Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Google Fusion Tables Tutorial: Displaying Facilities from TRI.NET This tutorial will introduce you to the following:

Obtaining Data from TRI.NET

Mapping TRI.NET quantitative attributes

Creating webmaps for sharing TRI.NET results

Part 1: Obtaining TRI.NET Data There are many resources for obtaining data from the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which documents annual releases of toxic chemicals from most industrial sources on an annual basis. The Toxics Release Inventory webpages provide extensive documentation on the process of data collection, strengths and weaknesses of the data, and ways that the data have been used to inform communities about industrial pollution. Of the tools available to search and study the TRI, TRI.NET provides the most extensive search and query options. Information on TRI.NET, the free software download, as well as examples of how to use it are available on the EPA website. To use the software, you will need to download it and install it on your computer. Once installed, you can query TRI.NET to identify facility specific information. Click Build Query, then click GROUPING variables to select the point location that you want, for example, for information on facility, you may want the name and address of the facility, and, importantly, you need the Latitude and Longitude fields checked, so that you can map the location information. Suppose I just want information for New Jersey, for 2005. I can change the “DATA” drop down menu to query the right range of years (if options are not available for other years, you can update your software to query more TRI data), and in the FILTERING variables, I can select Geography > New Jersey, and Year > 2005.

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Click OK, then “Run Query.” Depending on the query you specify, it may take some time for the software to

run. When the query is complete, click the send to Excel button to export the data to an Excel spreadsheet.

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Part 2: Mapping TRI.NET Quantitative Attributes

Step 1: Edit Downloaded Data

After your Excel file exports, open it to see what is contains. It should automatically open in Excel.

The current format is not suitable as an input in Google Fusion. You’ll need to first delete the extra header rows (as shown below, the top two rows have been deleted. To do this, simple select row one and two, right-click and choose delete).

Then, save your edited data as a .csv (Comma Separate Values) file. Excel will give you warning about the file format, but the transition to .csv file should go smoothly. Once it’s saved, close Excel. Step 2: Add Spreadsheet to Google Fusion To use Google Fusion Tables, you will need a Google Account. Google accounts are free, and you can register for them at Gmail.com. Once you have a Google Account, visit drive.google.com. Click Create, than Connect to More Apps, and search for Fusion Table. Once you find it, connect to it, then you can use this app in Google Drive. In Google Drive, click Create > Fusion Table. You will be prompted to upload a .csv file. Navigate to the file that you just created in the previous step, and upload it. Then, click Next >>, Next >>, and Finish.

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Step 3: Display Points

The spreadsheet that you downloaded and edited, should now appear as a Fusion Table (example below).

Click the Map of Latitude tab to display the point locations (an example of points for New Jersey in 2005 are shown below). You can click on the points to learn the attributes associated with each facility (displayed by lat/long).

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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There are more attributes in your data sheet than are displayed in Google Fusion Tables by default. To see more (or less), click “Change info window…” to select or unselect fields to change the pop-up information that is seen.

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Step 4: Change the Point Symbology A common way to illustrate the point symbology is to use graduated symbols. To change the symbol color, based on a criteria, click “Change feature styles.” Click Points > Marker icon, then click the buckets tab. Here you can select the quantitative column that you wish to map (e.g. Total Air Releases), and then you can select the break points for each color classification. Click “use this range” to show the point markets for all data points for the field that you want to map.

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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By clicking Legend > Automatic Legend, you can add a legend to your map, by checking “Show marker legend,” and Save.

By changing the symbol color, and adding a legend, you can improve the readability of your map, allowing you to sift more easily through numerous data points.

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Another useful way to display your data is to create a heat map. To create a heat map, just click heat map, and select the weight that you would like to visualize.

Drew University – Spatial Data Center Geographic Information Systems 2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge

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Part 3. Creating Web Maps to Share Your Data When you are done editing the web map that you would like to create. Then, click on the title to edit the title name to be descriptive of your work. Then, click Done (on the left side of your map). You can share either your Google Fusion Table, which includes the table and map, or you can share just the map (or both). To share just the map, select Tools > Publish, then copy the URL to share in an email or post on a website. For example, https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?q=select+col6+from+1I-d73Pr60QXGPo9FhuxNjSaWOj61kvLjm6sKXUpD+where+col8+%3E%3D+1+and+col8+%3C%3D+4833892.05&viz=MAP&h=false&lat=40.30594943851241&lng=-73.91540588378903&t=4&z=9&l=col6&y=2&tmplt=2&hml=TWO_COL_LAT_LNG To share the Google Fusion table, select Share in the upper right corner, and change the permission to allow others to view the document. Then, you will have access to a URL directly to your fusion tables. For example, https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1I-d73Pr60QXGPo9FhuxNjSaWOj61kvLjm6sKXUpD