Mapping Healthcare Efficiency: GIS Buffer Analysis of Hospital Locations


In this article, my primary goal is to show you, from my perspective as a healthcare official, how I effectively use buffer analysis techniques with hospital point data specific to California. Throughout this article, I’ll walk you through the steps within MAPOG‘s GIS Buffer Analysis of hospital locations, a resource I personally consider indispensable in my role.

The core of this spatial analysis is about uncovering crucial insights into the geographic relationships and proximity of hospital locations within the state. By following the instructions provided here, you’ll gain a clear understanding of how I create buffers around these hospital points. These buffers, which are part of my responsibilities, reveal important spatial patterns and distribution insights regarding healthcare facilities in California. It’s a powerful tool that assists me in making informed decisions to enhance healthcare access and quality in our state.

Buffer Analysis

Buffer analysis is a spatial analysis technique used in geographic information systems (GIS) to create a zone or area of influence around a particular geographic feature, such as a point, line, or polygon. This zone, known as a buffer, is typically defined by a specified distance or radius and is used to analyze spatial relationships, proximity, and accessibility between features. Buffer analysis is valuable for various applications, including urban planning, environmental impact assessment, and determining service areas around facilities like hospitals, schools, or stores.

Below are the steps for Buffer Analysis of hospital locations

Step 1 – Select Buffer Tool

To initiate a buffer analysis using MAPOG, I begin by opening the application. Subsequently, I proceed to select the Buffer Tool, which is my preferred choice for adding data for in-depth spatial analysis.

Buffer Analysis Tool
Buffer Analysis Tool

Step 2 – Select Country

Once the Buffer Tool is selected, my next step involves choosing the specific geographical region for analysis. In this particular case, I opt to analyze the state of California, a region of paramount importance for healthcare planning and resource allocation.

Select Country
Select Country

Step 3 – Select the Data Set


After choosing California for analysis, the next vital step is to smoothly add the hospital points dataset to the project. This dataset is fundamental to our thorough buffer analysis, enabling us to understand how healthcare facilities are distributed and accessible throughout the state.

GIS Buffer Analysis of hospital locations
Hospital Points

Step 4 – Create the Buffer Zone

With the hospital points dataset in hand, my next task is to define the buffer zone around these critical locations. To create a buffer with a radius of 5000 meters, I simply input “5000m” into the designated box, precisely specifying the desired buffer distance for the analysis. This step is pivotal in examining the spatial relationships and accessibility of healthcare facilities within the state of California.

Buffer Zone 5000m
Buffer Zone 5000m

After the initial buffer creation, I proceed to provide a more comprehensive illustration of hospital accessibility. This involves adding a second buffer with a radius of 10,000 meters, showcasing the typical range within which hospitals should ideally be accessible, typically ranging from 5 to 10 kilometers. This step is instrumental in highlighting the areas where healthcare services should be readily available to ensure optimal coverage and accessibility for the residents of California.

Buffer Zone 10000m
Buffer Zone 10000m

Step 5 – Add Other Feature Layers

To achieve a more thorough analysis and better grasp hospital distribution in California, I strategically choose to include county and city/town data in the project. This additional dataset significantly improves our comprehension by offering valuable context and insights into how healthcare facilities are spread across various administrative regions in the state. By examining the spatial connection between hospitals and these administrative boundaries, I can develop a more nuanced understanding of healthcare accessibility and resource allocation.


To easily enhance my project with county and city/town data, I use the “Add/Upload” option found in the upper-left corner of MAPOG’s interface. This valuable feature allows me to smoothly integrate extra geographic datasets, adding depth and context to my spatial analysis. This helps me conduct a comprehensive and insightful examination of hospital distribution in California.

Add Data
Add Data

Result And Analysis

As I combine county borders, city/town data, and hospital buffer zones (5000m in blue and 10000m in red), my aim is to decipher the intricate patterns and factors affecting hospital distribution in California.

The different buffer colors, blue and red, act as important visual aids. They assist me in assessing how easily healthcare facilities can be reached within different administrative areas of the state.

GIS Buffer Analysis of hospital locations
Buffer Zones and Cities

As I analyze the image, a distinct pattern becomes evident: hospitals are notably concentrated within city regions, highlighted in green. This pattern resonates with my understanding of higher healthcare service demand in urban areas, owing to their greater population density and improved transportation access.

This observation underscores the critical importance of strategic healthcare planning and resource allocation. It highlights the imperative to address healthcare disparities, ensuring equitable access to medical services not only in thriving urban centers but also in the more remote or underserved regions across California.

GIS Buffer Analysis of hospital locations
Result and Analysis

When I examine the image, I clearly observe that hospitals do not have an even distribution across California’s counties. The reason for this uneven distribution is the varying population densities in different regions. It’s a reminder that when it comes to placing healthcare facilities, we must consider population and urbanization factors carefully. This understanding guides our healthcare planning and resource allocation efforts to ensure everyone in California gets the care they need, regardless of where they live.

As a healthcare officer, I find the results of this buffer analysis to be incredibly valuable for our strategic healthcare planning and resource allocation efforts. Here’s how we can put this information to good use:

Findings and Factors to Consider

  1. Identify High-Traffic Hospitals: The buffer analysis helps us pinpoint hospitals within the 5000m (blue) and 10000m (red) zones, revealing those with higher patient visitation rates. This insight helps us understand where healthcare services are in high demand.
  2. Capacity Assessment: We can assess the capacity and readiness of these hospitals to meet patient demand. This assessment may prompt decisions about expansions or improvements to ensure these high-traffic facilities can provide quality care efficiently.
  3. Identify Underserved Areas: The analysis highlights regions with limited hospital access, particularly outside the buffer zones. These areas represent potential locations for establishing new healthcare facilities, addressing gaps in service coverage.
  4. Emergency Response Planning: We can strategically position hospitals based on geographical distribution insights, ensuring efficient emergency response capabilities across the region.
  5. Resource Allocation: The data helps us allocate resources effectively, whether it involves redistributing medical personnel, investing in new infrastructure, or deploying mobile healthcare units to reach underserved regions and improve healthcare access.
  6. Community Health Promotion: We use insights from the analysis to inform our community health promotion and awareness programs, especially benefiting underserved communities with limited healthcare access.
  7. Transparency and Public Engagement: Sharing analysis results with the public and local stakeholders fosters transparency and encourages valuable input into healthcare planning decisions.

I’ve found that utilizing MAPOG’s buffer analysis tool has been pivotal in uncovering these spatial patterns and revealing essential insights for our research.

In this case, we’ve harnessed its capabilities to gain a deeper understanding of healthcare accessibility and distribution, emphasizing the role of urban areas in healthcare infrastructure. This article serves as a testament to the value of MAPOG’s GIS Buffer Analysis of hospital locations in spatial research and planning, offering a practical and clear path to unlocking geographic insights.

Download Bhutan Administrative Boundary Shapefiles – Districts, Sub-Districts -GIS data

Download Bhutan Map Shapefile GIS Data, Bhutan Districts , Bhutan Villages Shapefile data. Available in Shapefile, KML, GeoJSON, CSV

Have you been hunting GIS data too long and couldn’t find the right data or a proper data collection hub for fulfilling your requirements? Worry no more, IGISMAP GIS solutions offer a comprehensive collection of GIS data for over 150 countries, providing access to more than 150 datasets per country. Each dataset is carefully curated and accurately represents the administrative divisions of the respective countries. IGISMAP provides two essential tools for accessing this data: the Download GIS Data and Add GIS Data functionalities. Users can download the data in multiple formats, including ESRI Shapefile, KML, GeoJSON, or CSV, depending on their preferences and requirements. The platform ensures that users have a seamless experience in accessing valuable GIS data for their projects. Check the article – Add GIS data from IGISMap GIS data collection to understand more about Add GIS Data.

In this article, we will talk about IGISMAP GIS data of Bhutan and how it can be accessed from Download GIS Data tool. GIS data of almost all natural and man made geographic features are available for Bhutan. This article will give you an overview of all the administrative divisions GIS data available for Bhutan.

Note:

  • All data available are in GCS datum EPSG:4326 WGS84 CRS (Coordinate Reference System).
  • You need to login for downloading the shapefile.

Download Bhutan Districts Shapefile Data

Bhutan Districts Boundaries
Bhutan Districts Boundaries

Download Bhutan Districts Boundaries Shapefile

Download Bhutan Villages Shapefile Data

In Bangladesh, a village is the smallest territorial and social unit for administrative and representative purposes. It is an elective unit of a Union Council from which a single council member is elected. Usually one village is designated as a ward and each union is made up of nine villages.

Bhutan Villages Boundaries
Bhutan Villages Boundaries

Download Bhutan Villages Boundary Shapefile

Other GIS Data:

“After downloading the data, you can easily convert it into any desired GIS format using our efficient MAPOG converter tool.”

Download Shapefile for the following:

  1. World Countries Shapefile
  2. Australia
  3. Argentina
  4. Austria
  5. Belgium
  6. Brazil
  7. Canada
  8. Denmark
  9. Fiji
  10. Finland
  11. Germany
  12. Greece
  13. India
  14. Indonesia
  15. Ireland
  16. Italy
  17. Japan
  18. Kenya
  19. Lebanon
  20. Madagascar
  21. Malaysia
  22. Mexico
  23. Mongolia
  24. Netherlands
  25. New Zealand
  26. Nigeria
  27. Papua New Guinea
  28. Philippines
  29. Poland
  30. Russia
  31. Singapore
  32. South Africa
  33. South Korea
  34. Spain
  35. Switzerland
  36. Tunisia
  37. United Kingdom Shapefile
  38. United States of America
  39. Vietnam
  40. Norway
  41. Chile
  42. Crotia

Disclaimer : If you find any shapefile data of country provided is incorrect do contact us or comment below, so that we will correct the same in our system as well we will try to correct the same in OpenStreetMap.

Upload your shapefile and create a buffer layer

Consider that you are working in the urban planning sector. Higher authorities in the sector have decided to develop the surroundings of the bank area. Your senior has assigned you a project to create a buffer so that later the architect can design the area separately.

When you are working with spatial operations and analysis, GIS is the best method to find a solution to any task. A geographic information system (GIS) is a system that creates, manages, analyzes, and maps all types of data.

IGISMap provides you with all the facilities for spatial operations and analysis without any difficulty. It is easy to use, and it saves your time.

How to upload file in IGISMap

An upload vector file is a GIS tool in IGISMap. This tool helps you to upload a file of your requirement.

Click on https://map.igismap.com/upload-vector-files and open the Upload Vector file tool

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer
Upload Vector File Tool

Browse Data

In the select layer click on Browse to find the relevant data from the device.

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer
Browse Data

Select File

Now select the appropriate file, then click on open.

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer
Select file

Upload File

Since we have selected the file, now click on upload to add data in IGISMap.

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer
Upload File

Map Tools

After uploading the shapefile click on Tools, to access other GIS tools. Here you can do bubble style, icon style, category style or label feature, etc. shown in image below.

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer
Map Tools

In Map Tools, Open Buffer analysis tool. You can also try other tools like converter, split polygon, merge polygon, point to polygon, etc

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer
Open Buffer Analysis tool

Buffer Analysis Tool

The buffer Analysis tool of IGISMap is a powerful GIS tool. This tool helps you to create a zone of your requirement which is also called Buffer.

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer

Select Layer

In the select layer click on the Select option, then from the drop-down Manu select the GIS Data, after that click on Next

Upload shapefile and create a buffer layer
Select Data

Create Buffer

In create buffer, Select draw a polygon option. Draw a polygon that covers the input shapefile.

create buffer
Draw a Polygon

Enter the value in meters for buffer map, then click on submit.

buffer map
Draw a polygon

Share Your Map

You can directly share the map by clicking on Share Map.

share your map
Share Map

After filing up Map Operation, Click on the next button.

Map Operation

You can share your map as per your requirement.

Share Map

You can also use the link to share the relevant data.

Use the link to share the data

In the above steps, you have learned about sharing a map. If you want to embed the map on your website then that is also possible with this tool.

Merge polygons features online using IGISMap

In GIS data, a geographic area is represented in a polygon shape. Geospatial features such as administrative boundaries are digitized in the polygon vector model. In some cases, we need to merge the polygon features based on attribute values or location. After merging, input polygons will merge into a single polygon feature assigned with a single row to store attribute values. When the adjacent polygons with common border lines are merged, they combine to form a single polygon. Through merge functionality, we can create any primary-level administrative boundaries like national boundaries from the secondary level divisions like state or district level boundaries. So here in this article, we are providing steps to merge polygons features online in a single layer.

Merging is a common geoprocessing used in GIS projects for two important cases. One is to merge multiple GIS features into single GIS feature within a GIS data itself. Another application is to merge multiple GIS data into single GIS data. In both cases, geometry entity of the input GIS feature or GIS data should be same ie., either point, polyline or polygon.

IGISMap provides Merge Polygons tool to merge multiple polygon features of a polygon GIS data into single polygon feature. IGISMap is a GIS-based web platform, that provides multiple GIS applications that are most important in the field of geospatial analytics. The peculiarity of IGISMAP in the GIS Industry is its user interface which helps the user to perform effortless geospatial operations. Merge Polygons tool is very easy to use and you can merge the required polgons in just two steps.

In this article we will create the national boundary of USA by merging the polygons of state boundaries. Without further due, lets dive into Merge Polygons tool.

Click https://map.igismap.com/merge-polygon to open Merge Polygons tool.

Add your data

After opening Merge Polygons tool, first step is to add or upload polygon GIS data. Here we will choose Upload Data option to upload the data from your personal computer. Then, click on the Browse button to open the browsing box, where you will choose the file from your pc. In this article, we will be uploading a polygon GIS data of USA state level boundaries.

Upload Data
Upload Data

After opening the file, click the Upload button to start the upload process.

Uploading GIS data
Uploading GIS data

Check the article Add / Upload polygon GIS data and merge required polygon features to understand how to use IGISMap GIS data in Merge Polygons tool.

Select polygons using Lasso Tool

When uploading is complete, polygon GIS data of USA state level boundaries will be published in the map. This data will be selected as the input data for carying out the merge operation.

Select Lasso Tool
Select Lasso Tool

You can access this same data from IGISMap GIS Data collection through Add GIS Data option provided in the Data Selection section.

Click https://map.igismap.com/add-gis to access Add GIS Data tool directly

Click below to download polygon GIS data of USA state level boundaries

Download USA State Level Boundaries Shapefile

Next step is to select the required polygon features from the input polygon data. IGISMap provides two options to select the polygons. They are – Lasso Tool and Select Manually. Lasso Tool option is suitable to selecte large number of polygon features, hence we will select Lasso Tool tab.

Lasso Tool will open the list of modes to draw a polygon over the required polygon features. These are Draw Polygon With Free Hand, Draw Circle, Draw Rectangle, and Draw Polygon. Select Draw Polygon and draw a polygon intersecting all the polygons of the states.

Draw Polygon using Lasso Tool
Draw Polygon using the Lasso Tool

Polygon features of the input polygon GIS data that intersected by the lasso polygon will be selected for merging. Then click Submit to start merging.

Polygons selected using Lasso tool
Polygons selected using Lasso tool

Output polygon

After submitting, merged polygon GIS data of USA national ouline boundary is published in the map, as shown below

Merged Layer
Merged Layer

In the above article we uploaded polygon GIS data and merge polygons features online. But if you have point data you can also convert it into polygon by point to polygon conversion feature of IGISMap Tool. This is good if you have point data. If you don’t have data you can Create Point Data using our tool.

Check the article Share your Map to understand the Share Map feature of IGISMap.

Check other articles:
Check the following IGISMap tools:

Add / Upload polygon GIS data and merge required polygon features

For a GIS project, accessing the required data is the first step that determines the further workflow of the project. Online sources either provides the data or provide tools to work with data. There are very few web tools that provides important data and services to work with the data in a single platform. Yes, that is rightIGISMap is one of that kind, where you can find most demanding GIS data in vector formats with a number of tools to carry out analysis and other operations over the GIS data. In the article below we will how to add/upload data and merge polygons. In addition, to merge the feature you can add GIS Data i.e shapefile, kml, kmz, geojson etc.

GIS Data in IGISMap contains administrative boundaries such as country, states, districts, roads, railway lines, and other geographical features such as roads, farmlands, waterbody, etc. IGISMap gis data tool provides you data for 30+ countries, and 51 US states. Also, a few spatial data on a global level are also provided. These data can be directly accessed using Add GIS Data tool from the dashboard or from the map tools. Add GIS Data is also made available in certain IGISMap tools to help users access GIS data directly within the tool itself.

In Merge Polygons tool, Add GIS Data option is provided to access polygon GIS data of various administrative level boundaries of each country. Users can add any polygon data from IGISMap collection and merge the required polygon features. In this article we are going to see how this is done.

Click https://map.igismap.com/merge-polygon to open the Merge Polygons tool or click Merge Polygons tab from the dashboard.

Add/Upload GIS Data

There are multiple options in Merge Polygons tool to add the input data. In this article, we will select Add GIS Data option to add the required data from IGISMap data collection. For demonstration, we will use the GIS data of local government area boundaries of South Australia. Thus we will select Australia from the Select Country list.

Add/Upload data and merge polygons
Add GIS Data – Select Country

After selecting the country, list of GIS data associated with Australia will open.

Add/Upload data and merge polygons
Add GIS Data – Select Layer

Scroll down or search for local government area in the search bar to filter the list to the required data. Select administrative local government area boundaries data from the list and click Add Layer icon.

Local Government Area Boundaries of Australia
Local Government Area Boundaries of Australia

Add Layer will preview the selected layer in the map and the options to crop the layer will be available in the tool. Since we only want the LGA boundaries of South Australia. Thus click the Crop Layer button and start drawing a polygon completely enclosing the LGA polygon features of South Australia and click Add Layer button.

Crop Layer
Crop Layer

Add Layer button will publish the cropped LGA boundaries of South Australia on the map and the Select Polygon section of the Merge Polygons tool will open.

Data Published From Add GIS Data
Data Published From Add GIS Data

Check this article Merge polygons features online using IGISMap to understand how to upload data and merge polygons in Merge Polygons tool.

If you have Point data then use our feature points to polygon converter. You can directly upload the point GIS data or convert addresses from spreadsheets to points.

Merging Polygons

There are two options to select the required polygon features – Lasso Tool and Select Manually. We will use Select Manually option. After selecting Select Manually, click Select Multiple Polygon button. Now select the polygon features of Roxby Downs, Coober Pady, and Unincorporated SA boundaries, which we want to merge the polygons together. After selecting the polygons, click on the Submit button to start the process of merging the selected polygon features.

Select Polygon - Select Manually
Select Polygon – Select Manually

In a few seconds, a new layer of the input GIS data of LGA boundaries gets published. In this layer, the selected polygon features are merged into a single polygon as shown below.

Add/Upload data and merge polygons
Polygons Merged and Published

Check the article Share your Map to know how to share your map with others using Share Map feature.

Check other articles:
Check the following IGISMap tools:

Convert addresses from spreadsheet to points on Map in two steps

Consider a customer service manager working for a supermarket company wants to connect with some of their best customers for giving winning prizes and to promote their business. The manager has a list of contacts along with their address which is located all over America. In order to deliver the winning prizes to their doorstep, he has to find the best route which takes a minimum number of days to receive it. Hence he has to give the delivery partner the best route which is easier and less time-consuming.

In such cases, Geocoding helps to make the process easier. Geocoding is the process of converting one or more valid address with location details into GIS points.Geocoder tool of IGISMap can be used for converting address details to point GIS data in a few steps. You only need to upload the spreadsheet file with address columns and assign the address columns to start plotting. Option to review the plotting and edit the points are also available in this tool.

IGISMap is a GIS-based web platform, that provides multiple GIS applications that are most important in the field of geospatial analytics. The peculiarity of IGISMap in the GIS Industry is its UI/UX, which helps the user to perform effortless geospatial operations. IGISMap allows users to edit the data table of vector data by editing the name of the columns, deleting the columns, and adding new columns. The Geocoder tool on the IGISMap increases efficiency by enabling different companies to better coordinate their sales in both domestic and foreign marketing activities.

Open Geocoder tool using the following link https://map.igismap.com/geocoder

Upload spreadsheet file

For uploading the input file, click on the Browse option, select the excel/CSV file from your system that you want to visualize on IGISMap, and click on the Upload option.

Geocoder - Upload Excel/CSV file
Upload Excel/CSV file

Match the Columns

After successfully uploading the file, the next step is to assign the address columns in your file to be used for geocoding. There are 2 options to match the columns – Full Address and Other. Full Address option is used for files with address information provided in a single column. In our case, we have address distributed in several columns, thus we will choose Other option. Click Other option and select the right address columns from you file at the right address types such as address, city, zip, state. Then select the country and click Submit button to geocode the address.

Geocoder - Match The Columns
Match The Columns

Review the geocoded locations

A GIS layer gets published after submitting, with point locations based on the address information from the input spreadsheet file. Result section also opens with datatable and Relevance_score column.

Geocoder Result
Geocoder Result

Relevance_score is a value ranging between 0 to 10 provided for every row depicting the accuracy of the plotted locations after the geocoding each address, where 10 being the highest accuracy. User can check the relevance score for each row and edit the point location if needed. Rows of the point features will be highlighted in red color if the relevance score is below 8. This is to notify the user to confirm the location plotted.

Result - Relevance Score
Relevance Score

How to edit location by checking relevance score

The user can delete any feature by using the Delete Feature button present on the Relevance_score table. Click Edit Attribute button of any required feature to start editing the attribute values of that feature and then click Save icon.

The user can edit the location of any point feature by using the Edit Location button. After clicking the Edit Location button in the row of any point feature, a pop-up menu with the options to edit the location.

Edit Location
Edit Location
  1. Search Address – Enter an appropriate address to replace the pin to that location
  2. lat-lng – Enter latitude/longitude values to replace the pin to that coordinate
  3. Current Location – To replace the pin to your current location
  4. Add Point – Manually plot a point on the base map

Now click Submit button to save the changes in the point GIS data

User can further edit the style of the points or share the map publicly or privately

How to style point GIS data categorically

GIS helps users to understand patterns, relationships and geographic context. It benefit includes improved communication and efficiency, as well as improved management and decision-making. GIS combines datasets with maps, integrated regional datasets with any type of descriptive information or data. It provides mapping and assessment prerequisites for technology and almost every industry.

Visualization and intepretaion of data is what makes GIS a beautiful and interesting fields in data analytics. Science of visualization is the core essence in the art of cartography and mapping. Any type of geospatial features presented in the map with proper color combination, accurate size and location helps in better image interpretation. Quantity and category based representation of spatial features are the common visualization styles used in GIS.

IGISMap Styling Tools

IGISMap is a web platform providing multiple GIS applications that are most important in the field of geospatial analytics. The peculiarity of IGISMap in the GIS Industry is its UI/UX that helps the user to perform effortless geospatial operations. IGISMap provides the following styling tools:

  • Basic Style
  • Category Style
  • Quantity Style
  • Bubble Style
  • Icon Style

Among the styling options listed above, Bubble Style and Icon Style are used to symboloze point GIS data, whereas Basic, Category and Quantity styling options are used to style polygon and polyline GIS data. Bubble Style is used to style the point GIS data quantitatively and Icon Style is used to style point GIS data with the icon or categorically by assigning separate icon for each categories.

In this article, we will talk about how to categorically represent point GIS data using Icon Style tool of IGISMap and will walk through the steps to style your data categorically like the following

Administrative Locations in London
Administrative Locations in London

Uploading the data

For the demonstration, we will upload the point GIS data of administrative buildings locations in London city and categorize it based on types. First lets upload this data using Upload Vector File tool of IGISMap.

Click https://map.igismap.com/upload-vector-files to open Upload Vector File tool.

After opening the Upload Vector File tool, here we can upload required the vector data in any of the following vector formats.

GML, KML, KMZ, GeoJSON, TopoJSON, GPX, GPS, GPKG, ODS, MAPINFO, SOLITE, ESRI SHAPEFILE DXF MID. MIF, PDF

Upload Vector File tool
Upload Vector File

In the Select Layer section we have to click on Browse and select the input file from the system, which is the GIS data of administrative building locations in Lonndon named as London_admins. After opening the file, click Upload.

Upload Vector File - Select Layer
Uploading the file

After uploading, input GIS data will be visible on the IGISMap screen, represented by default icon style as shown below.

Upload Vector File - Point GIS Data
Point GIS Data plotted on map

Open IGISMap Icon Style tool

After adding the input GIS data, we can style the points categorically using Icon Style tool. For accessing the tool, click Tools button at the upper left side of screen to open the map tools popup. Then select Icon Style tool listed under Style Your Data section.

Map Tools popup
Map Tools

We can also open the Icon Style tool by going to the More option of input point data and choose the Icon Style from the Edit Style option.

IGISMap More options
More options

Styling point GIS data categorically

After the tool appears, we have to select the layer from Select Layer section which is the London_admins data that is published in this map and then we have to click Next option.

Icon Style - Select Layer
Select Layer

Then the Edit Layer section is appeared. Here we have to choose Category Icon. Now in the Attribute field, select admin field to categorize the point data based on its individual attributes values. You can also assign a default icons size to applied for every icon style in the Set Market Size box.

Select the Attribute in Category Icon
Icon Style – Category Icon

In the Icon Overlap, you can change the option between True or False. Choose True if you want the icons to be overlapping when the map is zoomed out. Select False if you want to see every point icons any zoom extend of the map.

After selecting the required attribute field, all individual values will be listed with different icons assigned for each category, with default marker size. We can change the icons for each category by selecting the edit option and choosing the right icon from the list provided. We can also assign appropriate marker size for each category at Set Marker Size section.

Setting Icon and Marker Size
Setting Icon and Marker Size

After editing we have to click on Save Style for styling the point data.

Save the Style after Edit Layer
Save the Style after Edit Layer

Following all the process we get the desired output on the screen of IGISMap.

Point Map by Icon Style
Point Map by Icon Style

Create point data and convert it into polygons

Voronoi polygon is an area representing the influence from a particular point location. A Voronoi polygon is actually a systematic way to divide spaces into a number of regions using a set of input points. For each point there will be a corresponding area that consists of the locations closer to that point than any other. These areas are called Voronoi cells.

IGISMap provides a Point to Polygon tool to create Voronoi polygons out of point from input point data. IGISMap is a web platform providing multiple GIS applications that are most important in the field of geospatial analytics. In IGISMap, you can upload your GIS data and perform geospatial analysis.

In IGISMap, Point To Polygon tool will convert input point data into polygon data by creating a polygon shape for each point in the input point data, like the following.

Voronoi Polygon
Voronoi Polygon

Let’s look into the steps to use Point to Polygon tool of IGISMap.

Click https://map.igismap.com/point-to-polygon to open Point to Polygon tool directly

Point to polygon

After opening Point to Polygon tool, first step is to add the data using any of the following options:

  • Select
  • Create Points
  • Upload Vector
  • Upload CSV/Excel
  • Add GIS Data
IGISMap Point To Polygon tool
Point to Polygon

Here we are going to choose the option to Create Points and then convert the point to polygons through voronoi conversion. Thus lets first create and publish point GIS data.

Creating point data

Select Create Points tab which open Add Points section to plot points on the map at the desired locations.

Create Points
Create Points

Points can be plotted through any of the following options that can be used anytime in this section. They are:

  • Add Points
  • Search Address
  • Lat Lon Values

After finish the plotting, click Save and Publish button to publish the point GIS data.

Add Points
Add Points

Check the article Plot ATM locations on a map and embed in your website to know how to create point GIS data using Create Point Data tool.

Converting the Point data to Polygon data

After saving the point data, Convert Layer section is appears to carry out the point to polygon process.

Now click Convert button to run the point to polygon process.

Convert the Point Layer
Convert the Point Layer

As you can see, voronoi polygon layer is created and published in the map.

Voronoi Polygon
Voronoi Polygon

Sharing the voronoi polygon map

For sharing this map we have to click on Share Map button from the map. In the Share Map window, you can give the map name at the map title and  click on Next. Then a share map section appears.

Share Map
Share Map

Choose the option between Share Map as a link or Embed Map to get the html iframe to attach in the webpage. Here you can also two security of the map by selecting Public or Private.

Embed Map
Embed Map

Check the article Share your Map to understand the Share Map feature of IGISMap.

Check other articles:
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Map the locations of slums and embed the map on your website

On one fine day, people from a well reputed Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) contacted us about how we can locate slum areas. This NGO works for social welfare activities such as food, clothes, water supply, drainage, etc. for the people who live in slums. They basically wanted a web map for slum locations where they can provide the above social services and keep track of various details to those locations through visualization and spatial analysis.

The use of GIS technology is advancing in the field of data science and information technology as demand for maps and geospatial analysis became important in both public and private sectors. There is limited GIS software that provides services in both creating maps and hosting them on websites. IGISMap gives powerful tool sets to create interactive maps of locations and geospatial features associated with applications based on social services, business analysis, scientific research etc. Using the tools of IGISMap, we can manage, analyze, and visualize slum areas where monitoring and management is required. IGISMap is a web platform providing multiple GIS applications that are most important in the field of geospatial analytics. GIS tools of IGISMap application allows users to Add Data, Create Data, Map Data, Style Data, Process Data, Analyze Data and also help users to Share Data privately or publicly.

IGISMap application has Create Point Data tool which can be used to plot locations and point objects as point vector data model. By using the Create Point Data tool let’s discuss how we can map the slum locations like the following.

Slum Locations
Final Map of Slum Locations

Click https://map.igismap.com/add-points to open Create Point Data tool

Start plotting points for the slum locations

In Create Point Data tool, first step is to Add Points, where we can start plotting the slum locations as points, in the form of pins. IGISMap provides you with three features for plotting points: Drop Points, Search Address, and Lat Lon Values.

plot slum locations on the map
Create Point Data tool
  • Drop points let us drop a pin at the desired location on the map. Zoom to the location of the slum and click to add the pin.
Drop Points
Drop Points
  • Search Address option opens a search address box, where you can enter an address and choose the right option from the dropdown list, then click the Plot button to plot a point on that location.
Seach Address and Plot Points
Seach Address and Plot Points
  • Lat Lon Values will open two boxes to enter latitude and longitude values of the location you want to plot, Plot Location button in this option will plot a pin at the location you have entered.
Enter Coordinates and Plot Points
Enter Coordinates and Plot Points

Add Attributes popup will appear every time you plot a point. Using this popup, you can add the attribute fields and values. Click the Submit button to Submit the save the attribute entries. You can choose to delete the point you plotted by clicking the Delete Point button. You can disable this popup anytime using the following toggle button.

But we can open this popup anytime while plotting, by simply clicking on an existing pin.

After plotting every desired location for our data, click the Save and Publish button to publish your data in the map.

Review and edit the datatable

After the slum locations are published as point GIS layer, Show/Edit Datatable section will be open. Here you can edit the attribute values entered for each point location after clicking the button in the data table along each row in the data table. You can also choose to delete a point by clickingbutton.

Show/Edit Datatable
Show/Edit Datatable

Options to edit or delete the attribute fields are also available in this step along with the option to add new attribute fields to this data. If you thought of adding more points to the data of ATM Locations, select the Back button to go to the Add Points section, where you can add more points and make changes to the already published data.

Option to update the data table as bulk is available in this section. Where the whole data table can be downloaded in Excel format using Download Datatable button. And to make the changes outside IGISMap, then upload the edited/updated spreadsheet file using Upload Datatable button and integrate with the same point data of ATM locations. 

After making all the changes in the datatable, let’s move to the styling section by clicking the Next button to finish plotting.

Plotting of Slum Locations Completed
Plotting of Slum Locations Completed

Styling the slum location points

A map will become more meaningful if appropriate icons and colors are used to visualize the spatial features of the map. In IGISMap styling options, Bubble Style and Icon Style are provided for point GIS data.

In Icon Styling, IGISMap provides two more options – Basic and Category styling. For now, let’s make it simple by providing an appropriate pin icon for styling the Slum location points.

After opening Icon Style tool from the Done section or from the Map Tools, select the data from the dropdown and click Next

Icon Styling
Styling with Proper Icons

Basic Icon will be selected as default. Select appropriate icon from the list and click Save Style to apply icon for the points.

Select Icon for Slum Locations Map
Select Icon

Another styling option using Icon Style tool is the Categorial Icon, where users can select the category on the basis of which styling is added to the point data.

Check this article to understand How to style point GIS data categorically using Icon Style tool.

Bubble style is used to visualize the data quantitatively based on the numerical fields in the datatable. We can assign the size and color of the bubble for each class of values.

Check this article understand How to create Bubble Map for point GIS data.

Click on Save Style option to save the Styling options of added points.

Data Added

It’s done! Now if the user wants to add more points, click on Create more points on the layer option, which will then direct you back to the Add Points section.

Add Points
Add Points

If the user wants to create a new layer, select Create New Layer option.

Embed your slum locations map in a website

As the data is created completely and styles appropriately, let’s embed the map of Slums in a website. For this, click the button at the top right, where you will reach the UI to control the sharing of this map.

Share Map
Share Map

After the share map components are enabled and disabled as desired, click Next button to proceed to the step for copying the iframe link to embed in a website.

Embed Map
Embed Map
Iframe link
Iframe link

Copy this link from the popup and attach it to your website. Thus the map will be available as interactive as below.

Check the article Share your Map to understand more about Share Map feature of IGISMap.

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Map habitat locations of endangered animals & keep track of their living

Wilderness without wildlife is just scenery
-Lois Crisler

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) states that endangered species are the species of plant or animal that are seriously at the risk of extinction. In this time of data revolution, data analytics plays a huge role in the field of environmental science and atmospheric studies. Keeping the record of the habitat locations of endangered species and observing the variations in their environmental factors will help the authorities to study the causes that threaten the life of these species. These observations can be further useful to prevent global extinction by rehabilitating their populations and restoring habitats. In the article we create point vector data in GIS tool.

GIS technology is an effective tool for managing, analyzing, and visualizing wildlife data to target areas where monitoring and managing is required. GIS technology helps in tracking the migration patterns, mapping biodiversity, and habitat suitability models which provide analysis for animals to locate their habitat locations in suitable environmental conditions. 

Consider that a wildlife conservationist wants to map the habitat locations of endangered animals in India and keep track of the factors such as total strength, temperature, precipitation, food, water, etc. There are a lot of GIS applications available, but only IGISMap meets the requirements creating a map and hosting the map. Create Point Data tool of IGISMap can be used to plot locations and point objects as a point vector data model.

Map habitat locations of endangered species

Users can rely on the Create Point Data tool of IGISMap application to plot the habitat locations of endangered animals as given below.

Final Map of Habitat Locations - Create Point Vector Data
Final Map of Habitat Locations

GIS data created in IGISMap can be shared via links or embed in websites. More information based on these locations can be added as attributes in the datatable. Attribute information in the datatable can be queried using the Proximity Analysis tool of IGISMap. Let’s look into the steps on how the habitat location map can be created and further used for the protection of endangered animals.

To navigate to the IGISMap Create Point Data tool, click the below link

https://map.igismap.com/add-points

Adding the points of habitat locations of endangered animals

First step is to Add Points, where we can start plotting the habitat locations as points, in the form of pins. IGISMap provides you with three features for plotting points: Drop Points, Search Address, and Lat Lon Values.

plot endangered animals locations on the map
Create Point Data tool
  • Let’s select the Drop Points option and zoom to the location with the desired location to plot a pin in that specific location on the map
Drop Points
Drop Points

Everytime when a point gets plotted, a popup will open to enter the attribute values in each attribute field of the habitat locations. Click the Submit button to Submit and save the attribute entries. You can choose to delete the point you plotted by clicking the Delete Point button. Else you can click Skip to close the popup. You can disable the default opening of this popup using the toggle button.

  • Search Address option opens a search address box, where you can enter an address and choose the right option from the dropdown list, then click the Plot button to plot a point on that location.
  • Lat Lon Values will open two boxes to enter latitude and longitude values of the location you want to plot, Plot Location button in this option will plot a pin at the location you have entered.

A plotted point can be moved to a different location by click and drag to the desired location

Note: If the Drop Points option is active for dropping pins, it should be unselected for selecting the plotted pins to open the attribute popup.

After making all the changes, click on the Save and Publish button to publish the GIS data of habitat locations.

Review and Edit the Datatable of the Data

Save and Publish button will publish the point location of endangered animals as point GIS data layer. The default name of the published layer will be point1 that can be edited any time. Show/Edit Datatable section will also open, where attribute fields and attribute values of each location can be edited, updated or deleted.

Option to update the data table as bulk is available in this section. Here the whole datatable can be downloaded in Excel format using Download Datatable button. And to make the changes outside IGISMap, then upload the edited/updated spreadsheet file using Upload Datatable button. Further, integrate with the same point data of habitat locations.

Show/Edit Datatable
Show/Edit Datatable

Here the Back button is present for going back to the Add Points section to add more points or click Next option to proceed further.

Styling The Habitat Location Points Of Endangered Species

A map will become more meaningful if appropriate icons and colors are used to visualize the features of the map. IGISMap provides – Bubble Style and Icon Style for point GIS data. Icon Styling has two more options – Basic Icon and Category Icon styling.

In basic styling, users can use different styling options for the pin. In Basic Icon styling, user can select any of the icons to represent the point locations.

Basic Icon Styling
Basic Icon Styling

Check this article to understand How to style point GIS data categorically using Icon Style tool

Here we are going to style our data using Bubble Style. Bubble style is used to visualize the data quantitatively based on the numerical fields in the datatable. We can assign the size and color of the bubble for each class of values.

Bubble Styling
Bubble Styling

Check this article understand How to create Bubble Map for point GIS data

IGISMap provides direct access to Icon Style and Bubble Style tools from an existing map, where you can style point GIS data published in that map

It’s done! Now if the user wants to add more points, click on Create more points on the layer option. If the user wants to create a new layer, select Create New Layer option.

Add Points feature is available in the More section of the layer which will allow to add more points and attribute informations to the data you created.

More options
More options

Embedding Map In Your Website

Now lets embed the map of habitat location in a website. For this, click the button at the top right, where you will reach the UI to control the sharing of this map.

Share Map
Share Map

Enable and provide the necessary components of the Share Map and click Next button. Now select the Embed Map option and click Embed Map button.

Embed Map
Embed Map

A popup appears with html iframe code

HTML Iframe Link
HTML Iframe Link

Copy this link from the popup and attach it to your website. Check the article Share your Map to understand more about Share Map feature of IGISMap.

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