readme.md

Guide to editting subregions

1. Draw rough polygons in software of choice (e.g., Google Earth, QGIS, ArcGIS) and save in any geospatial format.

2. Open in QGIS and use Geometry Editting Tools to snap borders with neighbouring polygons. The following tools are helpful to draw new or edit existing polygons:

   • Snapping with advanced configuration (snap to other layers and polygons)
   • Automatic tracing (for following other lines)
   • Vertex tool (move, snap, add, and remove vertices)

3. Load canadian_subregions.geojson in QGIS Editing mode and copy and paste new polygons. Update polygon_name, creation_date, and last_updated properties in the attribute table. Other attributes can be added automatically in step 5. The Geometry Paster plugin can be used to copy and paste a new polygon without overwriting attributes.

4. Validate and correct geometry with the QGIS Topology Checker Plugin. Helpful rules include:

   • Must not have duplicates
   • Must not have gaps
   • Must not have invalid geometries
   • Must not overlap

   Any errors can be corrected with Geometry Editting Tools.

5. Run the subregion_metadata.R script to automatically fill other required properties, centroids, and geometry corrections. This will write a file canadian_subregions_updated.geojson

6. Perform final validation test with GeoJSONLint.

7. If content with updates then replace the official geojson file mv canadian_subregions_updated.geojson canadian_subregions.geojson.

8. Run conversions.sh to produce copies with different formats and subsets.