So, I have been working awhile now to create a custom project/survey in Collect Earth focusing on a region in Myanmar (Taninthayi, Myeik province).

I am using this software (link below) to generate a CSV file containing lat/lon values to create a sampling grid. My eventual aim is to analyze tree cover in this region of Myanmar.

https://code.earthengine.google.com/c4a9f26e3b2242fca5571750531da1cc

My version of Collect Earth is set up with the default Drylands Demo. I am fairly certain that I need to create my own .ced file using Collect for my project; I only need id, latitude, and longitude (not slope, elevation, etc). Then once the .ced file is created, I would simply open it in the Collect Earth program and add the CSV file with the sampling coordinates (Tools -> Properties, etc).

My question is, HOW do I create this .ced file in Collect? Do I set this up in my web browser or do I need to use downloadable Collect software, separate from Collect Earth? I was looking at this other user's question (link below); the last answer provided includes two screenshots of Collect Designer that I believe I should be using. How do I access it?

https://openforis.support/questions/71/creating-a-custom-project

asked 26 Jan '18, 18:59

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ashley4314
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Dear Ashley,

The Collect Earth Project files (.cep) that contains all the necessary information to set-up a survey (data structure + grid/sampling design) are created with an application called Open Foris Collect ( a bit confusing I know) ... Within this tool there is a section called Survey Designer. There you can create your survey.

You can start by cloning the drylands survey (download the CEP here ).

Please follow these videos (the User Interface of Collect has been updated since I made the videos but the functionality is the same):

Please try to follow these videos and let me know if you need more help. CE Support

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answered 29 Jan '18, 12:19

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collectearth ♦
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edited 29 Jan '18, 12:25

Thank you for sharing those videos! They have definitely cleared some things up for me.

My main issue right now is editing the grids I generated with the Earth Engine code so that I am only retaining those grids/plots surrounding my relatively small study area. From the videos I can see how to label points as forest, river, etc but I can't tell if there is a way to specifically select for some plots and delete the others, in order to focus my survey (and also to free up space, as Google Earth is currently reading a huge file).

I will try to post some screenshots so you can see what I mean.

(01 Feb '18, 19:51) ashley4314 ashley4314's gravatar image

https://imgur.com/mBqPuDD

This is the area I am focusing on. The purple polygon outlines a protected area (file from a colleague, its a .kmz I imported). I am most interested in the points around this purple area and within the white rectangular shapes (fishing grounds of various communities).

https://imgur.com/xuXP3Jp

This image shows how many "extra" plots/grids there are within the file generated by GEE. I can't just remove these values from the .CSV file since I don't know what to remove without being in Google Earth Pro and seeing the plots.

(01 Feb '18, 20:00) ashley4314 ashley4314's gravatar image

Dear Ashley,

Sorry for the late reply, I hope it is still useful!

In order to produce plots for a specific area you need to do one of these things:

  1. If you have a KML file (or kmz) with the polygon of your area of intervention : Upload the KML as a Fusion Table (an special Google Drive format that allows to have geographic information data as a Google document) . In this case follow this tutorial and first activate Google Fusion Tables . This is an example of a polygon I uploaded link to example
  2. If you have a shapefile (shp) then you can upload it directly as a Table asset in Google Earth Engine. Follow this tutorial : LINK TO Importing Table Asset Tutorial

Once you have uploaded the shapefile/KML file with your Area of Interest you can use the updated version of the plot generation script that allows you to use a Fusion Table(KML) or Table Asset Id.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE PLOT GENERATION SCRIPT

In this new version you can choose (in the first option where you pick the country ) the option "Use Feature Collection (Fusion Table/Asset Id)" then you can set the table-asset id or the Fusion table ID, using the "ft:" prefix.

alt text

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answered 04 Feb '18, 22:55

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collectearth ♦
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Your reply is very useful, thank you! This is an ongoing project that is part of a larger report so definitely not too late. Once I make the shapefile I want to overlay the grids onto the same study area in this program (called Timelapse, it uses Google Earth Engine). That way I can see the changes in forest cover over time.

https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/

Is this possible, and how would I go about doing this using Collect?

Thanks again!

(13 Feb '18, 18:04) ashley4314 ashley4314's gravatar image

Hi Ashley,

Collect Earth is already "integrated" with the Google Earth Timelapse.

You can activate this function using the Tools->Properties (Advanced panel.

In any case, remember that with the Google Earth Engine integration you have all the access to Landsat or Sentinel 2 that is way more powerful than the Timelapse.

alt text

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answered 14 Feb '18, 00:10

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collectearth ♦
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Perfect, thank you!

So I have managed to create a shapefile of my study area, and to import it using the New feature as you described in your previous reply. I could not get the Fusion tables to work with my web browser and I have the study area as a KMZ file already so I just converted it to a shapefile online.

Here is a screen shot of the farthest I was able to progress. It says Generating grid and then will stop/get stuck there. Should I modify my inputs or is it a script issue?

https://imgur.com/a/qqMEU

Again, I truly appreciate your continued support!

(15 Feb '18, 18:44) ashley4314 ashley4314's gravatar image

Dear Ashley,

In the asset id you need to include the full path to the asset (if you uploaded the shapefile to a Google Earth Engine asset) or the ID (not the name) of the fusion table.

  1. For the asset path it should be something like users/YOUR_GMAIL_USER/NAME_OF_THE_ASSET , e.g. for an asset in the root folder of the assets called plantations : users/collectearth/plantations
  2. For a fusion table you need to use ft:FUSION_TABLE_ID , the id of the fusion table can be found on the URL of the Fusion table. e.g. my test fusion table https://fusiontables.google.com/DataSource?docid=1zlbOD-QPIEF-cNw-eclaIrze70MXN6jJG4GRRO0X . So in this case you would use ft:1zlbOD-QPIEF-cNw-eclaIrze70MXN6jJG4GRRO0X

Hope this clarifies the issue!

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answered 20 Feb '18, 10:01

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collectearth ♦
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accept rate: 17%

edited 20 Feb '18, 10:04

Thank you! It worked this time, using "users/ashley4314/crab-communities_shp" as the asset ID for the shapefile. The resulting grids display just fine on-screen. However, when I click on the download link under Console, I get an error message on a new screen "Internal Earth Engine Error" for both the Random and Systematic grids. I have it set to 1500 meters and 50 grids. Am I missing something here?

(21 Feb '18, 17:42) ashley4314 ashley4314's gravatar image

It seems that there is a problem with the CSV generation through the link, cannot figure it out yet.

Instead of using the LINK in the console try to run the Export task that you see in the Tasks frame.

If you click on the Run button the CSV file will be generated in your Google Drive instead of downloaded directly.

alt text

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answered 21 Feb '18, 23:11

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collectearth ♦
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accept rate: 17%

This worked, thank you! Now I am trying to work with Timelapse. I figured out that I need to check the box for Historical imagery under View. Could you explain a bit about the Landsat and Sentinel 2 imagery and how I access that? Or is this what I am seeing for Historical images in GE Pro? The years appear to be the same as for the GEE Timelapse I had viewed before, 1984 to 2016.

(23 Feb '18, 20:56) ashley4314 ashley4314's gravatar image

So I am now working on my report and realized that there is no specification of the size of each plot (what I mean by plot, is the square with 49 smaller squares within it. Not sure if this is the correct term or if this is the grid). In the code editor, I specified each plot to be 1500 or 2000 meters apart. But, what is the size/area of the plot itself? Thank you!

(15 Mar '18, 20:21) ashley4314 ashley4314's gravatar image
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question asked: 26 Jan '18, 18:59

question was seen: 6,469 times

last updated: 15 Mar '18, 20:21