Polygon Feature Tutorial – Updated - - BioBase Automated Mapping

Polygon Feature Tutorial – Updated

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

Step 2. Click create polygon button

Step 3. Name the polygon

Step 4. Add a description to the polygon

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

Step 6. 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

Ray Valley Joins Contour Innovations as Aquatic Biologist

Please join Contour Innovations in welcoming Ray Valley (RayV@ContourInnovations.com) to our team as Chief Aquatic Biologist.

Previously employed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as a Senior Research Biologist in the Section of Fisheries, Ray developed aquatic plant mapping protocols with acoustic technology and GIS, researched the link between aquatic plants and fish populations, and most recently chaired the successful launch of a collaborative and comprehensive long-term lake monitoring program called Sustaining Lakes in a Changing Environment (SLICE), Ray holds a B.S. degree in Fisheries from the University of Minnesota and a M.S. degree in Fisheries Ecology from Michigan State.

Ray brings a wide range of expertise to our team specifically related to aquatic vegetation mapping, GIS, and fisheries. Our team is excited to have his deep technical background in aquatic habitat mapping using acoustics. “We’ve only scratched the surface of what our platform can do both as a direct output and the benefit our users receive from a collaborative and uniform mapping effort,” said Matt Johnson, CEO of Contour Innovations. “We will continue to add resources to ensure that Contour Innovations continues to push the boundaries in automated temporal and spatial mapping and Ray brings the expertise to go to the next level.”

Ray will be responsible for aquatic research using the ciBioBase System and providing technical mapping and research support for our empowered customers. He will also be a keystone piece in designing and evaluating new features and valuable tools provided by the BioBase automated mapping system. Ray will use his expertise to develop SOPs for and design mapping protocols for our customers’ unique mapping needs and to help maximize time on the water.
Ray has published the following selected list of articles related to submerged aquatic plant mapping and links to fish:

Valley, R.D. 2000. Effects of macrophyte structural heterogeneity and fish prey availability on age-0 largemouth bass foraging and growth. M.S. Thesis. Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Valley, R.D. and M.T. Bremigan. 2002. Effects of macrophyte bed architecture on largemouth bass foraging: implications of exotic macrophyte invasions. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 131(2):234-244
Valley, R.D. and M.T. Bremigan. 2002. Effects of selective removal of Eurasian watermilfoil on age-0 largemouth bass piscivory and growth in southern Michigan lakes. Journal of Aquatic Plant Management 40(2):79-87.
Valley, R.D., T.K. Cross, and P. Radomski 2004. The role of submersed aquatic vegetation as habitat for fish in Minnesota lakes, including the implications of non-native plant invasions and their management. MN DNR, Division of Fish and Wildlife, Special Publication No. 160.
Valley, R.D., M.T. Drake, and C.S. Anderson. 2005. Evaluation of alternative interpolation techniques for the mapping of remotely-sensed submersed vegetation abundance. Aquatic Botany 81:13-25.
Valley, R.D., and M.T. Drake. 2005. Accuracy and precision of hydroacoustic estimates of aquatic vegetation and the repeatability of whole-lake surveys: field tests with a commercial echosounder. MN DNR, Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Investigational Report No. 527.
Valley, R.D., W. Crowell, C. Welling, N. Proux. 2006. Effects of low dose applications of fluridone on submersed aquatic vegetation in a eutrophic Minnesota lake dominated by Eurasian watermilfoil and coontail. Journal of Aquatic Plant Management 44:19-25.
Valley, R.D. and M.T. Drake. 2007. What does resilience of a clear-water state in lakes mean for the spatial heterogeneity of macrophyte biovolume? Aquatic Botany 87:307-319.
Valley, R.D., M.D. Habrat, E. D. Dibble, and M.T. Drake. 2010. Movement patterns and habitat use of three declining littoral fish species in a north-temperate mesotrophic lake. Hydrobiologia 644:385-399.
Beck, M.W., L. Hatch, B. Vondracek, and R.D. Valley. 2010. Development of a macrophyte-based index of biotic integrity for Minnesota lakes. Ecological Indicators 5:968-979.
Heiskary, S and Valley, R.D. In press. Curly-leaf pondweed and interrelationships with water quality. MN DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife, Investigational Report No. 557.
Valley, R.D. and Heiskary, S. In preparation. Short-term declines in curly-leaf pondweed across a network of sentinel lakes in Minnesota: potential influences of snow depth and water temperature. To be submitted to Lake and Reservoir Management.

Ray’s most research interests include lake ecology with specific emphasis on the interaction between aquatic plants and water quality regimes.

He can be contacted at RayV@ContourInnovations.com

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:

Auto Blue Scale Bathymetry Mapping

Contour Innovations (CI) is announcing the addition of a new feature of our BioBase System. As many of you know, each trip uploaded to your account is processed for depths and plant canopy heights to automatically create maps and output the layered data in your interactive online account. From now on, depth contours will be displayed in blue scale after launch of our new blue scale image feature. When loading your vegetation layer, blue scale will disappear but transparent contour lines will display beneath the % biovolume output.

This feature is great for lake and pond managers that are interested in getting a quick assessment of any sized water body to understand where the deep spots are for diffuser placement and overall management. We still employ a TIN anlysis for accurately estimating total water volume. On a pay per upload plan, our customers can get this data quickly for as little as $100 per water body and in as short as 10 minutes. You collect the data with your low cost Lowrance HDS depth finder, upload it to a secure account from your computer, and the raw sonar is processed in the cloud in minutes. Images of the blue scale can be exported with ease to be included in management plans (images in this blog are direct exports from the BioBase System). State agencies are using the System for bathymetric output to update their existing lake maps provided to anglers. This is just another great feature added to the powerful BioBase System.

To further demonstrate the power of automation and centralization anyone that has already uploaded trips to the BioBase System can now get blue bathymetry for those uploads with little effort. To try it out, log into your account and click the interactive viewer for any trip. Using the REPROCESS tab, check “contours” and resend the trip to our servers. Within minutes you will get an email letting you know that your reprocess has been completed and blue scale will be provided for this trip. Using an online account there are no software updates or manual processing of older trips. Let our servers do the work. That’s what they’re there for. Anytime we add a new feature to BioBase, anything you’ve already uploaded to your account can be updated. It’s pretty cool stuff!

Please contact us with any questions at matt@ContourInnovations.com or 715.864.9347. Pond managers can contact our exclusive partner, Aquatic Eco-Systems (Orlando, FL) at mattr@aquaticeco.com or 407.462.4697. Let us know what you think!

BioBase Automated Mapping