Mapflow - Get started

Go to Mapflow and register or login using your email. You can also use Google account to login. Mapflow processes imagery and extracts vector objects from it. So as a user, you start processings, or as we call it, flows.

After registration, your first Default project will be created automatically and you will be redirected to the main dashboard:

Note

Note that in the Maplfow 2.0 update we joined all the platform’s APIs, that’s why the projects migrated from Mapflow Web app are temporarily marked as WEB:

Note

See also about the Team accounts to collaborate with other users

How to run your AI mapping in Web app

Mapflow is designed to be intuitive. Here is our step-by-step user guide:

1. Data source

1.1. Select the raster source

Imagery providers

Here you can select one of the default providers:

• Mapbox Satellite is a provider of global high resolution satellite imagery. The date of the image and updates cannot be chosen.

• ArcGIS World Imagery is a provider of the global coverage composed of the high and medium resolution satellite imagery and the aerial imagery, hosted by ESRI. The frequency of updating images is 3-5 years.

Hint

You can check the ArcGIS World Imagery metadata (date, resolution, and precision) by location. To do this, follow this link, zoom in, choose the point on the map and click.

To read more about satellite images check Satellite imagery

Custom URL

This tab allows you to:

• Specify the XYZ link to the source of the images. The link is automatically checked for validity (for example, Openaerialmap - https://apps.kontur.io/raster-tiler/oam/mosaic/{z}/{x}/{y}.png);

• When adding you custom tile service it might be needed to define Y position: XYZ (top left), TMS/WMTS (bottom left);

• Set source image coordinate reference system (espg:3857 or espg:3395);

• Reset all entered custom parameters;

Upload GeoTIFF

Here you can upload your own image in GeoTiff format.

Warning

Currently, a preview of the uploaded image is not possible after loading the image, you will see only the area of its extent.

The processing AOI must be located in the area of this extent, otherwise the area will be cut off by the extent boundaries. The processing area is calculated by the intersection of the image extent and the AOI. If the AOI doesn’t intersect the image boundaries the error will pop up.

Image upload requirements (free plan):

• The file size must be less than 1 Gb

• Both sides image dimensions must not exceed 30.000x30.000 pixels

• The image must be georeferenced and the CRS must be one of: - WGS84 (EPSG: 4326) - Web mercator (EPSG: 3857) - UTM (any zone)

Hint

If your image doesn’t meet the params above, we suggest to use Mapflow API / QGIS plugin which have more capabilities. Mapflow supports RGB imagery and also process single-band (panchromatic) imagery, but the AI models are not tuned for such kind of data, so the quality of the result may be worse than expected.

1.2. Specify the area of interest

This tab is used to add a processing area. The user can draw the area using Draw rectange / Draw polygon tool or download it in GeoJSON format (draw and download, as well as view the data structure, follow this link - geojson.io).

About Draw Polygon tool:

There may be confusion when drawing AOI using this tool, however, everything is quite simple. The area in this case is calculated not by the polygon, but by the Bounding Box (Bbox). Therefore, a warning MAX BBOX 100 KM² appears in the example below (bounding box is highlighted with yellow hatching):

Attention

Be aware that for now, only a single area can be drawn or uploaded per processing. If your GeoJSON file has multiple areas within its FeatureCollection, only the first one will be used. If you want to process multiple AOIs, you can split them into separate GeoJSON files and start processing for each one separately. Multiply AOI processing is supported in Mapflow – QGIS and API and will become available in the Web app next releases. Other spatial data formats may also be supported for upload in the future, although we recommend using GeoJSON since it is a de-facto standard in a web mapping. It is natively supported by web mapping frameworks (e.g. Leaflet or Mapbox) and GIS like QGIS or the ArcGIS Suite.

2. AI model

Select one of the AI models (see Model description).

Note

You can manage a set of models linked to a project (click the button on the project card):

3. Post-processing options

In this step, you can select additional processing options. Different AI models have their own options.

AI model “🏠 Buildings”:

• Classification - we currently recognize the following building types: apartment buildings, single-household dwellings, industrial, commercial, other non-residential (see Urban Mapping classes).

• Merge with OSM - compare the results with the buildings in OpenStreetMap and, if a sufficient overlap has been found, use the ones from the OSM instead.

• Simplification - simplification and polygonization of building contours.

AI model “🌲 Forest”:

• Heights - classifies vegetation by height: by default 0-4 m for shrub (“low vegetation”), 4-10 m for regular forest (“medium forest”), 10+ m for area with tall trees (“high forest”). Clasification is done per vegetated area, and not per single tree (see Forest Mapping classes).

4. Run the processing

At this step, you can set the name of your processing or use the initially generated one (the button allows you to generate variants of the name).

The “Start processing” will start processing.

The “Clear Selection” will clear the previously selected processing parameters.

Attention

Once you have selected the model and the processing parameters, you will see the total cost of your processing counted in Mapflow credits (our local currency units). Upon registration, you receive 250 credits for free for testing the platform (See the Mapflow credits).

View the results

In the “Processing history” you see the progress of processing as well as view and get the processing results. Each running processing displays the selected model, the status, the creation date and the processing cost.

View on the map

After the successful processing completion, the card can be opened to view more detailed information about the processing parameters - AI Model, Post-processing, Area, Data Source.

Click the “View on the Map” to quickly view the processing result on the built-in interactive map.

Feature attributes

Depending on the model and the options applied the extracted features might contain the semantic information that is written in the feature properties in GeoJSON.

E.g. “Buildings” model with “simplification” and “classification” options:

PROPERTY	DESCRIPTION
Area	Feature area in meters
Class_id	Buildings typology (see the Urban Mapping classes)
Shape_type	The geometry primitive depending on the polygonization algorithm that’s been applied to the feature mask
Processing_date	The date of the processing completion
Simplification_score	The score is counted by the intersection of the pixel feature and polygonized feature. The higher score - the closer polygonized feature to the pixel one.

Rate the processing

Important

We encourage you to rate the processing results. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Your assessment is important for further improvement of the Mapflow AI models. We review all the user’s feedback and get back to you if any issues.

Share the results

You can share your project with the external users for the view-only access. Go to the Project – Share and enter the Mapflow user’s email.

Note

To upgrade project sharing rights and provide your collaborators with the editor’s access you need to switch to the Team accounts

Interact with the processing results

The Processing menu includes the items as follows:

• Click “Duplicate” on an existing processing to use its parameters as a starting point for a new one (on restart with the same parameters, new processing is started).

• Click “Source details” on the existing processing to view information about source details and AOI.

Tip

If you want to duplicate processing to change some params, like choosing another AI mapping model for the same AOI - use Duplicate

1. Download GeoJSON.

Allows to download results as a file in GeoJSON format.

Warning

This option is not available in the free plan. Only paying users (see pricing) can use this option.

2. “Open with geojson.io” - view the results in the browser using geojson.io.

Tip

The geosjon.io app allows you to save the results in a different GIS-compatible format (CSV, KML, TopoJSON, WKT, Shapefile). Just click “Save” and select the format of your preference in the menu bar.

3. “Open with kepler.gl” - view the results using this embedded app. It is a simple but powerful tool for geospatial data visualization and analysis.

You can find detailed information about Kepler.gl in their user manual.

Working with API

Mapflow provides a REST API which, for example, allows you to query for currently running flows and fetch the results. If you are developing an application and want to use our API, - check out Mapflow processing API.

Important

You must follow the requirements specified with Model requirements when uploading your own images for processing through the API of the Mapflow platform. Send a request using data preprocessing to help@geoalert.io.