How to bulk create Point Count sampling units

Owned by Michael Fitzgibbon (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 13, 2022 by Dianne Miller
3 min read

Go to the Bulk Uploader (https://data.pointblue.org/science/projectmanager/bulk_uploader), select your project (you will only see projects that you have access to).

Sampling units are defined in a hierarchy, with each level having 2 names: a short name (a brief, upper case identifier with no spaces) and a long name (a longer, descriptive name that can be the same as short name or contain more detail). The combination of short name and long name must be unique in your project. The standard hierarchy for Point Count is Study Area → Point Count Transect → Point Count Point. Study areas are how you organize your data for analysis or management. Some projects simply create a single study area the entire project. There must be at least one study area in every project. Transects are collections of points that get analyzed as statistical replicates. 

To use the tool:

  1. Choose the Add Sampling Units tab and select “Point Count”.

  2. Populate a csv file with the following fields. A template is available for download by selecting “Get a blank Template to Fill out.”

    1. Study Area Short Name (short name, required, no spaces)

    2. Study Area Name

      1. a longer, descriptive name that can be the same as short name or contain more detail

      2. not required but will ensure your sampling unit loads properly

      3. must be unique to the project when in combination with the short name

    3. Point Count Transect Short Name (short name, required, no spaces)

    4. Point Count Transect Name

      1. a longer, descriptive name that can be the same as short name or contain more detail

      2. not required but will ensure your sampling unit loads properly

      3. must be unique to the project when in combination with the short name

    5. Point Count Point Short Name (short name, required, no spaces)

    6. Point Count Point Name

      1. a longer, descriptive name that can be the same as short name or contain more detail

      2. not required but will ensure your sampling unit loads properly

      3. must be unique to the project when in combination with the short name

    7. Latitude (optional, in decimal degrees, WGS 84 datum)

    8. Longitude (optional, in decimal degrees, WGS 84 datum)

  3. Choose the csv file to upload; after successfully selecting a file, the name of the file will appear on the screen.

  4. If you have a GIS file ready that defines the area of your sampling unit, that can be uploaded as well. This can also be added later.

  5. Click the Process Sampling Units button. Errors, successes, and information about the batch run will be shown.

     
    If there were problems with the file, they will be identified in the error messaging (example shown here):

  6. To verify that the points uploaded correctly, go to Project Leaders (https://data.pointblue.org/apps/projectleaders), Sampling Units > Download, select the project, and open up the tree control – this should reflect the organization you just created.  If you added latitude / longitude values, select all and download GIS data to either ESRI Shape file or Google Earth (KML) and open the file in a GIS tool to make sure they are located and labeled correctly.

  7. To review previous batch loads for your project, select Batches, then click on an individual batch to expand the details.