Topic: Flood Zone GIS Data

[mjfarrell]

I'm kinda curious, how accurate is the flood zone data in .shp file form?

only as accurate as the data that was used to create the ouput...so where did the folks that gave you the shp file get their data is the REAL question....

David,  

where or what is the syntax for either the GetMap, or the GetCapabilities request(s)?  That information seems to be missing to me.

The “NFHL” service:
• Responds to GetCapabilities requests through the URL:
http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet
/NFHL?REQUEST=GetCapabilities&SERVICE=WMS
• Responds to GetMap requests through the URL:
http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet
/NFHL?VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&[the WMS GetMap
parameters that describe a particular map]

OK, never mind that I found this page that should prove usefull to others: http://webhelp.esri.com/arcims/9.2/general/mergedProjects/wms_connect/wms_admin/srs_list.htm

[mjfarrell]

those must NOT be the correct SRS values....nothing but errors..

from MAP erro log...




Failed to connect.
Failed to open FDO connection.
InvalidSRS:  Invalid SRS value

anyone have any good SRS values?


OK, once again the help file leads one slightly astray....the URL that MAP likes is

http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet/NFHL?VERSION=1.3.0

this at least makes the WMS connection and offers data to add to the Map.

[mjfarrell]

and then C3D crashes....nicely done autodesk two(2) service paks in and STILL 2010 is a crash test dummy! 

[mjfarrell]

And I don't remember if this helps Rusty, and his stuck in 07 vortex...did or does Map in your version support the WMS FDO connection type?

[dfarris75]

There is a WMS option in 2008. I have never connected to data in that way so if you get it working draw up a quick tutorial. Haha.

[mjfarrell]

There is a WMS option in 2008. I have never connected to data in that way so if you get it working draw up a quick tutorial. Haha.

ha ha indeed....as some of the WMS data links listed in the help file don't work either....

and the syntax/format of the GetMap display is pretty much arcane and porrly documented if at all; from the searches I've done.

that page full of SRS codes...I posted they are exactly WRONG and none of them work...they must be for that particular esri location I was searching through...

and the link I posted earlier that DOES appear to work...loads the entire united states... and there seems to be no way to limit the data...so you get a huge data set...and an unresponsive (crashed) drawing file as a result..

[mjfarrell]

and for what it's worth it appears that the Bulk Copy tool required to actually then use the information doesn't work with the WMS data...

[mjfarrell]

perhaps one of those two fellows that claim to know way more about this than I will show up and contribute to the solution...

what would be best to know is how does one key in the exact syntax of a GetMap request to load the exact FIRM map one wants or needs...so far this looks like a terrible 'shot gun' approach of loading data into Map....

[SomeCallMeDave]

Michael,
The SRS data that I was using comes from the NFHL data that it sent me when I did a GetCapabilities request

snip

Code: [Select]

<Name>Flood_Hazard_Zones_General</Name>
<Title>Flood Hazard Zones (General)</Title>
<SRS>EPSG:4326</SRS>

Seems like this would be a cool tool, well, if it worked.   The only other thing I can think of, from my end, at least, is a scale problem (not sure how your Map requests handle the scale issue).  

Most of the WMS servers that I have queried will raise an exception if the scale of the requested map is too large or too small to correctly represent the requested data.  I have yet to receive that sort of exception from the FEMA site even though I have requested all sorts of data over all sorts of BBOX sizes.  

When I get some time I will play with some more requests of varying scales and see what sort of results I get.  But I have sent requests that I know should work based on Firmettes  from know sites, but with the same results.

When neither your work nor mine can produce results,  it makes me think that the FEMA WMS might not be working as advertised.  There is NO way that you and I could both be doing something wrong at the same time  

[mjfarrell]

it isn't exaclty that we are doing the SAME thing(s) wrong at the same time...
this Input returns a Map of the entire US that is too big to be of any real use

http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet/NFHL?VERSION=1.3.0

it then loads all of the data an allows me to add that data via Layers....for the Entire US/and Alaska appearently....


I tried this and they return the same selection set

http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet/NFHL?VERSION=1.3.0&GetMap=DFIRM


I thought is would either A)fail or B) only return the DFIRM layers (still for entire area)

I need something like:
http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet/NFHL?VERSION=1.3.0&GetMap=DFIRM&SRS=EPSG:4326&BBOX=   Or the 11 digit FIRM Map number for a known site....I don't have any here to look at....someone have a couple FIRM Map numbers to toss my way?



I even made up a BBOX value...and it looks like it STILL gave me the entire country...nuts I say! :ugly:

And lastly I even used Davids syntax of:http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/NFHL?&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&LAYERS=Streams,Flood_Hazard_Zones_General&STYLES=&SRS=EPSG:4326&BBOX=-105.0,30.0,-80.5,60.0&WIDTH=1000&HEIGHT=1000&FORMAT=image/png


and it produces this error:

Failed to connect.
Failed to open FDO connection.
XML Document parse error at line 1 column 1: An exception occurred! Type:UTFDataFormatException, Message:invalid byte 1 (‰) of a 1-byte sequence.

[mjfarrell]

This works however once again it ignores the BBOX string and I get the entire country and Alaska.


http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet/NFHL?REQUEST=GetCapabilities&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&LAYERS=Streams,Flood_Hazard_Zones_General&STYLES=&SRS=EPSG:4326&BBOX=-105.0,30.0,-80.5,60.0&WIDTH=1000&HEIGHT=1000&FORMAT=image/png


Going to try a smaller BBOX thaan shown, if the results are different I will update.

[mjfarrell]

the weird part about this is...

nowhere in the Help file do the discuss syntax of any of the three(3) GET functions....

scanning through several documents at the Open Geospacial site, also seems to show nothing other than complete abstracts; meaning the explain the 'words' however there  are no working samples of what they do or how to construct these Get statements, nor does FEMA in any of their publications.

I did find some command strings that work on or with other servers and data sets; well they appear to work at bringing in only certain layers within the defined BBOX, however trying to modify them to work with the WMS in the FEMA document returns various errors, and not much success.

I almost feel like the first few weeks of learning DOS, as in  Copy[Drive Letter]:/Directory name/ filename to Drive Letter/Directory Name/File Name  (say what??)

Only that little Pink IBM DOS 2.1 book did at least have samples in that new and abstract language that one could expound upon.

[mjfarrell]

David, when you say you are trying this with Autocad, does that indicate that you are attempting to use the FDO source to import data into regular autocad, or are you using Map at all?

Just trying to figure out how much alike the command syntax between the two methods will be. (Map vs ACAD)

[mjfarrell]

OK, I did find a PDF of the 1.1.1 WMS "Standard" the thing is completely in the abstract with NO literal examples of how all this WMS language actually works...however for some truly mind numbing reading: http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=1081&version=1&format=pdf

[mjfarrell]

OK before I go completely crazy on this...it is my belief that most or none of the FDO/WFS providers are actually following the standard...because the BBOX=, NOR Layer= value has NO effect whatsoever with any of the sites I can connect to.

for instance:

http://demo.cubewerx.com/demo/cubeserv/cubeserv.cgi?version=1.1.1

returns the ENTIRE world data set

http://demo.cubewerx.com/demo/cubeserv/cubeserv.cgi?+SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&LAYERS=Foundation ROADL_1M&SRS=EPSG:4326&BBOX=-100,-50,100,50&width=600&height=600&FORMAT=image/jpg

Returns the same data set as above. all data all levels everything....

the limits of the image that shows up... -180,-90,180,90 so the clipping of the BBOx should be visible...

then I try

http://demo.cubewerx.com/demo/cubeserv/cubeserv.cgi?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&LAYERS=Foundation_ROADL_1M&SRS=EPSG:4326&BBOX=-10,-10,10,10&width=600&height=600&FORMAT=image/jpg

same results all data all layers for the entire world....it's as if that feature is turned OFF for the data.
Although it doesn't seem to work on server I've found yet....

Well except for some data on the coast of England....however I think that dataset wasn't any larger than what was displayed....hmm
http://ogc.bgs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/BGS_Bedrock_and_Superficial_Geology/wms?REQUEST=GetFeatureInfo&SERVICE=WMS&reaspect=false&VERSION=1.1.1&LAYERS=GBR_BGS_625k_BA,GBR_BGS_625k_BLS,GBR_BGS_625k_BLT&STYLES=default&FORMAT=image/gif&BGCOLOR=0xFFFFFF&TRANSPARENT=TRUE&SRS=EPSG:4326&WIDTH=256&HEIGHT=256&QUERY_LAYERS=GBR_BGS_625k_BA,GBR_BGS_625k_BLS,GBR_BGS_625k_BLT&bbox=0,52.4827802251,1.40625,53.330872986&x=58&y=123

Nope not even the server above returns any different amount of data even IF the BBOX informations is made incredibly small, and reduce the layer list to only one layer.... :ugly: