Before you can use the S-H-ID in your upload, you need to get the S-H-ID for the boundary you are interested in!
What is S-H-ID?
S-H-ID is a unique identifier that mySidewalk uses for geographical boundaries that we understand. It stands for “Spatial Hierarchical IDentifier” and was created as a unique identifier that humans can read (as opposed to a random integer value).
Why do I need it?
You can use our S-H-ID reference to associate your data with a geographic boundary that already exists in mySidewalk. For example, you can upload data for the state of Missouri using the Missouri S-H-ID (country:us/state:mo) and our upload will automatically assign that data to the shape we know as Missouri.
What that effectively means is that you can use that data within mySidewalk in multiple, powerful ways with this boundary. You can map it easily and alongside mySidewalk data. You can make a correlation to understand how correlated your data is to mySidewalk data. The end result is a way for you to easily use your own data in mySidewalk.
Pro Tip: you can also use S-H-ID to upload specific census tracts and block groups which is not currently available through the manual selection.
How can I get the S-H-ID values I need?
The S-H-ID values are already part of the download from Seek. Go to Seek and choose the geographies you are interested in. You will need to choose some data as well (but it doesn’t matter what you pick).
Once you have the geographies (and data) chosen, select “Export” from any view and then select “Simple CSV”.
The resulting export will have a column named shid, which is the one you want!
Once you have the S-H-ID, you can drop that column of values into whatever upload you are creating with the same geographies and save as a CSV.
Check out this article for how to upload that data with the S-H-ID into mySidewalk.