Adding bathymetry data to the BIS geodatabase

Tip:

The following steps demonstrate how to manually add bathymetry data to the Bathymetry Information System (BIS). To add bathymetry data programmatically in an automated workflow, see the Add Bathymetry geoprocessing tool.

The Add Bathymetry tool establishes a link between your bathymetry datasets and the BIS geodatabase. The BIS supports raster and point bathymetry data. Supported raster data includes one- and two-band raster formats, provided that the first band contains depth or elevation information and the optional second band contains uncertainty information. Supported point data includes enterprise or file geodatabase point feature classes (multipoint features classes are not supported). The Bathymetry Solution references externally-stored raster and point data in a mosaic dataset, eliminating duplicate data storage between the geodatabase and the file system.

When adding data to the BIS, you can populate metadata fields associated with the datasets. Metadata can be populated for each dataset individually or for the entire group of datasets.

You can configure the metadata fields displayed for the Collection and Extended Metadata tabs on the Add Bathymetry dialog box by adding new fields, adding field drop-down values, and hiding fields. If you are adding Bathymetric Attributed Grids (BAGs), the fields on the Internal Metadata tab are read directly from the BAGs, are specific to the BAG dataset specification, and cannot be edited. These fields have stricter limitations in the types of field modifications you can make.

For more information, see Metadata display configuration.

All BIS users, both administrators and nonadministrators, need to have read and write access to the bathymetry dataset storage location. The bathymetry datasets need to be stored on a shared network path that conforms to the UNC naming convention (for example, \\MachineName\Folder\Data).

Note:

The following steps use the default metadata fields that are included with the Bathymetry Solution. If you have configured your own metadata fields, the user experience for these steps will be different.

1. Start ArcMap.
2. Click Customize > Toolbars > Bathymetry on the main menu to activate the Bathymetry toolbar if necessary.
3. Click the Add Bathymetry button on the Bathymetry toolbar.

   The Add Bathymetry dialog box appears. Initially, the list of bathymetry files to add is empty. The dialog box consists of three sections: a list of datasets displayed in a tree view, a preview window with a list of basic properties, and tabs for metadata and properties that can be associated with each dataset.

   

4. Click Add Dataset.

   The Select datasets to add dialog box appears.

   

   By default, the Show of type filter lists both raster and point datasets. Optionally, you can change the filter to exclusively show compatible raster formats or point feature classes.

5. Browse to the location that contains the bathymetry datasets you want to add.

   Note:

   If a folder connection has not been created for the location where your point or raster files are stored, create a folder connection. For more information, see Using folder connections.

6. Choose the datasets you want to add to the BIS geodatabase.

   You can use the Shift key to choose multiple datasets.

7. Click Add to add the datasets to the list.

   Note:

   If the datasets being added include rasters that are not in BAG format, the following message will appear:

   

8. Click OK to confirm adding the datasets.

   A green dot appears next to each newly added dataset in the tree view indicating that required parameters or fields need to be populated. Different dataset types require different information, so the presence of green icons will vary between BAGs, non-BAG rasters, and points.

9. If necessary, you can delete a dataset from the tree view:

   To remove a single item	Click the Remove Point Dataset or Remove Raster Dataset button next to the dataset.
   To remove multiple datasets from the list	Click the Remove Parent Folder button next to the parent folder.

10. To preview the chosen dataset, click the preview button in the preview section.

    Note:

    For point datasets, all required values must be specified on the Point Display tab before a preview can be generated.

11. Optionally review the information about the name, format, size, and location of the dataset chosen in the tree view.
12. Click the General tab.

    

    A green dot appears next to parameters or fields that are required for the chosen dataset type. Once a value has been specified for a required parameter or field, the dot disappears. This is further summarized at the tab level.

13. Click the Vertical Units drop-down arrow and choose the unit used by the current dataset.

    For BAG datasets, the Vertical Units option is automatically set to Meters pursuant to the BAG format specification.

    Tip:

    Optionally, you can set a value for Vertical Units at the parent node level (a folder path or the All Datasets path) in the dataset tree view for multiple datasets at a time. Since this property becomes automatically defined and is read-only for BAG datasets, the Vertical Units setting is unavailable for any parent nodes that only contain BAGs. For any parent nodes that contain multiple dataset types, BAG, non-BAG raster, and point datasets, the value defined will be applied to all datasets under that node except BAGs.

14. Click the Direction drop-down arrow, and choose the value used by the specified dataset.
    • Positive Up—For depths that are defined as positive values away from the center of the earth.
    • Positive Down—For depths that are defined as negative values toward the center of the earth.

    The direction indicates whether negative or positive values are used to represent depths. For BAG datasets, Direction is automatically set to Positive Up pursuant to the BAG format specification.

    Tip:

    Optionally, you can set a value for Direction at the parent node level (a folder path or the All Datasets path) in the dataset tree view for multiple datasets at a time. Since this property becomes automatically defined and is read-only for BAG datasets, the Direction setting is unavailable for any parent nodes that only contain BAGs. For any parent nodes that contain multiple dataset types, BAG, non-BAG raster, and point datasets, the value defined will be applied to all datasets under that node except BAGs.

15. If you are adding a point dataset, a polygon that represents the footprint of each dataset must also be indicated.
    1. Click the Footprint Polygon browse button and browse to the location of a polygon feature class that represents the bounding area of the point dataset.

       By default, the first record in the polygon feature class is used as the footprint. The record may contain a single or multipart polygon.

    2. If the polygon feature class you specify has more than one polygon, and you do not want to use the default first polygon, click the Selection Query browse button to define a selection query that will return a single record to use as the footprint area.

       If a selection query is not defined, the geometry of the first record in the attribute table will be used.

16. If you are adding a point dataset, click the Point Display tab.

    The contents of this tab are unavailable if the specified dataset type is not a point dataset. To visualize your point dataset inside of the BIS, a representative raster or proxy raster is automatically created. Some default values driving the creation of a representative raster are already provided. These are based on the height and width of the point dataset’s extent as well as an estimated point density.

    

17. Specify the Depth field from which the bathymetry values can be retrieved for the chosen point dataset.

    This can be the Shape field if the point dataset is z-enabled or any other floating point field contained in the attribute table of the point dataset. The values contained in this field will be used for the cell values of the representative raster being created. If there is only one field in the chosen dataset that is either floating point or double value, this field is automatically selected. Fields containing NULL values are automatically excluded from the drop-down list.

18. Specify the Cell size in native units for the point dataset’s coordinate system at which the representative raster should be created.

    A smaller cell size and a larger number of rows and columns will convey a greater amount of detail from your point dataset; however, specifying too small a value can also have an adverse effect on the visual quality of the representative raster that will be created.

    Tip:

    Optionally, you can specify the size of the representative raster and the number of columns and rows it should have. Only one value needs to be defined; the other two will automatically be calculated. The default cell size, which also drives the default number of columns and rows, is calculated as: Default Cell size =√((Min(W,H))^2/(# points)) where Min(W,H) is the shorter of the width and height of the point feature class’ extent, and # points is the number of points contained in the point feature class.

    You can fine tune the creation of the proxy raster by entering several values and regenerating the preview to see what offers the best representation of your point features. For best results, consider using a cell size that is consistent with the average spacing between points in your point dataset.

19. Click the Collection tab.

    

20. If you want the new datasets to be part of an existing collection, click the Collection drop-down arrow and choose a collection.

    Note:

    A dataset is not required to be part of a collection. When a collection is chosen, the dialog box displays the fields and values associated with that collection. Field values displayed are for reference only and cannot be edited from this tab.

21. Click the Extended Metadata tab.

    

22. Choose metadata field values as necessary.
23. If you are adding a BAG dataset, click the Internal Metadata tab to review BAG metadata.

    

24. Optionally click View Metadata XML to view a complete list of the BAG’s nonparsed internal metadata in an XML metadata viewer with expandable and collapsible levels. This is for display purposes only; metadata cannot be edited in the viewer.
25. Click OK to begin loading the datasets into the BIS geodatabase.

In addition to loading data into the BIS geodatabase, the Add Bathymetry tool will, by default, calculate statistics and create pyramids on the import rasters, create proxy rasters for any point datasets, and create overviews and calculate statistics for the Bathymetry Data Index.

For more information about skipping some of these steps, see Modifying advanced BIS settings.

When the bathymetry data has finished loading, a dialog box appears indicating that the datasets were added successfully.