Tutorial info missing spatial info

Community
1

Hi there,
I am a brand new user for Riskscape and am getting started with the tutorial (https://riskscape.org.nz/docs/intro/getting-started.html#getting-started).
Upon viewing the shapefiles for this in ArcGIS I notice they are missing spatial reference information. Using the define projection tool in Arc I have managed to project the Buildings_SE_Upolu shapefile in place (using WGS 1984 UTM Zone 2S - same as for the MaxEnv_All_Scenarios_50m.tif), however this has not worked for the Samoa_constituencies layer. I am interested to know what the correct coordinate system is for this layer, or better, if the above layers could be provided for the tut with spatial reference info I can get straight into using them for the Riskscape tut.

Cheers
Andrew W

2

Hi Andrew,

Thanks, we are aware of this issue with using ArcGIS and are looking into solutions.

The spatial reference information is included with the tutorial data, however, an interoperability issue appears to mean that ArcGIS is unable to load the projection information. The tutorial data works fine with other GIS software, like QGIS.

The spatial reference information for a shapefile is defined in the .prj file. Currently RiskScape writes the .prj file in a format compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards, e.g.
https://spatialreference.org/ref/epsg/wgs-84/ogcwkt/

However, it appears that ArcGIS prefers to read .prj files in their own ESRI format, e.g.
https://spatialreference.org/ref/epsg/wgs-84/esriwkt/

This issue appears to be a general interoperability issue between ESRI software and OGC-compliant GIS implementations, e.g.

The Samoa_constituencies layer is EPSG:4326. You can use the riskscape bookmark info FILEPATH to display more details about a file, including its coordinate reference system (CRS), e.g.

riskscape bookmark info Samoa_constituencies.shp

Location : file:///home/timbeale/code/rs/riskscape/examples/getting-started/Samoa_constituencies.shp
  Attributes  :
    the_geom[MultiPolygon[crs=EPSG:4326]]
    fid[Integer]
    NAME_1[Text]
    Region[Text]
  Axis-order  : long,lat / X,Y / Easting,Northing
  CRS code    : EPSG:4326
  CRS (full)  : GEOGCS["WGS 84", 
  DATUM["World Geodetic System 1984", 
    SPHEROID["WGS 84", 6378137.0, 298.257223563, AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]], 
    AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]], 
  PRIMEM["Greenwich", 0.0, AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]], 
  UNIT["degree", 0.017453292519943295], 
  AXIS["Geodetic longitude", EAST], 
  AXIS["Geodetic latitude", NORTH], 
  AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]
  Summarizing...
  Row count   : 43
  Bounds      : EPSG:4326 [-172.8041 : -171.3977 East, -14.0772 : -13.4398 North] (original)

Hope this helps.

Tim

3

Thank you Tim, much appreciated.
Cheers
Andrew W