What we like to demonstrate right now would be defining your project area within i-Tree
Canopy. So, in order to do this first we go to our i-Tree tools.org website which is indicated
up top. Once you are at the site, scroll down and go to i-Tree Canopy. The i-Tree Canopy
window will open and it will allow us to do several different things. We can either load
an ESRI shape file, which requires the knowledge of GIS, and we will show you that in another
video, or we can go down here and load a previous study that we might have already completed.
But in this case here, we are going to quickly show you how to define a new project area.
And that would be the municipal boundaries of any community or geographic area that we
want to define. So what you do is simply click on the defined project area and what it's
going to do is bring up a dialog box here that shows the entire world. So what this
is, it is actually a Google Maps image, so what we want to do is go right over here and
we have the opportunity to type in the name of our location or the name the municipality
that we want to zoom in on. So, in this case lets take a look at Worcester Massachusetts.
It's an area that's heavily impacted by the Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation. Let's
take a look at Worcester. So what I will do is type that in - Worcester, Massachusetts
and click on Find Location, and it will do is to zero in on our area and you'll see that
within the center area we see Worcester and the surrounding towns. in this case here you'll
be able to look at areas the north and east and west that have also been impacted by the
beetle. Let's zoom out a little bit because I know my geographic bounds are little extended
on this on this map here and we will be able to cover most of those boundaries of the city.
We can clearly define the area but I don't know where the city boundaries and municipal
boundaries of Worcester are. I know that they are somewhere around these edges. So what
I os is generally go over and within a new browser I open up Google Maps. So I go to
maps.google.com and at what I've done is I've already gone ahead and typed Worcester MA.
What this does, it brings up Worcester Mass. and in this case here we see the geographic
boundaries or the municipal boundaries of Worcester indicated. So now I'm able to actually
see where those boundaries are and then the object now would be to utilize those boundaries
over in our i-Tree Canopy study area. So what you have to do is simply go back and put my
two windows side by side. You can see my first window and my second window so I'm able now
to look back and I go up to this tool up here and it says it's a shape tool and what it
allows us to do is actually defined the edges of the boundaries around Worcester. So what
I'll do is go back to my first point up here and I see that it's near Interstate 190 over
here up in this area and what I have to do is just get a general point location. Then
when I know that this is the approximate top of my area and then adjust my mouse and click
all the way down and basically following what I've seen on the other screen. I have the
ability to zoom in and move along. But in this case but I'm just going to show you,
for simplify sake, over here and here. And then we head along here by here and go over
to here and we go through the airport and then what we do is go over here should now
what it basically saves my Worcester area clearly defined on my map. You can see that
it mimics what we see over here on our original Google Maps we've gotten off the web. So what
I do is go back to my tree canopy and I just click finish. What it does then, is it transfers
those boundaries and you can see here the map of Worcester, clearly identified. That
is going to be our study area. So what we've been able to establish the geographic municipal
boundaries of the study area and now we are able to begin the process of looking at our
canopy study of Worcester, MA.