Google Fusion Tables for Environmental Engineering
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create interactive maps and charts from your tabular data previously cleaned during our Open Refine session. To get started, download this dataset to your D drive and create a new folder called Google_Fusion_Tables_Tutorial_by_YourInitials.
Interactive maps and charts need to be in a public website, therefore our first step in this session will be for you to create a public website. We will do this using Google Sites.
Creating a Google Site: free, quick, and easy!
Log in to your gmail account (personal, not Clemson). On the top Google bar, click on More, Even More from Google and under Home and Office select Sites.
Click on Create. Fill the box Name your site and check the box that confirms you are not a robot. Also click on the images that fit the criteria asked.
Once you complete this, click the Create button at the top.
Congratulations, you just created your first Google Site!
Click the Edit button to make changes to the homepage in your site.
To change the look of your site, go to More, Manage Site, on the navigation pane on your left, click on Themes. You can click on Browse more themes to see different looks based on the goal of the site.
Tip: If you want to attach files to your site so people can download them directly from your page, click on the More button, Change page template, and change Web Page to File Cabinet.
Connecting Google Fusion Tables to your Drive
Google Fusion Tables (part of Google Drive) is a free service for data management, integration and collaboration. You can easily upload data sets from CSV, KML and spreadsheets, and visualize the data using a variety of tools. You can also merge data from multiple tables and conduct detailed discussions about the data (on rows, columns and even cells). You can easily visualize large data sets on Google Maps and embed visualizations on other web pages.
Go to Google Drive. Sign with your gmail account (personal, not organizational) and click on the NEW button on the top left corner. In the window that appears, click More (or go to the bottom blank area of the window) and select Google Fusion Tables. If it is not visible there, click the + Connect more apps (or click on the blank area). In the Connect apps to Drive window that appears, search for Fusion Tables in the Search Apps box. Hover over Fusion Tables and click the Connect button. Fusion Tables will be added to your Google Drive from now on.
Importing your Tabular Data in Google Fusion Tables
Now that you have Fusion Tables added to your list of apps, go back to Google Drive, click on NEW and select Google Fusion Tables.
The Import new table appears. Select the option on the left that says From this computer and click on the Choose File button. Navigate to the location where you saved your immigration table. Click Next. Your table should look something like this:
Click Next. Fill out the metadata fields for your new table. Add your name at the end of the table name (for example: GHGRP_data_2015_patricia_carbajales). When you have completed your attribution, press Finish.
Editing Data in Google Fusion Tables
Explore the different fields in your new table. Let's edit some of the attribute properties. Go to Edit - Change Columns. Click on State and notice the type is Location. It is always more accurate to geocode by lat/long than address and city. Therefore we need to change the location type to just Latitude and leave City, State, and Address as text. Now the columns highlighted in yellow (ready for geocoding) are Latitude and Longitude.
Go back to the table rows view and notice we don't have much data for the following columns:
HFC emissions, PFC emissions, SF6 emissions, NF3 emissions, Other Fully Fluorinated GHG Emissions, HFE Emissions, Very Short-Lived Compound Emissions, Other GHGs (metric tons CO2e) as well as the columns in between Adipic Acid Production and Titanium Dioxide Production. Go back to the Edit - Change columns window and delete all these columns by hovering over them and clicking the X button on the top right. Click Remove columns and save.
To edit a row of records, hover your mouse over the record you want to edit until a small window with three symbols appears on top. Choose the pencil graphic as indicated below.
You can also filter your table. Let's say you want to only see the facilities with over 10,000,000 of reported emissions in 2015. Click the Filter button. In the dropdown menu, select Total reported direct emissions. Notice the values are from 0 to 18,000,000. Type the query as indicated in the figure below:
Click Find. Notice that only 34 facilities appear in your table. Click the X button to remove your filter. Notice how the table resets to its original.