The map in Ecobot Collector is where your survey meets the ground. This article shows you how to see the boundary uploaded in Ecobot Manager, turn on reference layers like NWI wetlands and SSURGO soils, check your GPS accuracy, and map polygons, lines, points of interest and photos as you walk the site. Download a region first, and all of it works offline.
Open the map
Open your survey in Collector and tap the map icon at the top right. The map opens on the satellite base map, centered on your survey. The controls down the right side of the screen are:
- Compass: tap it to turn the map north-up again.
- Location accuracy (for example, ±6.6m): tap it to see your live location data, described below.
- Search: find points, photos, features, or any address or coordinates.
- Layers: show or hide your survey data, reference layers, boundaries and downloaded regions.
- My location: center the map on where you are.
Tap Add Feature at the bottom right to add polygons, lines, points of interest and photos, or to download a region for offline use.
See your survey boundary
A boundary uploaded to the survey in Manager appears on the Collector map automatically, as a dashed outline labeled with the boundary's name. To upload one, see Mapping in Ecobot Manager.
To show or hide boundaries:
- Tap the Layers icon.
- Tap the Boundaries tab.
- Under Survey Boundaries, turn Show on map on or off. The color square on the right shows the outline's color.
Tip: upload your boundary in Manager before you head to the field, so it's already on the map when you open the survey in Collector.
Download a region for offline use
Cell coverage on site is never guaranteed. A downloaded region saves the map for an area to your device, so the map loads quickly and every mapping tool below keeps working with no signal.
- While you still have Wi-Fi or cellular data, open the map and move it to your survey area. To jump there, tap Search and enter an address or coordinates.
- Tap Add Feature, then Download Region.
- Confirm the area you want to save.
Your saved areas are listed under Downloaded Regions, on the Boundaries tab of Map Layers.
Choose your map layers
Tap the Layers icon to open Map Layers. It has three tabs.
Survey
Show or hide the data you've collected in this survey: Survey Points, Photos, POIs, Polygons and Lines. Each row shows how many are visible, for example 7 of 7. Tap the arrow on a row to show or hide items one by one.
Layers
Choose a base map and turn on the reference layers you need. Each reference layer is drawn in the color shown next to its name.
- Base map: Satellite, Streets or Outdoors
- Hydrology: NWI Wetlands and HUC8 Watersheds
- Soils: SSURGO Soils and MLRA
- Boundaries: US States, US Counties, Cities and USACE Districts
- Land survey: Section, Township and Range
Boundaries
Your survey boundaries and downloaded regions, as described above.
Check your live location data
Tap the location accuracy button (the one showing a value like ±6.6m) to open Live Location Data. It shows your location provider, latitude, longitude, altitude, accuracy, fix quality, PDOP and number of satellites.
A warning icon marks values that may be below USACE standards for your region. Your phone's built-in GPS doesn't report fix quality, PDOP or satellite count. To see them, and to improve your accuracy, connect a supported GNSS receiver.
Add features
Tap Add Feature to add a polygon, line, point of interest or photo.
Polygons and lines
Polygons and lines work the same way, except that a polygon closes back on itself. Tap Polygon or Line, then map it whichever way suits the site:
- Add vertices as you go. Walk to each corner and tap Vertex to add a vertex where you're standing. Or line the crosshair up on the map and tap Vertex to add it there.
- Drop flags as you go. Tap Drop Flag to mark and name a spot while you're drawing, so you can keep track of places along the boundary without stopping.
- Stream the boundary. Set the distance between vertices in the box next to Stream (for example, 15 ft), tap Stream, and walk the boundary. Collector adds vertices as you move, so you don't need to touch the screen until you're done.
To fix a misplaced vertex, use the undo and redo arrows. When you've finished, tap Done, then name the feature and choose its type, such as Wetland. You can also name any vertex or flag afterwards.
Watch how to walk a boundary and name flags:
Points of interest
Tap Point of Interest to drop a single point where you're standing or at the crosshair. Give it a name and choose a type:
- Sample point
- Vegetation plot
- Photo point
- Monitoring station, then groundwater well, piezometer, staff gauge, rain gauge or data logger
- Structure
- Observation
- Other
- Flag
To drop several points one after another, leave Add another point on. Then tap Save.
Photos
Tap Take Photo to take a photo from the map. It's placed where you're standing, and you can give it a title straight away. A photo taken from the map is like any other photo in Collector: it syncs with your survey, and you can favorite, caption and export it the same way.
Find something on the map
Tap the Search icon, then choose a tab for what you're looking for:
- Points: your survey points, such as A1 and A2.
- Photos: the photos in this survey.
- Features: polygons, lines and points of interest.
- Places: any address or coordinates. Use it to jump to a survey area before you download a region.
Tap a result to center the map on it.
View, edit or delete a feature
Tap a polygon or line on the map to see its details: its name, its type, and its area and perimeter (or length, for a line).
- To move, add or remove vertices, or rename the feature, tap Edit Feature.
- To delete the feature, tap the red trash icon.
Back in the office
Everything you map in Collector syncs to your survey. In Manager, you can review features on the map, build map views, export maps as a PDF or PNG, and download features as a shapefile, file geodatabase or GeoJSON. See Mapping in Ecobot Manager.