sea monkey

New html editor. Open source, free.

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Completing my very perplexing office suite of Google docs, TeXnicCenter, gnumeric, and gimp.

trace of a river profile

A somewhat less lazy explanation of how to extract the trace of a river profile. [lazy explanation]

(1) Download the relevant file from the National Hydrography Dataset. (I recommend using the ftp site, which unfortunately only works on Internet Explorer.)

(2) Open the hydrology layer in arc.

(3) Determine the source latitude and longitude of your river of interest. You may be able to find this under the Geographic Names Information System entry for your river.

(4) Go to that lat/lon in the arc file and locate the source.

(5) Select the feature using Navigation [from this tutorial]

a. Click on Analysis in the Utility Network Analyst toolbar, click Options, and then Results.

b. Click on the Selection radio button, Apply, then OK.

c. Perform navigation. The navigation path will select and display NHDFFlowlines.

i. Click on View, Toolbars, and then check the Utility Network Analyst box.
ii. HYDRO_NET will appear automatically in the Network box.
iii. click the Add Edge Flag tool. The flag marks the start of the navigation path.
iv. click cursor at appropriate point on flowline (the source).
v. Select Trace Task, Trace Downstream
vi. Click on the Solve icon - it should highlight the river downstream of the flag

(6) Save the new shapefile. Right-click on NHDFlowline in the Table of Contents, scroll to Data, click on Export Data. Export selected entries, name the new shapefile.

Quaternary faults, reproject

Quaternary Faults in California, maintained by California Geological Survey:
http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/information/publications/Pages/QuaternaryFaults_ver2.aspx

(1) Download .e00 files
(2) Import from Interchange File

(3) Data Management Tools -> Projections and Transformations -> Feature -> Project
Fill in:
Input Dataset
Input Coordinate System (automatic)
Output Dataset (put what you want, specify folder you want)
Output Coordinate System (for me: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10N)
Geographic Transformation (for me: (guessed) NAD_1927_To_NAD_1983_NADCON)

Aside:
wth is NADCON
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/TOOLS/Nadcon/Nadcon.shtml

dealing with .e00 files v.2

Converting .e00 files. An easier way than here:

In ArcCATALOG

View -> Toolbars -> ArcView 8x Tools -> Conversion Tools
Import from Interchange File

data frames, neatlines, graticules

In ArcMap sometimes you want to add lat/lon ticks around your map, add a scale bar, etc.

This stuff is all filed under Page Layout and Map Composition. You see most of this stuff under the Layout View, not the Data View. (Buttons in lower left corner of map window toggle these.)

data frame: most fundamental element in a map document and in ArcMap user interface.

neatline: border line commonly drawn around the extent of a map to enclose the map, keeping all o the information pertaining to that map in one "neat" box

graticule: the grid of intersecting lines, esp. of latitude and longitude on which a map is drawn. vs. gridicule.

Accessing the Grids and Graticules wizard:

1. Click the View menu and click Data Frame Properties.
2. Click the Grids tab.
3. Click the New Grid button.

Adding grids and graticules (reference systems)

Working with data frames
Adding data frames
Customizing data frames (you can rotate them)
How to do inset maps (extent rectangles)

gnumeric

I am now using gnumeric as my spreadsheet software on my work computer.

http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/

You can download a Microsoft Windows build if you want. [.exe]

Not too many variations on a spreadsheet program. It's not that I actually reject Excel and Open Office Calc, it's just that they won't successfully install on my !#$^(!&#)^ computer.

spatial hydrology data

I've been trying to download river spatial data (for arc) for a while now, and finally have come up with some sort of resolution. But the problem seems to be information overload. I still haven't figured out if there's a way to, say, query "Truckee River" and have the trace of only that river returned.

Instead, here are some convoluted ways to get data of Quads or defined map areas.

(1) USGS maintains the National Hydrography Dataset.

(2) The Data Availability page describes ways to obtain the data.

(3) It appears that USGS is in the middle of transitioning to a new map viewer/data downloader interface.

New one: http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/

It is easy to download hydrology data by quadrangle, if you click on the map, it tells you the quadrangle and the available data. (Using the download data tool.)

(4) One way to figure out all of the quadrangles covered by a particular river is to use the Geographic Names Information System.

(5) The page for the river will list each quadrangle, which you can then locate in the Map Viewer.

(6) You send in a request for a data and it may take several hours to be returned. (Still waiting for some I ordered a couple hours ago.) It is not very efficient.

(7) Another way is to download pre-defined subregions. These datasets are ~250 MB zipped and ~750 MB unzipped. It is information overkill, but you can also download it right away. The old map viewer seems to be better in identifying the 4-digit identifier (first 4 of the 8 digits).

FTP for predefined regions:
ftp://nhdftp.usgs.gov/SubRegions/

Only works in Internet Explorer! Not Firefox or Chrome! Also has a README in a .doc format! gah.

I'm not sure how much closer this gets me to the trace of a single river, but possibly this information will be useful to someone somewhere.

Here's their tutorial.
http://nhd.usgs.gov/tutorials.html

Note:

The last section of the tutorial, on Navigating, actually lays out how to save the trace of a river. First you need to click on Analysis in the Utility Network Analyst toolbar, and click Options, Results, and check Selection.

Then "perform navigation," set an Edge Flag at the source of the river (this is located in the Geographic Names Information System entry, or at least the correct quadrangle). Then use the Utility Network Analyst to navigate to all points downstream.

You will be able to save it to the map and export the data as a shapefile.

Read the last page of the tutorial linked above.