WEB MAP sERVICE GFMS
GFM products are fully accessible via GIS environment or web browser. It is possible to access the WMS layers using any WMS client viewer, such as Quantum GIS (QGIS) or ESRI ArcMap.
GFM offers WMS that supports temporal requests (WMS-T).
GFM relies on GeoServer as technology in order to provide a WMS-T service for the global flood monitoring product. GeoServer allows users to display the needed spatial information making maps available in a variety of output formats. OpenLayers, a free mapping library, is integrated into GeoServer, making map generation quick and easy. GeoServer is built on GeoTools, an open source Java GIS toolkit [2].
GFM WMS-T is freely accessible at the following URL: http://193.170.252.77/geoserver/global_flood_monitoring/wms?version=1.1.0
The service is designed to display one single global layer per day.
QGIS
1) Launch QGIS
2) In the browser panel right-click on the WMS/WMTS icon
2) In the Create a New WMS/WMTS Connection window insert a title for your WMS connection in the Name section and paste the GloFAS WMS URL
http://193.170.252.77/geoserver/global_flood_monitoring/wms?version=1.1.0) then click OK.
3) At this point in the browser panel under the 'WMS/WMTS icon you should see the title for the WMS connection that you have entered. Click on the arrow near the WMS connection to open it. You should see the GFM WMS layers as follow:
4) To view the layers simply drag and drop the layer icon into the Layers panel underneath the Browser panel, the layer will be displayed in the Map Panel as showed:
5) In the Layer panel you can see the legend associated to each layer underneath the name of the layer
6) Some of the layers are queryable, in order to retrieve the info for the layer:
Select the layer from the Layers tab (the layer name needs to be highlighted) In the main toolbar locate the info button Click on any feature of the layer in the Map Panel and the Identify result window will open with the information for the layer
Further documentation on how to use QGIS can be found in this training manual.
ArcGIS/ArcMap
Using ESRI ArcGIS/ArcMap, you can load a WMS-T directly into your existing map.
Quick start guide (ArcMap v.10.0.2)
1) Launch ArcMap
2) In the Catalog panel (on the right hand side of the screen) click on the Add WMS Server icon
3) In the Add WMS Server window insert the GFM WMS URL (http://193.170.252.77/geoserver/global_flood_monitoring/wms?version=1.1.0) in the URL section then click on the Get Layers button to retrieve the WMS layers.
After the retrieving of the layers click on the OK button to close the window:
4) At this point in the Catalog panel you should see all the available GFM layers. To view the layers simply drag and drop the layer icon into the Table of Contents panel on the left of the screen.
In the Table of Contents you can see the legend associated with each layer by right clicking the name of the layer and then select the legend from the context menu.
5) Some of the layers are queryable, in order to retrieve the info for the layer:
Select the layer from the Table of Contents (the layer name needs to be highlighted) In the main toolbar locate the info button. Click on any feature of the layer in the Map Panel and the Identify result window will open with the information for the layer
6) Is it possible to request different forecast time using the time slider button. This will open a time slider window, moving the cursor will call different forecast times for the selected layer:
(a) Open the Time Slider Window and a popup will appear
(b) Go to Options (in the popup) and modify the following inputs: display date format = yyyy-MM-dd, display time format = none
(c) Now, using the Time slider you can load the GFM WMS layers specified in the available range
Further documentation on how to use WMS with ESRI ArcGIS/ArcMap can be found here.
