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Edit site and area boundaries

A Site and each of its Site Areas can carry a polygon boundary that outlines its extent. You set a boundary by entering its geometry as Well-Known Text (WKT) and choosing the coordinate system the geometry is in — Erde stores the boundary in that system and reprojects it to WGS84 only for map display. Because boundaries are usually digitized from GIS layers, survey plats, or regulatory shapefiles, they often arrive in State Plane or UTM rather than longitude/latitude, so you can keep them in their native system instead of reprojecting by hand. Setting a boundary does not require an ArcGIS key — but seeing it drawn on a map does (see Maps).

Before you start
  • Permission: You need permission to edit the Site.
  • Prerequisites: You need the boundary geometry as a WKT POLYGON, and you need to know which coordinate system it is in. The matching coordinate system must exist in reference data — Erde ships a set (WGS 84, NAD83, the UTM zones, …) and you can add others.
Coordinate system vs. the site's representative point

The boundary's coordinate system is independent of the Site's single representative point (its map pin), which is always entered as longitude/latitude. A Site can have a lat/long point and a State Plane boundary at the same time.

Set a site boundary​

  1. Go to Data Management → Sites, then select the Site. The Site opens on its Overview tab.
  2. In the Boundary section, select Add Boundary (or Edit Boundary if one already exists). The boundary editor opens.
  3. In Coordinate System, choose the system your geometry is in. It defaults to the Site's working coordinate system (or WGS 84) — change it if your WKT is in a different system.
  4. In WKT Polygon, paste the polygon geometry — for example POLYGON((-90 30, -90 31, -89 31, -89 30, -90 30)) for WGS 84, or easting/northing pairs for a projected system.
  5. Select Save. Save stays disabled until both a coordinate system is selected and the box contains text.

Set a site-area boundary​

  1. On the Site, select the Site Areas tab.
  2. In the row for the area, select the map icon (its tooltip reads Add boundary, or Edit boundary if one already exists).
  3. Choose the Coordinate System, paste the WKT Polygon geometry, and select Save.

Clear a boundary​

In the boundary editor, select Clear Boundary, then confirm.

danger

Clearing a boundary removes it immediately and cannot be undone.

Result​

The Site or Site Area now has a stored boundary. On the Map tab it can be toggled with Show Boundaries, and each Site Area boundary is shown in that area's color.

Troubleshooting​

SymptomCauseResolution
Save stays disabledThe WKT Polygon box is empty, or no coordinate system is selectedChoose a coordinate system and paste a WKT POLYGON before saving
Saving reports the geometry is invalidThe WKT is malformed or not a polygonCheck the WKT — the ring must close (first point equals last) and self-intersecting "bowtie" rings are rejected
Saving reports the coordinates are out of rangeThe coordinate system is set to a geographic one (WGS 84, NAD83) but the WKT holds projected easting/northingSelect the WKT's actual coordinate system (for example the right UTM zone or State Plane), or reproject the geometry to longitude/latitude — for a geographic system, longitude must be between -180 and 180 and latitude between -90 and 90
The boundary doesn't appear on a mapNo ArcGIS key is configured, or Show Boundaries is offConfigure an ArcGIS key (see Maps) and enable Show Boundaries on the Map tab
  • Manage sites — the Site and its Site Areas.
  • Maps — viewing Sites, Locations, and boundaries on a map.