Category: water volume analysis

Polygon Feature Tutorial – Updated

Updated 4/12/2022

The polygon tool is one of BioBase’s strongest features. The ability to calculate total water body, vegetation cover percentage, surface acreage, and more is crucial to environmental management. Reduce the amount of herbicide you need to apply by taking the guess work out of treatments. Pinpoint locations of beneficial vegetation plantings and monitor the success using the vegetation biovolume value created by the polygon tool. The polygon tool is one of the most versatile features and a use can be found in any area of interest. Below is a step by step walkthrough of how to use the polygon tool.

A few things to take into consideration when creating a polygon. First, polygon tool is a very data intensive feature and requires a lot of processing power. In order to limit the demand on server, we must limit simultaneous polygon requests system wide to two. After clicking save and the polygon tool begins the calculations you should see the following statement in the upper right hand corner “Generating statistics: please be patient. Response times depend on waterbody size and amount of data.”. You will also see a spinning circle indicating the tool is working this may take up to 3 minutes depending on the data and the polygon. If you receive a prompt to try again at a later time, the servers may be busy processing other polygons. Try waiting a few minutes then trying again.

Step 1. Select the “Polygon” tab

Select the Polygon Tab

Step 2. Click create polygon button

Click create polygon button

Step 3. Name the polygon

Name the polygon (required)

Step 4. Add a description to the polygon

Add a description to the polygon

Step 5. Draw the polygon by clicking points, double click to end the drawing

Draw the polygon by clicking points, double click to end the drawing

Step 6. Save the polygon

Save the polygon

Step 7. Data Table

Example of data table generated by the polygon tool

  The polygon management tool allows subscribers to create a polygon within their data for automated processing and assessment of specific boundaries within an upload.  After you gather Lowrance sonar data and upload it to your BioBase account to create a bathymetric, vegetation and hardness maps, you can determine water volumes, acres, max and average depths, vegetation average biovolume percentage, vegetation cover percentage and more.

More information on the polygon tool can be found on our support resources page –Support Resources Operators Guide

The days of estimating water volumes are over.  Even though we were already providing detailed water volume analysis of the area covered, BioBase will now allow you to create and manage your treatment zones and areas of concern in greater detail.  BioBase is taking lake management and habitat analysis to the next level and automating everything you need to take your collected data full circle. For more information on Navico’s sustainability initiative click Here

New Z-offset (depth offset) Feature

Some of our customers have requested the ability to make their maps even more accurate by eliminating the distance between their transducer and the bottom.  We listened! 
Depth calculations (z) using hydro acoustics are calculated from the source (transducer) to the bottom. Because a depth finder transducer is typically mounted below the water surface, depth readings are always off by the distance between the bottom of the transducer and the surface of the water . . . not anymore!   With the new z-offset feature, any user can now recalculate depths by entering this distance and reprocessing the trip.  For example, if your transducer is 6 inches below the surface, all of your depth readings should have a half foot added to them.  A 10 foot z should actually be 10.5” deep.  With a .5” z-offset, all of your depths will be reprocessed for better accuracy.  This is very important when calculating water volumes! 
The z-offset feature can also be used for calculations to high water marks or draw downs.  By using the z-offset for a 5 foot draw down scenario, our users can identify which bottom structures will be exposed as land (see below).  In addition, lake and pond managers can determine total water volumes at a high water mark by measuring this distance.  By simply offsetting all depth readings with a single z-coordinate offset, your trip will be reprocessed the way you want it.  Water volumes, blue scale, and plant biovolume will all be recalculated in your account.  Simple!
Below is an example of the z-offset in action for a simulated draw down.  We took an accurate trip from Trout Lake in Wisconsin and offest the z-coordinate by 20 feet to simulate a 20 foot draw down.  The new blue scale reflects the changes and displays the new land in green:

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