Mobile Data Collection: Maps

Google My Maps is a tool that is used to map neighborhood boundaries as well as sampling locations to spatially visualize SaniPath data. The following guidelines will outline how to import data as well as how to create and edit maps.

Import GPX Files

After downloading the GPX file(s) from Strava on the computer, go to https://www.google.com/maps/about/mymaps/ to create a custom Google Map.

To ensure optimal storage and access rights, it is recommended to use your personal Gmail account for creating a custom map.

Create a new map

Once on Google My Maps click “+CREATE A NEW MAP” on the top left corner of the screen.

The initial screen will show a map similar to the public version of Google Maps.

Any location on earth can be added to the map by either searching in the search bar in the middle of the screen (as shown in Figure 3.) or by importing files.

Renaming the Map

By clicking on “Untitled Map” on the left panel on the side of the screen, the map can be renamed. In this example, the name “Example Map” is selected. If needed, a more detailed description of the project can be added. Click “Save”. (See Figure 4)

Import of GPX File

In order to import the previously exported GPX file, click “Import”.

This will prompt a screen where the saved GPX file (created with Strava) from the directory of the computer will be selected. After a few moments, the GPS data should be visible in the correct location of the neighborhood, where the perimeter data was previously recorded. (See Figure 6)

Formatting and cleaning

To simplify and clean up the import, the start and end pin of the recording can be deleted as well as the name edited for easier readability.

For example, to delete the green pin, first select the pin on the panel on the left hand side. This will prompt a pop up field over the GPS location.

To remove the green pin, simply click on the “garbage can” icon. (See Figure 7)

This concludes the import of one neighborhood onto the custom map in Google My Maps.

Additional Neighborhoods

In order to include additional neighborhoods to the map, first, download GPX files from Strava, save, and add a new layer.

Click “Add layer” on the panel on the left. This action will create another untitled layer with the “import” function. Repeat the previously outlined steps of importing and cleaning the data points.

Now this step can be repeated until all the study neighborhoods are added to the map.

Note: Similar steps are taken to import GPS locations from samples.

Import sample GPS location

Importing sample GPS locations/ data points follows the same procedures as the Strava GPX files. Add a new layer to the map, then locate the csv or excel file with the sample collection data and upload it.

Note: If during the import of the excel file a message appears that the file is too big, it can be because of two reasons: 1) there are too many columns in the file, and 2) there are more than 2000 entries (rows).

Solution: for 1) copy the file containing the sample data and delete some columns not related to the data visualization. For 2) the data limit for one layer on Google Maps is 2000. This means, if there are more than 2000 samples, the file needs to be split and two layers/ uploads must be made to display all data points.

Occasionally, when importing data points, Google does not automatically recognize longitude and latitude columns of the excel file. To fix it, search for the latitude and longitude columns and select which one is appropriate to each, then select “continue”. (See Figure 9)

This gives Google the correct coordinates to the sample locations. Next, select which column will be the title of the location markers. For ease of information display, sample ID is selected.

When all the data points are imported, the map will look similar to Figure 10.

Advanced Map Editing

Now the sample data points can be edited to a variety of different styles. For example, if the column of sample types is included in the import, the points can be colored according to the sample type column.

First, under the “samples” layer, click on “Uniform style” and set “group places by” to “style by data column”. In this example, it is “col_sample_type”. This results in the following map showing different colored pins for each sample type.

To change the color or the icon of the sample, simply click on one of the categories.

If the data points are not easily recognizable, the base map can also be changed to different styles. To accomplish this, click on the “Base map” dropdown on the panel on the left hand side and choose an appropriate base layer of the map. (See Figure 12)

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