Making notes

Overview

Notes allow you to document what you're observing about a property. You can indicate areas of change or annotate certain features on a property, and append the image or data layers you're using to make each observation. Note tags allow you to organize notes and filter them by custom tags. You can also upload photos to each note from site visits. All of this information is then captured when you generate a report in Lens. Additionally, because each note is saved with the related data layers and the author is named, you and your team members can easily refer back to observations over time for efficient collaboration.

All notes include the date of creation and the author. If a Lens user is deactivated, their email address will persist as the author on a note, allowing you to track the source of notes over time.    

Creating a note

Start by clicking on "Add a note" at the bottom of the Notes pane. Add your comment to the text area, and the note will automatically include the current Layer and Date of imagery. Additional details that can be added to notes include:

  • Location: use a polygon, rectangle, point, or coordinates to identify an area of interest on the map
  • Attachments: add up to 3 attachments to each note, such as photos or PDFs
  • Analyze Area Chart: learn more about adding an Analysis chart to a note here.

Selecting a polygon is the most precise way to capture an area. This is handy for estimating the acreage of an impacted area, as the note will automatically calculate the footprint of the polygon you've drawn.

Note tags

Note tags are a great way to keep your Notes pane organized while monitoring. You can customize the tags as you see fit (ex: follow-up, buffer, structure, forest loss, etc). Tags will be consistent for all properties across your portfolio. You can also filter notes on a property to only show those that display a certain tag. This can be helpful to see only notes of a certain type, or quickly scan for observations that warrant a follow-up action.

Note tags will appear in the title of reports, as shown in the "Riparian buffers" example below:

Editing a note

To edit a note, select the three dots on the top right of the note and select "Edit". 

You can edit the following aspects of a note: 

  • Text: change the text of the note within the text box.
  • Imagery layer: select a new imagery layer, and click the "Update note image to match map" button to the right of the original imagery tag.
  • Location: click the delete button to the right of the original location, and recreate a polygon or point to add a new location.

Exporting a note shapefile

There are two ways of exporting note polygons into shapefiles: individually, or all notes on a property in bulk. By exporting Note polygons, you can re-upload them to Lens to create custom overlays. 

To export the polygon of a single note, click the three dots as seen in the example above. 

To export all of your notes, click the three dots at the top of the Notes pane.