Uploading Spatial Data
Last updated
Last updated
SeaSketch supports uploading data in both vector and raster formats. From these files it creates high-performance vector or raster tiles which are served to end-users via a content delivery network (CDN). Layers hosted on SeaSketch are fast, and support our advanced cartography tools and layer versioning features. We recommend hosting data directly from SeaSketch for the best user experience and offer 10 gigabytes of layer hosting for free with each project.
To create a new layer in SeaSketch, navigate to Admin > Data Layers > Overlay Layers and simply drag & drop a supported file to the window. Drag & drop as many files as you like, even all at once! Data files are processed individually on our cloud infrastructure, and can scale to handle as many as needed. You can also choose to browse for files on your computer using the Edit menu.
After choosing one or more files to upload, you will see a Background Task list appear at the bottom of the overlays list. This enables you to track the stages of processing for each upload.
If there are any errors while processing your upload, they will be indicated in the Background Jobs list where you can click the info button for more detail.
SeaSketch supports a growing list of vector and raster data formats. Some of these files have special requirements that are important to understand for successful uploads. If a data format you use is not currently supported, please contact support.
Shapefiles are very common among GIS users and one of our top recommendations for uploads. They are smaller that GeoJSON due to their binary nature, so are faster to upload. You can also include FGDC or ISO 19139 xml metadata in your upload to automatically populate metadata.
Each layer you upload needs to be represented by a single file, but "Shapefiles" are actually many different files, each representing different concerns like projection information (.prj), geometry (.shp) and column values (.dbf). For this reason, you will need to create a Zipfile archive which contains all these associated files into one archive.
Before uploading a shapefile, make sure:
For an example of a .zip file which meets these criteria, download this example of the Federated States of Micronesia EEZ.
SeaSketch supports raster uploads in the following formats:
GeoTiff - Including both RGB imagery or single-band data values
NetCDF - First layer found will be used
Currently SeaSketch only supports uploading files with a single data layer. While SeaSketch can recognize 3-band RGB imagery, when encountering other multi-band GeoTiff or multi-layer NetCDF files the system will pick the first band or layer it encounters. We hope to add support for multi-layer raster uploads and vector formats like File geodatabase in the future, but this is a current limitation.
SeaSketch is designed to serve as a long-term steward of your data. This includes handling situations where a dataset is replaced by a new version. SeaSketch can track versions of a dataset, recording who uploaded it, when, and why through user-contributed change-log messages. Once in the system, you can even rollback layers to a previous version.
To view data source versioning information, navigate to the Data Source tab in the layer editor. Here you will see a list of each version, which you can click to see further details.
To create a new version of a layer, drag & drop a new layer to the Data Source tab. You will be prompted to provide a change-log message so that future viewers can understand why the revision was made.
SeaSketch tracks older visions of layers in the database. This means you can rollback to an older version if a mistake is made. Rolling back to an older version deletes all later versions of a data source, so confirmation is required.
By default, SeaSketch retains all older versions of a data source, which count against your data hosting quota. You can set your project to only retain older versions for a specified length of time (e.g. 6 months). To adjust these settings, navigate to the Overlay Layers toolbar and select Settings > Archived Layer Retention.
SeaSketch retains the original uploaded file in its database. If desired, you can enable your end users to download this file, as well as transform it into their spatial data format of choice. End users can right-click on these layers and choose Download Data when enabled.
From the layer editor, toggle the Enable Data Download switch.
From the Overlay Layers toolbar, choose Settings > Data Download to set whether uploaded files are downloadable or private by default. You can also use the Edit > Data Download actions to change settings for all existing layers.
SeaSketch provides 10 GB of free storage for each project, which should be more than enough for most. This limit is in place to prevent abuse or misuse of SeaSketch. Some datasets (particularly raster imagery) may consume a disproportionate amount of this capacity. If a project reaches the data hosting limit, spatial data layer uploads will be disabled until storage is freed up. To facilitate this process, the Overlay Layers toolbar can be used to show a summary of how layers are counting against the storage limit. Choose View > Data Hosting Quota to see this visualization.
Use this treemap visualization to identify which layers are consuming the most storage space. Deleting these layers will immediately free up space and enable you to upload layers again. If you project is unable to remain under the data hosting quota, please contact support for assistance.
