When attempting to select a User Layer to build a visualization, there are three
scenarios that will cause the list of options to be empty:
Scenario 1: No User Layers
No user layers exist for the organization. You’ll know this is the case if the Layers module is empty. You can create a user layer by drawing or uploading a file, or making a transformation request for layers with data. Learn about supported file types here.
Scenario 2: No Geo-referenced Layers
A geo-referenced user layer is required, but none exist for the organization. A geo-referenced user layer is a layer in which all geographies contained in the user layer match the geographies mySidewalk uses for the feature class. This allows a user to compare their data with our system data. We currently only support this for correlations. You can create geo-referenced user layers two ways:
Upload data that explicitly maps to mySidewalk geographies via some understood geographical identifier (eg., 64108 is easily recognizable as a ZIP Code).
Upload point data that includes an address or geographical coordinates that mySidewalk can aggregate up to geographies in a chosen mySidewalk feature class. We refer to this as point aggregation, and the end result is aggregated data values that correspond to geographies within a mySidewalk feature class. An example of when we might do this would be if a user has point data for crimes and they want to visualize those points as totals by a specific feature class (eg., total crimes by ZIP Code).
Scenario 3: No Time Element Layers
Time element metadata is required, but none has been associated with any of the organization’s user layers. You can create the necessary metadata if you upload a layer or request to modify an existing user layer that has data representing multiple snapshots of the same metric across time. Request mySidewalk’s assistance.
mySidewalk feature classes, include:
Nation
States
US Congressional Districts
Metro and Micropolitan Areas
Metropolitan Planning Organizations
Counties
State Senate Districts
State House Districts
Unified School Districts
County Subdivisions
Places
City Council Districts
ZIP Codes
Neighborhoods
Census Tracts
Census Block Groups