Using DEVISE

Identifying unit(s)

The user must specify the management unit or units they would like to visualize. There are a number of options. First, the user must choose between game units or agency units. Game units are focused on state wildlife management units, whereas agency units include other units related to US National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, or other custom state units such as habitat management areas. For game units, the user must choose a state, and then choose a species and the type of unit (herd, hunt, or game management, depending on the state). Finally, the user must specify the unit name (or number) itself. The user can select one or many units. Selecting all units is possible, but it is not recommended as the plots are often too crowded. To compare across units, it is best to choose between two and five units. To help in making decisions about which units to plot, the user can use the map to click on units and identify their name. Once a unit is selected, it becomes highlighted in the map with a unique color. A deselect all button is also available for convenience of clearing the selection and starting over. 

Identifying metrics

Once the user has selected one or more units, they must select one or two metrics to visualize. The user must first choose a metric group (temperature, precipitation, snow, phenology, or other), and then choose the dataset for which the metric could come from (Daymet, PRISM, SNODAS, or eMODIS, depending on the metric group chosen). Once the metric group and dataset are identified, the user must choose a metric and the temporal interval to summarize the data (either weekly, monthly, or annual). There will often be multiple options for the metric including mean, median, max, min, and in some cases sum (i.e., for precipitation values). These options denote how the daily values were summarized for a given grid cell to the interval in question. See DEVISE calculations section for more details. In most cases, the mean is most useful and most intuitive. Once a metric is selected, values will populate in the plotting panel. The user should specify whether mean or median values should be plotted, which represent how the summarized values within each grid cell are summarized across the management unit. See DEVISE calculations section for more details. 

In some cases, the user may want to compare two metrics across one or more management units. The user can do this by selecting a metric in the ‘Compare’ selection boxes. The user can select any other metric for comparison, and a second y axis will be added to the plot along with corresponding values. When comparing two metrics, it is best to only select a single management unit, as the plot gets quite messy with two or more units and two metrics. That being said, plotting two metrics is possible with more than one unit.

Zoom and filtering

Once one or more management units are selected and one or more metrics are selected, the user has a number of options for tailoring their plot. First, the user can switch the metric units to empirical units using the toggle. Second, the user can add or remove the 30 year averages of the values from the plot. The 30 year average is calculated … Finally, the user has a number of options for filtering given the temporal interval selected. For the annual temporal interval, the user can filter the data to the years of interest. For the monthly and weekly temporal intervals, the user can filter the data to the years and months of interest. If the user would like to combine monthly values (e.g., plot mean temperature for may, june, and july together), the user can click the “Display selected data by year” toggle. Note the for Precipitation, the values are Summed instead of Average. Once the user has filtered by months and/or years, clicking ‘Reset Zoom’ may be needed to update the plot. 

The plot is also interactive. The user can hover their cursor over the data points on the plot and the actual values will be displayed. The user can also zoom in a specific section of the plot by clicking on the figure, holding down the click, and dragging the mouse in one direction or the other, and then letting the click go. This will provide a zoomed in view of the plot. The user can also zoom in and out in the plot by using the roller on their mouse. At any time, the user can go back to the original zoom level by clicking the “Reset Zoom” button. 

Map details

The map can aid in interpreting the plots. Once one or more management units are selected, they become highlighted on the map. In the bottom left corner of the map, the user can specify whether they want all the units highlighted (in black) or just the selected units (or just a subset of the selected units). The user does this by clicking the eye next to the item. The user can also change the background of the map by clicking the icon in the upper right hand corner of the map. There are a number of options here including satellite imagery, roads, topographic map, etc. The user can also zoom in or out on the map, and the zoom can always be reset using the “Reset Zoom” button. 

Exporting maps and data

The user can export the map and also a csv of the displayed data for use in further analyses or presentations. To export a map, click the button in the upper right hand corner of the map panel in DEVISE. A small png file will be then saved of the extent and layers that are currently displayed in DEVISE. To export the data used in the plot, click the button in the upper right hand corner of the plot panel in DEVISE. The user has two options here. The user can export the data just for the selected units, or all units. Note that the exported csv will export the data plotted in the plot; thus, all filters will be included. To explore the more raw data, the user must remove their filters, reset the zoom, and re-export the data.

Uploading custom management unit

Not yet implemented.

Viewing data based on a specific point on the map

Not yet implemented.