside the polygon then move it within polygon's area.
The map can be printed after adding desired content, however most flexibility in customization is achieved by copying the map to another program such as an image editing program like Photoshop or Gimp (it's free) or to Powerpoint or Word.
You can use print screen (Prt Scr) button to get a screen-shot of your monitor, or better yet use a freely available screen capture software such as Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html) to capture the image of any part of the screen. Now paste the image in Powerpoint.
Repeat this process with legends, which would allow you to position them anywhere you like in relation to the map. Text can be added to the side of map or inside the map as well as a neat line to make it look more professional. The whole process takes few minutes.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you read the Google's terms regarding copying and printing Google Maps and Google Earth maps and images (links are provided in Geokov Terms and Conditions page). The attribution below the maps should always be clear when you copy and print the maps.
In case they are unclear or do not show, make sure the exact attribution is included as text outside the map. Also please include an attribution for Geokov (including web address) for any maps and images copied from this site.
Import GIS data to the map - add value to your data by creating mashups
Follow directions on the Map Maker page for importing XML-based data (e.g. KML, GPX) to the map. If you have some knowledge of GIS data you can also convert other forms of GIS data to KML in order to add them to the map. Make sure that you set the coordinate system of the GIS file to Geographic Coordinate System (unprojected) with WGS84 spatial reference system (or EPSG 4326). Major GIS software nowadays should have conversion to KML or GPX formats.
However for a free fast solution you can use the Zonum shp2kml tool for conversion between the popular ESRI Shapefile and KML.
Overlay Web Map Service (WMS) on the map. In "Google Earth" add WMS server URL and select layers of interest. Then save selected data from Google Earth as KML in your local directory. Open the KML file with a text editor (e.g. notepad) and paste contents into text area in the map maker page. Zoom in and wait for data feed to show on map. You can set the transparency of data in its properties dialogue in Google Earth.
Create shaded relief topo maps by overlaying a topographic map on top of Google Maps "Terrain" base and adjusting its opacity.
You can choose "Open Cycle" map from the map types menu for world contour lines.
Overlay dynamic and time sensitive data such as earthquake, forest fire, weather, stream-flow on variety of base maps.
Enter the URL address of the "KML Network Link" file that resides on a web server at the bottom of the Map Maker page, and upload it.
Add icons and draw on the map
A number of different icons for outdoors and emergency mapping can be added; you can also create customized icons and labels as well as add any icon residing on a web server by inputing its URL address.
Lines and shapes can be customized by changing their color, width and opacity.
Elevation Profile
In this map, we want to draw the elevation profile of a ski traverse. You can use the line drawing tool to draw the route. Export the route as a KML, copy and paste into a text editor (e.g. notepad) and save with .kml extension.
Import the file to Google Earth. If you already have GPX or KML file, you can import it directly to Google Earth. The elevation profile of the path in Google Earth is created by choosing "Show Elevation Profile" from the Edit menu, or right-clicking on the path in the "Places" section in the left pane. Detailed explanation of the elevation profile is provided in the Geokov education section.
Simple Map Making Examples
Here, 1:20000 BC TRIM contour lines and rivers layers are overlaid on Google Maps "Map" base layer.
If the coordinates of the corners of a field plot are known, you can use the distance/bearing tool to position markers at those corners (use the same coordinates for Point1 and Point2).
Plot the polygon by connecting the markers with the line tool or polygon tool. After the plot is completed, simply delete the markers.
Store your data in Google Maps
You can store your data in Google's servers, and access and import them to Geokov Map Maker whenever desired! Sign in to Google Maps (create a Google account if you don't have one). Go to “My places” and click "Create Map". Here you can upload your local data (or data sitting on another server) in the form of KML, KMZ, or GeoRSS to the Google map.
You can make the data added to the map "public" or "unlisted". Different maps can be created. If you have GPX data, upload it to Google Earth and then save as KML to store in your Google Maps account. KML network link data can be uploaded and stored in Google Maps also.
Whenever you need to import the stored data to Geokov Map Maker, in Google Maps "My Places" click on the desired map containing the data you want, then above the listed layers, right-click on KML and "Copy link address". Now paste this URL for KML Network Link to the textbox at the bottom of Geokov Map Maker page
and upload the remote file to the map. In the case of WMS data, you'll need to download KML, open it and paste the contents in the upper text area of the Map Maker and upload to map.
Sharing data and collaborative mapping
After you make a map in Geokov Map Maker, you can export the data as a KML file and upload and store in Google Maps as above. Click on the desired map in "My Places" and click on "Collaborate" botton to share your data and enable others to edit your drawings. Other people can upload your drawings to their Geokov Map Maker and overlay them on their desired base map or mashup with other data.
At this time when data is uploaded to Geokov Map Maker it can not be edited (this will be enabled in future). Therefore any editing should be done in Google Maps, after edits are done, you can upload the result to Geokov Map Maker.
