Creating and Publishing Feature and Heat maps with Google Fusion Tables

CLICK ON THIS TO WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO DEMO FOR THIS POST


A Feature is represented as a Point, Line or Polygon in a Vector layer.
Task
To create a point feature map using Google Fusion Tables. The post will demonstrate how to create a point feature map with a KML file containing the XY locations and other attributes of schools within a vicinity.
Things to note
- User must have a google account to access Google Fusion Tables.
- User can log in with gmail account credentials.
-User must be on an internet connection.

Procedure
Launch the google drive. Go to New > More > Google Fusion Tables


This page will open. Click on Choose File and navigate to where the input file is. Google Fusion Table accepts CSV, TXT, TSV, spreadsheets and KML. The demo is using a KML file- Schools.kml. Click Next.


A view of the table will open. Note that the column names are on row 1. Click Next.


on the next page, fill in the details and click Finish



Fusion Tables will create the Table as shown below.


Google Fusion Table automatically creates a Map of the geometry or coordinates from the table. To create the Features map, Click on the red + button by the Map of geometry > Add map


The Point Features map is created as Map2.


User can then click on the Change features styles to style the features on the map. The demo uses the Fixed option > small yellow icons


The message “Map style saved” appears and the Point features are now small yellow icons. Further customization could be done with the map.


Another option is to change the info window of the points. Click on the Change Info window (red boxed) and do any changes needed on the Info window display.


Click on any of the points on the map to view the changes made in the Info window.


Creating the Heat map

Click on the Heat map and adjust the parameters to suit the analysis. For the demo, the user wants to see where the concentration of schools are.


The radius parameter is adjusted from 10 on the previous screenshot to 19. Observe that the intensity has gone up. Likewise opacity of the map can be adjusted.


The Final step is to publish the map. Click on the red + button by Map2 > Publish


The Publish page is generous. User can send a link and/or embed the map in a website.



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