FAQ

• MapBuilder is a key component of the WRI's suite of tools that enables users to combine Global Forest Watch and Resource cutting-edge data, mapping and analysis tools with their own data to build highly customized, map-based monitoring applications.
• MapBuilder is an easy-to-use system for governments and civil society to create their own customized monitoring applications while taking advantage of WRI's powerful analytical tools and core data layers. WRI maintains the system code and implements new features so that users with varying technical expertise can make use of pre-existing GIS content management and server technology.

• Yes. ArcGIS Online public accounts are free for non-commercial use.

• Yes. You can analyze your own shapefile by uploading it into a MapBuilder application. Make sure that your data is stored using WGS1984 as spatial reference. Compress your shapefile and its corresponding .shx, .dbf and .prj file in a ZIP file, and upload it into your application using the drawing tool in the toolbox section. Avoid uploading very complex shapefiles or shapefiles with too many features as they might cause the application to crash.

• f you want to link several MapBuilder applications together, copy one ArcGIS Online application ID and paste it into the "Map Theme ID" field when you’re customizing another application. If you want to add multiple IDs, separate them using a semicolon (;). Add corresponding theme titles in the "Map Theme" field.
• If you translated your application into a second language, make sure that you also fill out the "alternativeMapThemes" field with your translated map theme titles.

• Yes, you can. By default all MapBuilder applications will be hosted under http://my.gfw-mapbuilder.org. However, there are configurations that allow for greater flexibility and customization. Learn more about these configurations here.

• MapBuilder currently supports English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Georgian and Mandarin. You can select the default language when you’re customizing your application in ArcGIS Online. MapBuilder also allows you to set an alternative language if you want your application to be available in two languages.

• MapBuilder supports up to two languages for any application. You can select the default language when you are customizing your application in ArcGIS Online. If you want to add a second language, check the "additional language" box and select your alternative language from the drop-down menu. The default user interface and all data layers from GFW will be translated.
• However, you will need to translate all custom text that you add, including the title, subtitle, narrative and data menu. If you want to translate data layers and metadata for your alternative language, you can also create a second translated web map in ArcGIS Online and add the web map ID in the corresponding field.

• This feature is currently only available for organizational ArcGIS Online account users. If you have an organizational account, you can set up an Open Data Portal and link to it from your application.

• For any feature layer (e.g., a Shapefile, KML or GeoJSON that you uploaded to ArcGIS Online or a single layer you registered with ArcGIS Online), MapBuilder will take metadata from the ArcGIS Online item. You need to have an organizational account and enable metadata for your organization to make use of this feature. MapBuilder will use the following metadata elements if available.

MapBuilder metadata: Location in ArcGIS Online metadata editor

• Title: Resources/Citation/Title & Dates/Title
• Subtitle: Resources/Citation/Title & Dates/Alternate Title
• Keywords: Resources/Keywords/Tags/Tags
• Function: Resources/Detail/Description/Purpose
• Resolution: Resource/Details/Resolution/Distance + Distance Units
• Geographic coverage: Resource/Extent/Description/Extent Description
• Source: Quality/Linage/Data Source/Description/Source Description
• Frequency of updates: Resources/Maintenance/Frequency/Custom Frequency
• Date of content: N/A*
• Cautions: Resources/Constraints/General/Use Limitations
• License: Resources/Constraints/Legal/Use Limitations
• Overview/Description: Resources/Detail/Description/Description
• Citation: Resources/Citation/Other/Other Detail
• Other: Resources/Detail/Description/Supplemental Information
• Learn: More Resource/Citation/URLs/Online Resource/URL
• Download data: Distribution/Transfer Option/Online Resource/URL

* Currently not supported in ArcGIS Online

If you don't want to use extended metadata or have a public account and cannot edit metadata, MapBuilder will use the standard ArcGIS Online title, summary, description, keyword and copyright fields which are exposed for every ArcGIS Online item.

If you use dynamic map layers or entire webservices, MapBuilder will not be able to access metadata registered with ArcGIS Online. Instead, it will search for metadata in the mapservice layer itself. Metadata in map services are limited to title, description and copyright. Make sure to fill out these fields for every layer before you publish a service on your own server. If you are using ArcGIS Services, which contains multiple layers, it is recommended that you add the service to your map by adding the layer as a layer from the web, instead of adding the ArcGIS Online item.

• By default, MapBuilder uses the GlobCover global land cover map for land cover analysis. If you want to use another land cover map you will need to set up a custom service, since all analyses are run through the server, not in the browser. MapBuilder allows you to swap out the land cover map and the underlying service for the analysis. If you are interested in using your own land cover map, please contact us and we can assist in preparing your data for analysis.

• With an ArcGIS Online organizational account, organization administrators can create an ArcGIS Hubs site and publish their data content for public access. ArcGIS Hubs provides easy search functions for finding open data and makes data available in common open formats such as .geojson, .csv, .kml, .shp and .WMS. To learn more about how to create an ArcGIS Open Data site, take a look at this documentation.

Analyses can be run on any shape inside the web map or polygons drawn or uploaded by a user. Select the type of analysis you want to run using the drop-down menu in the analysis tab.

By default, we currently support analysis for:

• Total tree cover loss and tree cover gain
• Annual tree cover loss
• Annual tree cover loss per land cover class
• Annual tree cover loss inside intact forest landscapes
• Annual carbon emissions due to tree cover loss
• Number of GLAD deforestation alerts
• Number of GLAD deforestation alerts per month
• VIIRS active fire alerts
• Land cover composition

In the future, we plan to add analysis for the following:

• Historical fires
• Tree cover
• Aboveground woody biomass density
• Soil carbon density

• You can publish both vector and raster data. However, you can only run analyses in MapBuilder with vector data.

The following formats are supported for vector data:

• Shapefiles
• KML
• GeoJSON
• ESRI Map Service
• ESRI Feature Service

The following formats are supported for raster data:

• WMS
• ESRI Image Service
• Tile Package
• Webtile service, published with a {z}/{x}/{y} url

If you don’t have the option to host data as WMS or Image Service yourself, the preferred format for raster data is tile packages. Read more about tile packages and hosting raster data in ArcGIS Online. You will need an ArcGIS Online Organization account in order to publish tile packages.

• The MapBuilder template is built in ArcGIS Online because ArcGIS makes it easy to create and share custom web maps and applications. ArcGIS Online supports many GIS formats, including Shapefiles, KML and GeoJSON as well as MapService, ImageService and WMS. It is a robust mapping platform with guaranteed long-term support and provides an easy-to-use mapping environment where anyone can create a web map with only a couple of clicks.

• See the ArcGIS privacy policy website for more detail on their security measures.

• See the map and dashboards FAQ section and our privacy policy for more information on MyGFW.

The tool is available worldwide and it shows global data. For the datasets which have analysis, they are available globally for any region. Large shapes will take longer for the analysis to run.

MapBuilder has near real time integrated deforestation alerts, which combines GLAD, GLAD-S2, and RADD alerts, and VIIRS Active Fire alerts.

The benefit of MapBuilder is the ability to create ready to go customized online maps with your data and global datasets, without the need to program the map and store, style, or program analysis for the global datasets. With MapBuilder the only GIS work you need to do is store and style your data in ArcGIS Online or another web-service, then you can use our new online configuration form builder to customize and deploy your MapBuilder application.

We are planning to continue to expand the catalog of global datasets on MapBuilder and we would be very interested to hear what datasets you would like to see available in MapBuilder, although right now we are focusing on global datasets as you can include datasets through ArcGIS Online or web-services. To request a global dataset, go to our Contact Us page and fill out the contact form with the subject “dataset request.” We would also be interested to know what data topics you would like to see in MapBuilder, such as “precipitation” or “air quality,” and in that case you can also fill out the Contact Us form with the subject “dataset topic request”.