TABLE OF CONTENTS


 

Using data via the Geodata Portal

 

Authorized users can access occurrence data and species habitat models through a geodata portal and conduct analyses with occurrence data in ArcGIS Pro. Users must sign up for the geodata portal for access and set up their connection to the portal in ArcGIS Pro.


There are two ways to access licensed datasets through the geodata portal.  The simplest way to access the licensed data once your account has been provided access is through the NatureServe Explorer Pro Welcome Page. You will see a link to the datasets below your login name (Figure 1). 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1.  Link directly to the group you have access to in the geodata portal by clicking the green button highlighted in red from the Welcome page. The green button on the upper right will take you to the same data available in the Explorer Pro Mapping Interface.

 

 

You will be taken to your group’s access page where you can scroll down to the recently added content section and click on any of the available datasets. Click on view all content to see all available layers (Figure 2). Find the layer you want to view and click on the three dots in the bottom right of the item box (Figure 3). Click on ‘View Details’ to open the item description or ‘Open in ArcGIS Pro’ to open the layer in ArcGIS Pro. 


A screenshot of a computer AI-generated content may be incorrect.

 























Figure 2.  Access your group’s data directly by selecting the ‘View All Content’ in the 

“Recently added content” section at the bottom of the webpage.

 

 

A screenshot of a computer AI-generated content may be incorrect.













Figure 3. View the details of a layer or open the item in ArcGIS Pro.

 


1. Connect to data in ArcGIS Pro via the Geodata Portal


ESRI currently supports data streaming from the Geodata Portal within ArcGIS Pro. For use of the dataset in ArcGIS Pro, users can either add data using a URL or use portal item navigation. Instructions for both processes are described below.


A. Add data to ArcGIS Pro via data URL 


The data from the Geodata Portal may be accessed in ArcGIS Pro by adding the data via a URL.

  1. Open ArcGIS Pro to any map pane

 

  1. Click the “Add Data” dropdown arrow (Figure 4). 

 

 

 

 

  1. Click “Add Data from Path” (Figure 5)

Figure                       

  1. Enter the location of the feature service under “Path” (Figure 6)

 

Graphical user interface, text, application Description automatically generated

Figure 6a

 

                      This can be found on the NatureServe Geodata Portal item page for the service under

“URL” (Figure 6b).

 

                                  Figure 6b

 

After entering the URL in the path text box, ArcGIS Pro should detect that the “Service Type” is “An ArcGIS Server Web Service” automatically.

 

  1. When you hit “Ok”, you will be requested to sign in to access the data. Click on the button labeled “Explorer Pro” and sign in with your Explorer Pro account (Figure 7)

Graphical user interface, application Description automatically generated

Figure 7

The data should now be added to the map as an interactive feature service.

 

 

B. Add data to ArcGIS Pro via Portal Item Navigation


The licensed dataset can be added to ArcGIS Pro via a folder-like navigation after connecting to the NatureServe Geodata Portal

 

  1. Open ArcGIS Pro to any map pane
  2. In the top right of ArcGIS Pro, you will see one of two buttons, shown below.


 

 

  1. Click the drop down and select "Manage Portals" (Figure 8)

 

Graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message Description automatically generated

 

 

 

  1. In this new pane, click on 'Add Portal


       e. Enter the URL of the model data portal: https://geodata.natureserve.org/arcgis/ (Figure 9)

 

Figure 9

 

  1. Hit "Ok"
  2. The portal will be added to the list you see on this page. Click on the "..." next to the portal connection item and then click on "Sign In" (Figure 10)

 

Figure 10

 

  1. In the sign in pop-out window, select "Explorer Pro" and then sign in via your explorer pro credentials (Figure 11).


                                     Figure 11

 

 

  1. Click on the "..." again and select set "Set As Active Portal" (Figure 12)

  

                              Figure 12

 

  1. Click the back arrow to return to the map pane.
  2. Open a Catalog Pane (View → Catalog Pane) and click on "Portal" (Figure 13)

Figure 13

 

  1. Click on the 3 people icon to view all the model services by your access groups (Figure 14)

 

                                      Figure 14

 

  1. From here you can add the entire dataset to your map by right-clicking on it or double click to see a list of all the files in the service and add only one to your map. For more details on how to filter and view these data, please see notes about the image services below.
  2. For Freshwater Models, both a Feature Service and a Map Image Service are available for use. We recommend using the feature service for all data access. The Map Image Service is less compatible with ArcGIS Pro. Please see notes about the Freshwater model services below.

 


2. View Species Habitat Model Summary PDFs in the Geodata Portal


Each SHM that is created at NatureServe has an accompanying summary PDF which gives critical contextual information about the model. The PDF generally includes information about the model confidence level, statistical performance, model thresholds, and a summary of model review comments. The SHM summary PDFs can be viewed within both the Geodata Portal and ArcGIS Pro.

  1. Navigate to the NatureServe Geodata Portal and sign in using your Explorer Pro credentials.
  2. Once your account has access to the occurrence data and Habitat Models, you can navigate to the Group Content on the NatureServe Geodata Portal to see all the content.
  1. Locate the AGOL data layers containing species habitat models, select the NatureServe Categorical Species Habitat Models layer and open it in map viewer. (Figure 15)

 

Graphical user interface, text, application Description automatically generated

Figure 15

 

  1.  Once the Map Viewer has been launched, navigate to the table of contents and open the attribute table for the SHM data layer (Figure 16)

Figure 16

 

 

  1. In the attribute table, find the model of interest. Then, scroll to the right to find the

“metadata_url” field. Click on the link that corresponds to the model summary PDF. (Figure 17)


  1. To access this information from ArcGIS Pro, make sure you have first added the data to ArcGIS Pro as described in the previous section. Then, open the attribute table of the desired species habitat model. Once again you can scroll all the way to the right to find the link to the summary PDF.

 

3. How to Use Species Habitat Model Image Services

 

The Species Habitat Model data can have two services: a categorized model data service and/or a continuous model data service. The services have a REST endpoint available for calling the data and viewing it in desktop or web-based map viewers. If a model has both a categorized and continuous model version available, the versions will share model attributes such as the habitat model ID and the model metadata.

 

The model data in the Image Services are returned as a mosaic of raster datasets, with an attribute table containing a record of each model's species' scientific name, species' common name, species' element unique ID, a link to the metadata for the model, a low, medium, and high probability threshold, and a label for the model. The models in the mosaic dataset can be filtered or queried to retrieve specific models. If the mosaic dataset is not filtered or queried to retrieve specific models, it will default to displaying the first 20 models uploaded into the service.

 

Continuous models have a raster with values ranging from 0-1 that reflect the probability that habitat is suitable to support the species. Raster values for categorized models represent 4 categories that represent how the value of each cell in the raster compares to the model's low, medium, and high probability thresholds. See table 1 below for details.

 

 

 

Table 1: Threshold Definitions

Pixel Value

 

Meaning

 

Categorization

1

High Probability Habitat

pixel value >= high probability threshold

 

2

Medium Probability Habitat

medium probability threshold <= pixel vale < high probability threshold

 

3

 

Low Probability Habitat

low probability threshold <= pixel value < medium probability threshold

4

Non-Habitat

pixel value < low probability threshold

 

If you add the entire dataset to your map, the data set gets added to your map as a mosaic dataset and has symbology on the item if it is a Categorical model.

  1. The mosaic includes an attribute table with the habitat model id, species information, metadata PDF URL, and other model attributes.
  2. A maximum of 1 model is shown on the map at a time. The model that is shown is haphazardly selected from the available models.
  3. Use a definition query on the mosaic dataset to filter it to a specific model. Use the habitat_model_id from the mosaic attribute table in the definition query to select a particular model.
  1. If you add only a single model to your map it is added as a raster, without any symbology. There is no way to get information stored in the mosaic attribute table if you add the data via this method.
  2. If you view a continuous model, the symbology is assigned by ESRI software and may appear black and white. Updating the symbology will lead to better viewing.

 

Select Freshwater Models

 

  1. Both the Feature Service and Map Image Service contain 2 layers: A model catalog layer and a model data layer.
    1. The model catalog layer is similar to the mosaic attribute table. It holds a record of each model available to in the service, and its extent as a polygon, habitat model attributes (including habitat_model_id), species information, and metadata PDF URL.
    2. The model data layer holds the actual data for the Freshwater models. By default, ArcGIS Pro will attempt to draw all features for all models.
      1. To view a specific model, filter the dataset using a definition query to that specific model using the model's habitat_model_id, available in the model catalog layer's attribute table.