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Step by step, how-to instructions for navigating and using the Savannah Area GIS viewer.

Help Document for

WWW.SAGIS.ORG

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SAGIS

Savannah Area GIS is focused on providing access to Geospatial data in a standardized format to all interested parties.

The SAGIS mission is to consolidate geospatial information into one central location, providing a one stop access point to

information. SAGIS works with the City of Savannah, Chatham County, The Metropolitan Planning Commission and a

variety of other non-profit and private organizations to maintain standards, manage data, educate and coordinate

projects that affect the greater Savannah-Chatham County area.

SAGIS can be directly located on the web at http://www.thempc.org/Dept/Sagis

Overview

The SAGIS viewer is an Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) based internet map portal created by SAGIS

staff. The site is intended to serve the general public’s need for map based information in an efficient manner via the

internet. It has been designed to be easy to use yet highly functional. This document provides complete, step by step,

how-to instructions for using the Savannah Area GIS viewer.

Quick Links; Click Here for:

Available Layers

Draw/Measure

Identify

Imagery Help

Flood Zoning

Legend Help

Parcel Search

Pictometry Imagery

Street View

Printing

Zoning

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Viewer Operation

Upon first loading the SAGIS Map Viewer, you will see the following screen, after accepting the User Agreement.

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Toolbar Functions:

Note that all icons can be ‘moused over’ (simply hold the cursor, without clicking, above an icon) to indicate their

function, as shown below. When a tool is activated after clicking it to start the tool, its background will turn blue, as

shown in the second screenshot below. The mouse cursor icon will also change to indicate the active tool.

Zoom

Out

Full

Extent

Previous Map

Zoom Identify

Layer List

&

Legend

Bookmarks

Draw and

Measure

Parcel

Search

Print Pictometry

Home

Help

Contact

Us

Zoom

In

Next Map

Zoom

Move

Map

Address

Search

Basemap

Switcher

Street View

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Section 1: Basic viewing & navigation tools

The default action for the cursor when first opening the site is the Move Map function, which can also be activated any

time with the Move Map button, symbolized by the hand ( ) on the toolbar at top of the viewer. The Move Map

function allows the user to move around the map in any desired direction and at a constant scale. By left clicking (then

holding, to “grab” the map) and then moving the mouse in the desired direction and then letting go of the button.

There are 3 ways to zoom in and out of the map. First, the scroll wheel on your mouse will serve as a zoom tool, with a

forward motion zooming in and backwards motion zooming out. In the upper left portion of the screen, there is a sliding

zoom tool that can be clicked to move in and out. Also, in the Menu bar, the first 3 icons are the Zoom In ( ),

Zoom Out ( ) and Full Extent ( ) buttons. The Zoom In tool allows the user to draw a box around a specific

area and zoom straight to that area of interest. The Zoom Out tool will amplify the zoom out scale. The Full Extent

button zooms back to the original extent of the map, which fills the window with Chatham County and its immediate

area.

A very useful shortcut for zooming in and out of the map are the keyboard shortcuts. On www.sagis.org, these are:

Zoom in: Hold the SHIFT key and click and drag on the screen. A red box appears and the viewer will zoom to

that extent.

Zoom out: Hold both the SHIFT and CTRL keys, then click and drag on the screen.

Another way to navigate around the map is the Overview Map function, located in the bottom right corner (see below).

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The Overview can be used to navigate around the county by grabbing the red box, showing the extent and location of

the current map, with your cursor, and moving it. To minimize the Overview Map, click the small arrow in the lower right

corner of the window (circled in red, above).

Aerial Imagery and Basemaps

In order to view Aerial imagery, click the Basemaps button in the upper right corner to display a dropdown menu of

different years of aerial photography backgrounds. Currently, 2008, 2011 and 2013 imagery acquired by SAGIS is

available for Chatham County, and global imagery of differing dates is available from ESRI, labeled World Imagery. There

are also different types of basemaps that may be displayed: Streets, Topographic, Gray, or ‘SAGIS Data Only’ which

turns off all basemaps to show a blank background. The Basemaps menu is shown below. Click a Basemap to activate it.

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Example of the Gray basemap, which is useful to make map layer colors stand out:

Layer Legends and Turning Map Layers On and Off (Layer List On/Off)

Under the Layer List On/Off section in the upper right corner of screen, a list of available layers can be activated, as

shown in the screenshot below. All of the available GIS layers are listed in this section. The box on the left of each layer

can be checked to draw that layer in the viewer. Note that each layer has its own draw scale- for instance Buildings will

only begin to draw at the 1:24,000 scale. Also note that the layers will draw in the listed order, so that the ones at the

top of the list will draw last (or on top of other layers)

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Metadata on layers:

FEMA Flood Zone Designations Legend- https://www.fema.gov/floodplain-management/flood-zones#0

The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is mapped to wetland class by the Fish and Wildlife Service

(http://www.fws.gov/nwi/).

For questions on other layers, contact SAGIS.

Bookmarks

The Bookmarks tool stores shortcuts to different map locations and zoom levels. Several areas are provided as

preloaded bookmarks. Additionally, when a location is discovered that a user will want to return to, this tool can be

employed. Simply click the tool, and it opens the Bookmarks dialogue on the left side of the screen:

Click the Add Bookmark button, then type in a name for the bookmarked area. This bookmark will be saved in your

browser’s cache, so is not permanent. Clearing browser cache will restore the preloaded bookmarks and remove any

user-created bookmarks.

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• Address Search

The Address Search bar, shown below, provides a convenient street address locator. For best results do not include the

street name suffix such as “st” or “rd”. Leave them out, following the example provided, 110 E State.

You may also use street intersections, such as “State and Abercorn” or “MLK and Bay” or “Broad and 31" or to be more

specific “Broad and 31st Ln” or “… and 31st St”.

Section 2: Printing

The Print tool opens the Print dialogue (below) from the Menu bar.

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As described in the Directions, you may optionally enter a map title, and if doing so, you then must click “Set Map Title”

to set the map title. Then, either click the Print button for a standard 8.5x11” portrait orientation PDF printout, or click

the dropdown menu ( ) for additional page size and format options shown below (landscape/portrait and PDF/jpeg):

Printing result example:

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Section 3: Functions/Tools for Viewer

Parcel Search

There are three functions helpful for interaction with the SAGIS layers.

The Parcel Search tool opens the Parcel Search dialogue.

The default search is a text search (it is also accessed by the first button, the Magnifying Glass, in upper right hand

corner of Parcel Search dialogue), which can be performed on Owner Name, Address, or PIN (Parcel Identification

Number). Select the drop down option desired from the Select By menu, and enter the text string or numbers in the

provided format. Note that PIN’s have either a letter or a space in the 5th location of the sequence. Letters are not case

sensitive. Use the clear button to clear the selection and start over.

Example searching by address:

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Note that searching by address, you should omit any street name suffix, like “St” for street or “Rd” for road. The reason

is that if you use a street name suffix it must match the abbreviation exactly. Spelling the suffix will NOT WORK. Street is

ST, road is RD, etc., but typing “110 E State Street” will not work, 0 results will return. Complex street suffices such as

boulevard would also need the correct abbreviation. Therefore, the address search system is designed so the street

name suffix is not required. For best results, do not include the street name suffix in your Search.

For north, east, south and west, letters N E S W can be used, such as 110 E State for the MPC office building. However,

again you as a user may want to omit these. Search will find both 110 E State St and 110 W State St, if the compass

letter is omitted. If “110 State St” is searched for, both 110 E State St and 110 W State St will be presented in the

results, as shown in the screenshot below.

Results: Once a parcel or parcels are found a list of them is displayed. The parcel(s) are also highlighted in purple.

Hovering over an address in the Results will display a blue pin over its location in the middle of its parcel, such as for the

110 E State St parcel above.

Clicking on a parcel ONLY while the Parcel tool window is OPEN will display the Parcel Information Popup, as shown

below. If the Parcel is already shaded purple just click it once to see the popup info window. If you click a parcel that

isn’t shaded, the first click will shade it purple. The second click will then display the Parcel Information popup window.

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Notice that the Zoning link is highlighted in yellow to indicate an active link to Zoning Descriptions via the Metropolitan

Planning Commission zoning page.

Also, the Flood Zone link navigates to a Flood Zone classification and description table.

Clicking the PIN number (2-0032 -63-001 in example above) at the top Parcel Information window or the Board of

Assessors Property Card link at bottom of the window launches a new browser window to the Chatham County Board of

Assessors website and the associated property card:

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To search surrounding properties graphically, 2 methods are provided.

A graphical search (the middle button, the ‘Pencil’ in the title bar, see below) allows the user to graphically select the

desired parcels via a single point, line rectangle or polygon.

Selecting one of the buttons above first, draw a shape touching all the features you wish to select.

Identify

Another way to query layers is the Identify icon on the toolbar ( ). This tool will query any and ALL visible layers, set

in the Layer List, and produces a dynamic result that accesses all fields of a particular layer. Note that if you click on a

location where several layers exist it will display results for all visible layers (for example, where you click on a Parcel, but

if you also have Zoning and Geology turned on, it will show results for each of these layers). The “Back” and “Forward”

buttons, as circled below, allow you to page through multiple layer results. This is also shown in the examples below.

Several example of information available in various layers are shown below:

Example of Identify on Aldermanic Districts:

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Example of Identify on High School Districts:

Example of Identify on Telecommunication Towers.

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Example of Identify on Zoning layer. NOTICE the arrows and results 4 of 4 in the title bar. This was the same result list

from clicking on the same location as Telecommunication Towers above. Municipality and Building layers were also

turned on and are results in the list, totaling 4 layers with results from clicking Identify on this particular map location.

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The final screenshot above, at the same map location as Telecommunication Towers and Zoning. The Back and Forward

arrows to browse to each layer’s Identify Results page are circled above.

Note that these Identify results are not filtered for commonly used results, but contain the full field list.

Draw/Measure

The Draw and Measure tool ( ) tool opens the Draw and Measure dialogue shown below:

From here, a user can add points, text, or other shapes to the map session for labeling and printing purposes. Color and

text font can be adjusted. Note that double clicking will end graphic drawing.

The graphics toolbar also provides a way to measure both area and distance. Simply select the Add Measurements

check box and select the desired units before drawing your graphic.

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We can see in the example above that a rather arbitrary shape has been drawn, in order to measure Area in Acres. Note

that you may change the text size of the measurement labels and also choose a level of transparency for any graphic,

which is particularly useful for drawing Polygon shapes.

You may right-click on any Graphic or Text Label to change its geometry or what the text content is, and also to change

its color, size, and transparency, after you have drawn a graphic or placed a text label:

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In the screenshot below, we have warped the geometry, by making the Polygon graphic smaller, rotating it, and slightly

compressing its width. The transparency has also been decreased.

You can also Delete or Move graphics and text. In the example above we deleted the Measurement text label as it was

no longer accurate, because Measurements do not auto-update.

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In the example above here, additional Editing options are demonstrated. Text alignment can be changed in addition to

content, size, rotation and placement. An Arrow and Circle with transparency are also demonstrated in the screenshot.

The Clear Drawing button will clear off all graphics.

• Street View

The Street View button ( ) activates the Google© Street View™ tool. The mouse cursor will become a Street View

pointer icon. Once this tool is activated, when you click on the map, a new window or tab (depending on user

preferences) will open in the browser. The Google Street View will open, where you clicked on the map. (If there is

Street View for this location available.) SAGIS is not in any affiliated with or endorsed by Google, and the Street View

window functions independently from the main SAGIS map viewer. This tool is merely shortcut to Street View and the

new window behaves as if you navigated to the location manually in Google Maps.

• Pictometry

The Pictometry button ( ) activates the Pictometry tool. Once this tool is activated, when the user clicks on the map,

a new window or tab (depending on user preferences) will open in the browser. In this tab, a new viewer will load, which

displays oblique aerial photography (Pictometry imagery) for the years it has been collected in Chatham County. The

imagery will be centered on where the user clicked on the map.

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This imagery is similar to Google’s 45-degree view or Bing Maps Bird’s Eye view, in that it allows you to see the imagery

from an angle, and rotate in the four compass directions (north, east, south and west). It is also allows you to zoom in

very close on the imagery to a fine scale. You can zoom in and out of imagery with the mouse wheel, like the main

viewer, or click +/- buttons in the upper left of the viewer window. Left-clicking the mouse and dragging the map moves

your position, as in the main viewer.

The screenshot below shows the whole viewer:

In the upper-left corner, the rotator control allows you to rotate imager north/east/south/west.

Two examples below show imagery of the Talmadge Bridge, from the north and the south. Notice how you can see

under the bridge, because the imagery is captured from an angle.

Example of Pictometry imagery from the North:

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Example of Pictometry imagery from the South:

The Select Date tool allows you to view imagery from the following years. Click the dropdown menu to view the

available years as in the next screenshot, where 2013 imagery of Forsyth Park is being displayed.

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Notice if we select year 2005, we can see that the band shell is still under construction:

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The Layers button ( ) can turn on the parcel layer and street name and street address layers, as shown below:

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The Print tool ( ) creates a printable PDF with an optional map title.

The Address Search tool locates a street address such as 110 E State St, Savannah GA. Note that city and state are now

required in this format.

The Go to Coordinates search tool navigates to a set of coordinates, such as 32, -81.1.

Please contact Kevin MacLeod (macleodk@thempc.org) or Lara Hall(halll@thempc.org) with any questions or suggestions regarding

this document.