Using our previous risk map allows us to create planned burn lines to upload to a mobile device to guide us as we conduct our incendiary runs.
This tutorial is based on using ”Avenza maps” smart phone map application to view your flight lines. Whilst there are many other field GIS applications Avenza is free and easy to use and used by many people for this type of application.
Using our fire risk map as the base for planning our flight line. First add a new shape file layer, this will be our new planned burn line:
Save and the new layer in a place you will not forget and name it something descriptive. It will appear in the layers window:
Double click on the new layer to access the symbology editor and give the new layer a bright and distinct color,.
With the new layer selected press the ‘Toggle Editing’ Button.
Now select the “”Ädd Line Feature” tool to enable drawing of your flight line:
In the example below I have used the cursor to add a flighline that follows previous burns where there where significant Gaps.
Once you have drawn your flight line right click on your mouse will stop the editing and ask if you want to add attribute íd information for the line. You could add information or just click OK.
You can now stop the editing process by pressing the “Toggle Editing” button again. It will ask if you want to save the changes. Make sure you press “Save”.
Now you have your new map with a saved flight line you need to export this to a PDF for loading into AVENZA. Use the Import/Export > Export to PDF tool as shown below.
When you export it make sure you select “Create Geospatial PDF”. This will result in a PDF map that AVENZA will be able to plot your location on.
Where you save this now is important. If you can save it to some cloud storage like Drop Box or Google drive then loading it into Avenza is very easy. The other way to get it onto Avenza is by copying it onto an external SD card if your phone has one.
Once you have saved your PDF map and have Avenza installed on your phone, open Avneza and add a new map using the button shown below.
Select the button for adding a map.
Then select the location you want to add the map from:
Navigate to you new PDF map and it will load into Avenza. The example below is a map of Broome with fire frequency history and a blue dot showing my current location.
