What is Geometry?

In FieldDoc, geometries refer to the spatial representations of Activities on a map. These geometries are used to delineate activity footprints. The geometries can be different types, including:

Points: Used to delineate Activities with a minimal acreage, such as a rain barrel installation, Activities that have a less definitive footprint, such as a Convening meeting, or Activities where the specific delineation is not available to demarcate.

Lines: Used to represent linear Activities like the installation of exclusion fencing, stream restorations, or street sweeping paths.

Polygons: Polygons are used to delineate implementation footprints, such as a wetland restoration project, forested areas, or agricultural fields where work is being implemented.

These geometries serve as the basis for analyzing and visualizing the impact of environmental work, allowing users to overlay data, track activities, and quantify outcomes such as improvements in water quality or land use changes.

Key benefits of geometries

Modeling: Some of the environmental models associated with FieldDoc include a geospatial component. Where this is the case, users must associate the geometry and Activity Type within an Activity for the model to function as expected.

Extent: FieldDoc generates an extent for the Activity, which users can override. But the extent is a key component to understanding the footprint measurement for any on-the-ground activities.

Location: Where an Activity is installed is as relevant as what activity type is installed. Delineating your activity geometry provides FieldDoc with the necessary spatial information to associate your activity with relevant geographic data such as HUCs, land-river segments, congressional districts, or counties.

Create a Geometry

FieldDoc invites users to create geometries by drawing them directly in the system or importing existing files.

FieldDoc Draw Tools

Import a Geometry

Supported File types

CSV

Files in comma-separated value (CSV) format may contain spatial data, but it isn't required. If included, geometry values should be provided as coordinates or well-known text. When your file contains coordinates, columns for latitude and longitude must be present. Please refer to the following column header mappings before uploading CSV files with spatial data.

Shapefile

In addition to the mandatory .shp, .shx, and .dbf files, shapefile archives must include a .prj file that describes the coordinate system and projection. All files must be compressed into a .zip file before uploading. To ensure that FieldDoc reads the archive correctly, the archive itself and the files it contains should share the same name. File names must not contain spaces.

Important: Nested ZIP folders are not supported (e.g. example.zip > example > example.shp). All required files must be stored in the top level of the ZIP folder (e.g. example.zip > example.shp, example.shx, …).

GeoJSON

GeoJSON files must use the .json or .geojson file extensions and follow the format described in this specification. We recommend testing GeoJSON data with geojson.io before uploading it to FieldDoc. See here for more help with the GeoJSON format.

File size and feature count

Regardless of type, file uploads cannot exceed 10 MB. For shapefile archives, this is the maximum total size of all un-compressed files. FieldDoc processes up to 1,000 features per upload. Additional features beyond that limit will be ignored.