Atlas User Manual

A short guide for viewing a fire atlas — finding your way around the map, switching between views, and downloading maps and data. No account or login is needed for anything here.

For maintaining an atlas (editing data, publishing), see the Administrator Manual.

Opening the Atlas

Your atlas has a web address (for example https://fireatlas.org/youratlas/). Opening it brings you to the console, where the panel at top left links to the available Maps and Downloads. The interactive web map is the usual starting point.

The Web Map

The web map shows all of the atlas layers — roads, water sources, structures, hazards, and so on — in your browser, on desktop or phone.

Move around: click and drag to pan, scroll to zoom.
Show and hide layers: use the legend box to turn layers on and off.
Switch the background: use the basemap dropdown (aerial imagery, terrain, etc.).
See details: click a feature to view its information; some features link to photos.

Full navigation details: Interactive Web Map Help and Showing and Hiding Layers.

The web map's location-sharing dropdown copies a spot in whichever form you need — plain coordinates, a Google Maps link, or a link back into the atlas map. You can also paste coordinates and press Go to jump there.

On desktop, alt+click a point to copy its location; on a phone, long press. This is the quick way to read off or share a coordinate in the field.

See Interactive Web Map Help for the sharing formats.

3D Terrain View

If your atlas includes it, the 3D view lets you explore the area as an interactive 3D landscape with real elevation — useful for understanding slope, drainage, and access.

See 3D Terrain View.

Printable Maps

Atlases can produce print-ready map products for vehicles, field kits, and offline use:

Gazetteer map book — a numbered grid of pages, each covering one cell at a consistent scale, with neighboring cells labeled for page-to-page navigation. See Gazetteer Map Book.
Runbook — region-organized reference maps for field and emergency use.

Look for these in the Downloads section of the console.

Downloading Data

For use in other mapping tools (QGIS, ArcGIS) or for your records, atlas data can be downloaded in standard GIS formats:

GeoPackage — the whole atlas as a single file. See Download Atlas as GeoPackage.
GeoJSON — individual layers. See Export a Layer.

These are reached from the Downloads section of the console. Depending on how your atlas is shared, some downloads may be provided by your atlas administrator.

Getting More Help

Every topic above links to a short how-to page in help/. If something looks wrong in the data itself, contact whoever administers your atlas — see the Administrator Manual.