Geospatial Data Extraction

Data extraction guidePDF version
Welcome to the geospatial data extraction tool!
This slide deck will guide you through all options available and hopefully help you find what you are looking for.
The purpose of this application is to provide tailored geospatial dataset based on your needs. Here are the basic steps to extract data:
1. Select which data product to clip
2. Find and select the clipping area
3. Fill the extraction form and submit it
4. Receive email and download your package

Select data to be extracted
This section list all data product available for a dynamic data extraction process. If you hover your mouse over the link you will see a description of the data product.
When you click on a link, the interface will switch to the Select clipping area section while a data extraction form is built to be presented to you in the Select options and submit job section..
** Note that some data products (like Automatic Extraction Data) do not cover all the Canadian territory. When you select such a product, a layer representing its availability limits will be automatically displayed on the map. You have to make sure that your clipping area overlaps that data limit layer. You will be able to adjust the opacity of this layer in the Overlay reference layers section.

Find your clipping area
There are many ways to find your area of interest. One of them is the Find a location section.
You can search for the following features:
• Street addresses
• Street names
• Streets intersection
• Place names such as towns, villages, municipalities, parks
• Natural geographical features such as lakes, islands, rivers, mountains
• Postal codes (FSA code only - first three characters)
• Map numbers from the National Topographic System (NTS)


In the following example, a search for yellowknife was made. The results are presented in a table underneath the search box. Each result has a "Zoom to" button. When pressed, the map extent will be updated to show the selected area.
Another way to find your area of interest is to simply zoom in, zoom out and pan the map.
Overlay reference layer(s)
The overlay reference layers are there to provide contextual information to help you localize your clipping area and / or better delineate it.
All overlays are transparent at first. Moving the slider from left to right will increase the opacity of the overlay until it reaches a 100%.

Select your clipping area
Once you have found your area of interest you need to select the clipping area. The clipping area is defined by a series of geographic coordinates that make up a bounding box or a polygon.
Four options are available to help you select the clipping area that best suits your need.
• Current Map Extent
• Predefined Clipping Area
• Custom Clipping Area
• Area from a Shapefile


The fifth option lets you remove your current selection.


Select your clipping area - Current Map Extent
If you select the current map extent option an orange bounding box will cover the entire extent of the map.
For example, if you use the Find a location tool and search for Fogo, zoom to the town and select the current map extent your map will look like this.

Select your clipping area - Predefined Clipping Area
Predefined clipping areas are a puzzeled view of the map. In other word, they each represent a different way to partition the territory.
You can choose from 3 types of partition or tiling system:
1. Drainage areas
2. Landsat image footprints
3. Map sheets from the National Topographic System (NTS)


A list of tiles will be displayed under the dropdown menu. The list contains a maximum of 10 tiles that intersects the map extent.If there is more thant 10 tiles that intersects the map extent you will have the possibility to page through all the results.
If you hover over the tile number with your mouse you will see a blue preview image of the tile. You can also select the tile by clicking on it and this will become your clipping area (orange).

Select your clipping area - Custom Clipping Area
Sometimes the other options are too much or not enough. With the custom clipping area tools you have complete control over the selection of the clipping area.
You can choose from 3 custom options:
1. Draw a rectangle
2. Draw a polygon
3. Enter coordinates


The first two options are similar. After selecting one of them, click on the map to start your drawing. When you are drawing a rectangle drag the mouse over the map and release the button to finish. As for the polygon, click on the map to add points that make up the polygon. Double-click to finish drawing the polygon.
Once you have completed your drawing four more options are available to modify your clipping area : reshape, rotate, resize and drag. They basically all work alike. After selecting one of them, the shape will change color and one or more orange circle will appear. Depending of the action selected click on the orange circle and reshape, rotate, resize or move the shape.
The third options will display a bounding box on the map after you enter the lower left and upper right coordinates in the form.

Select your clipping area - Area from a Shapefile
A Shapefile is a vector data exchange format. It is composed of multiple files used to describe the format, the projection, the attribute and so on.
This option only accepts Shapefile that contains polygons geometries. Your Shapefile has to be compressed in a ZIP file format before you upload the file.
First you will be asked to choose the file you wish to use as a clipping area. Once your choice is made, the file will be uploaded and validated.
A valid file means:
1. it contains one or more polygons
2. it has one of the following supported coordinate systems:
• NAD83 UTM
• NAD83 LAT/LON
• NAD83 LAMBERT
3. the total calculated area is less than the maximum allowed (may vary by product)


then the Display on map button will be active. By clicking on it your shape will show up on the map.

Select options and submit job
This section is where you make choices to get the end product that best suits your need. Make sure all fields marked as required have been filled and submit your job.
After submitting your job, a message will appear on the top of the application indicating if your request was successfully submitted in a green banner as opposed to a red banner if an error occurred while transmitting the request to the processing server.
Since the data extraction process is not synchronous you will receive an email once your job is completed. The email will contain a download link to your data package and other related information on the product you extracted.

Job status
For each job successfully submitted a new row will be added in the table. Each row contains the ID of the job, its status and a refresh button. Every time the button is clicked a request is made to the processing server to check if the status has changed. Here is a table of the different status type and a short description:
Status	Description
Submitted	The job has been received by the server but has not been added to the job queue.
Queued	The job has been added to the job queue and is waiting to be processed.
Success	The job has completed and the transformation was successful.
Processing error	The job has completed, but a failure was reported while attempting to run the transformation.
Server failure	The server could not process the job.
Processing	The job has been pulled from the job queue and is being processed.
• Overlay reference layers

  Want more info, click here !

  This section offers contextual information to help you localize and select a clipping area. For the moment, there is only one basemap layer offered.

  All overlays are transparent at first. Moving the slider from left to right will increase the opacity of the overlay until it reaches a 100%.

  Overlays
• Select data to be extracted

  Basemap and reference overlay are not included in the extraction package.

  Want more info, click here !

  This section list all products from which it is possible to extract data.

  Choose one product and proceed to the following section "Select options and submit job". At any moment you can come back and choose another product.

  The basemap and reference overlay data are not included in the extraction package.
• Select clipping area

  Want more info, click here !

  A clipping area delineates a geographic region of interest. The application uses the clipping area to apply a spatial filter to return data entirely within this area.

  Several options are available to select a clipping area

  Current map extent

  This option selects a bounding box that covers the extent of the map. To change the selected extent, zoom in / zoom out / pan and click the radio button again.

  Predefined clipping area

  This option proposes 3 types of tiling coverages via a delimitation service.

  • Drainage areas
  • Landsat image footprints
  • Map sheets from the National Topographic System (NTS)

  Custom clipping area

  This option lets you draw and edit directly on the map a bounding box or a polygon. You can also enter a pair of geographic coordinates.

  Draw a rectangle

  With the rectangle drawing control active, click on the map and drag the mouse to get a rectangle. Release the mouse button to finish. Once the geometry is drawn you can resize, reshape, rotate and drag it.

  Reshape feature

  After activating this option, click on a feature's vertice (orange circle) and move it to the desired position. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Rotate feature

  After activating this option, click on the feature's rotation handle (orange circle on the bottom right) and rotate the feature to the desired angle. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Resize feature

  After activating this option, click on the feature's resize handlre (orange circle on the bottom right) and resize the feature to the desired size. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Drag feature

  After activating this option, click on the feature's drag handlre (orange circle in the middle) and drag the feature to the desired position. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Draw a polygon

  With the polygon drawing control active, click on the map to add points that make up the polygon. Double-click to finish drawing. Once the geometry is drawn you can resize, reshape, rotate and drag it.

  Reshape feature

  After activating this option, click on a feature's vertice (orange circle) and move it to the desired position. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Rotate feature

  After activating this option, click on the feature's rotation handle (orange circle on the bottom right) and rotate the feature to the desired angle. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Resize feature

  After activating this option, click on the feature's resize handlre (orange circle on the bottom right) and resize the feature to the desired size. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Drag feature

  After activating this option, click on the feature's drag handlre (orange circle in the middle) and drag the feature to the desired position. Release the mouse button to finish.

  Enter coordinates

  Enter the lower left and upper right coordinate in the appropriate fields. Once all the fields have been filled out, click on the "Display area on map" button to draw the bounding box on the map.

  Area from a Shapefile

  It is now possible to add one or more polygons from a Shapefile as a clipping area.

  This new feature accepts a zip file of a Shapefile.

  Supported coordinate systems :

  • NAD83 UTM
  • NAD83 LAT/LON
  • NAD83 LAMBERT

  Remove selected area

  If a clipping area has been previously selected, this option will remove the selection from the map and the extraction form.

  Current Map Extent

  Predefined Clipping Area

  Custom Clipping Area

  Area from a Shapefile

  Add a zip file containing your Shapefile with all associated files (.shp, .dbf, etc.).

  Load on map

  Remove selected area

  Coordinates of the selected polygon in Well-known text format

  OK
• Select options and submit job

  Want more info, click here !

  If no form appears, please select a data product from the Select data to be extracted section.

  Fill out the form and submit it.

  The form is validated before being sent to the processing server. If any errors occur you will be informed. Fix the problem and resubmit the form.
• Job status

  Want more info, click here !

  This section gives information on the treatment status of each job successfully submitted.

  The following table describes the different status that can be returned by the processing server.

  Status	Description
  Submitted	The job has been received by the server but has not been added to the job queue.
  Queued	The job has been added to the job queue and is waiting to be processed.
  Success	The job has completed and the transformation was successful.
  Processing error	The job has completed, but a failure was reported while attempting to run the transformation.
  Server failure	The server could not process the job.
  Processing	The job has been pulled from the job queue and is being processed.

  Id	Status
Find a location
Find Find