Environment Roam

This help page explains how to use Environment Roam to view and print maps of land cover and land use data.

• Start Environment Roam
• Overview
• Navigating in Environment Roam
• Searching for a location
• Understanding map views
• Selecting a basemap
• View legend
• Customising opacity
• Get feature information
• Drawing Tools
• Printing
• Map Information
• My Maps
• Measurement Tools
• View 2 maps side by side
• Comparing datasets over time

Start Environment Roam

When you log in to Digimap you will be presented with the Digimap Home page.

Choose Environment then Environment Roam:

Overview

Environment Roam enables you to view and print maps of land cover maps, with Ordnance Survey background maps, at predefined scales.

• To hide the left panel, select Collapse Sidebar.
• To reduce or increase the size of the panel drag the arrows button .

Navigating in Environment Roam

You can navigate in Environment Roam by panning (moving the map in any direction) and by zooming in and out of the map.

To pan you can:

• Click and drag the map i.e. click and hold the left mouse button, then drag to move the map.

To zoom in/out of the map, you can:

• Double click to zoom in
• Use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in or out.
• Use the zoom slider bar to zoom in or out:

• Click the plus sign to zoom in and click the minus sign to zoom out.
• Click and drag the blue marker to zoom in or out.
• Or click anywhere on the zoom slider bar to zoom to that scale.

Searching for a location

You can search for a location in Environment Roam using a place name, postcode, grid reference, easting/northing or latitude/longitude.

1. Click in the search box near the top left of the map window.
2. Type the place name, road name, partial postcode or full postcode (e.g. EH9 1PR) in the search box, and click the magnifying glass button
3. If there is more than one match for your place name, the search results will be displayed below the search box. Click the place name you are interested in to view in the map window.

Notes:

• You will not find landmarks and places of interest such as Edinburgh Castle or Nelsons Column or county names such as Cornwall. These are not currently listed in the gazetteer.
• Only search for places in the UK.
• Partial Postcodes (e.g. EH9) only work if they are the only term searched for.

To search using the Coordinate / Grid Ref. Search options:

1. Type the Grid Reference (e.g. TL4685) in the search box and press return. The map will automatically navigate to that location.
2. Enter Easting/Northing defined by coordinates on British National Grid e.g. 545030 138305
3. Enter Latitude/Longitude coordinates to go a specific location defined by geographicals. Formats accepted can be either decimal degrees e.g. 55.123456 -5.123456 or in degrees minutes seconds e.g. 55 07 24.3N, 05 08 04.7W
   

Understanding map views

Environment Roam has eleven different predefined map scales called views. The views consist of different environment data and background Ordnance Survey map products which are appropriate for each view's scale.

The following table lists the scale and map products used for each view.

1. View	Environment Map Product	Background Map Product	Print Scale
   GB	Land Cover Map 2015	Digital Chart of the World (Country Outlines)	1:5,600,000
   National	Land Cover Map 2015	OS Miniscale®	1:1,125,000
   Regional	Land Cover Map 2015	OS Miniscale®	1:625,000
   Range	Land Cover Map 2015	OS Miniscale®	1:500,000
   County	Land Cover Map 2015	OS Miniscale®	1:375,000
   Borough	Land Cover Map 2015	OS Miniscale®	1:250,000
   Metropolitan	Land Cover Map 2015	OS 1:250 000 Colour Raster	1:150,000
   City	Land Cover Map 2015	OS 1:250 000 Colour Raster	1:100,000
   Town	Land Cover Map 2015	OS 1:250 000 Colour Raster	1:75,000
   District	Land Cover Map 2015	OS 1:50 000 Colour Raster	1:50,000
   Local	Land Cover Map 2015	OS 1:50 000 Colour Raster	1:25,000

Selecting a basemap

• Use the Basemaps button  at the top left to change the default Basemap that is being displayed.
• The Basemap button will only be enabled where there are alternative Basemaps available for that zoom level.

View legend

In Environment Roam it is not possible to customise which features are displayed on the map.

Open Map Content in the left panel, to display a guide to the land cover map colours.

Customising opacity

It is possible to customise the opacity of the environment information on the map.

Use the slider at the top of the map to increase or decrease the opacity of the data, making either the background mapping or the land cover more clear.

Get feature information

To find out more information about the areas on the map select the information tool  from the top menu bar.

Now clicking on any point on a map will open up an information box describing the information for that area.

Drawing Tools

The drawing tools in Environment Roam allow you to draw symbols, lines, polygons and text on your maps. You can add labels to these features and have the ability to select colours and styles for them too.

Below is a summary of the main options.  Detailed help can be found in the How to use the Drawing Tools help page.

• Click Drawing Tools in the left panel.
  

1. Add features using the Create set of tools on the tab bar. Select from the point, text, line or area tools, and click on the map to start drawing.

2. Text colour and font size can be set using the Text Settings options.

3. Area style settings can be set using the Fill and Stroke settings, to select the colour and opacity of the fill and the colour, style and width of the outline.

4. Line style settings can be set using the Stroke settings.

5. Use the modify tools to add labels, reposition, resize and reshape features drawn.

6. To edit the colour and styling of text, line or areas drawn, click on the Select tool (or the drag to select tool) and then click on the feature you want to edit to select it, it will be highlighted.  Next, change the colour and style settings you want to change.  Then deselect the feature(s) by clicking away from the feature in an area where you have no drawings.

7. You can import your own data to add it as features to the map using the Import tab. Supported formats are:

• Shapefile (in zip)
• KML
• GPX
• CSV
• GeoJSON

8. To export a set of drawings you have created to a file suitable for use in a GIS, click on the Export tab, choose a file format, give your file a name and click Export.

Saving your drawings

1. To save a set of drawings, use the My Maps...Save. Give your map a name and click Save.  

2. To open a saved map and set of drawings, click on My Maps...Open. Select the map you wish to view.

Printing

Environment Roam allows you to create printable maps in A4 to A0 size and in portrait or landscape layout in a variety of formats and at user defined scales.

To create a printable map:

1. Click the print button on the main menu bar.
2. Enter a map title.
3. Enter the Scale that you want to print the map at.
4. Select the print format.
5. Select the page size using the drop down menu.
6. Select orientation (landscape or portrait)
7. Check the box if you want to add National Grid Lines.
8. Check the box if you want to include any Annotations you have drawn on the map.
9. Check the box if you want to include Hill Shading.
10. Check the box if you want to Add Legend. Note the legend will be created as a separate PDF file and placed in a zip file with your map.
11. Click Generate Print File, this will produce a PDF file which you can save or print.

Preview your map

1. Use the Content Preview tab to view a small area of the map content that you will get;
2. Use the Layout Preview tab to show the extents of the area your map will cover based on the paper size and scale of the map.  Drag the map in either preview window to change the location of your map.
   

Map Information

The Map Information tab displays spatial reference information about the current map view.

1. Click Map Information on the Side Menu tab to open.
   
2. Displays the top right and bottom left coordinates of the current map view.
   
3. The scale the current map will be printed at by default (this can be changed in the Print menu).
4. Hover over any point on the map to view the coordinates.
5. The information will update as you pan and zoom the map.

My Maps

My Maps enables you to open and save maps you have previously saved.

Save

1. To save a map and any drawings, select My Maps...Save. 
2. Give your map a name and click Save and the map along with any drawings will be saved.  

Open

1. To open a saved map, click on My Maps...Open.
2. Select the map you want to view.

1. Click in a box to select any saved map to view in the map window.
   
   
2. Find a saved map by filtering the list.
   
   
3. Click the rubbish bin icon to remove the map from your saved maps.
   
4. If you already have annotations present on your map and you try and open another map that also has annotations on it, you will be asked to either replace your existing annotations or to merge existing annotations with ones on the selected map.
   

Measurement Tools

Roam's Measurement Tools enable you to measure distances and areas on your map.

1. Select  Measurement Tools tab on the left panel.

2. Select to measure Distance or Area.

3. Click once on the map to start measuring.  

4. Move the mouse pointer along to the next point.  Clicking once on the map will add a point.

5. Double click to finish measuring.  The total distance or area measurement is displayed in the measurement tools sidebar.

6. Measurements can be deleted using the Delete measurements button.

   

View 2 maps side by side

You can view 2 maps side by side, allowing you to compare different basemaps of the same scale.

1. Select the 2up button on the top menu bar.
2. Close the left panel by selecting Collapse Sidebar at the bottom left.
3. Select an alternate basemap for comparison - example shown in the image below.

Comparing datasets over time

Owing to improvements in satellite mapping technology and data collection methods, comparisons of the 1990, 2000, 2007 and 2015 datasets to detect change over time must be treated with caution.

Many changes appear because of the improvements in the methodologies used to create the data and do not necessarily reflect actual change on the ground.