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Beaty Indoor Map

The Beaty Indoor Map is the current viewer for the museum's indoor mapping data. Use it to explore mapped museum features, search for fixtures, inspect feature details, and create walking routes between supported destinations.

The map and its data are maintained separately from this documentation in the beatybiodiversitymuseum/indoor-mapping repository. That repository is the source of truth for the map's code, GeoJSON data, technical documentation, validation, and contribution workflow.

Explore the map

The viewer provides:

  • layer controls for showing or hiding different types of map data;
  • ground and basement filtering;
  • search for mapped fixtures and other supported features;
  • an inspector showing useful feature properties and source-issue details; and
  • fixture-to-fixture pedestrian routing.

To create a route:

  1. Open the Indoor Map.
  2. Search for a fixture or select one on the map.
  3. In the inspector, choose Start here.
  4. Select the destination and choose Route here.

Routes follow only the confirmed pedestrian lines in geojson/navigation.geojson. The routing system minimizes distance along those approved lines. It does not treat the whole museum floor as freely walkable, pass through cabinets as shortcuts, or invent a route where no approved connection exists.

What is mapped

The canonical files are stored in the repository's geojson directory. They use GeoJSON for points, lines, and polygons and are organized using Indoor Mapping Data Format concepts plus local museum extensions.

The principal layers include:

Layer Contents
venue, building, and footprint The overall venue and locally confirmed building footprints.
level and unit The underground gallery level and Museum Floor area.
fixture Display cabinets and drawer/island box polygons.
amenity Visitor-facing exhibit and destination points, including cabinet, drawer, and fossil excavation exhibits.
detail Walkable glass-covered fossil excavation polygons.
navigation Confirmed pedestrian nodes, walking paths, and connections to fixtures or exhibits.
exhibit Active exhibit content associated with mapped fixtures and amenities.
archive Preserved exhibit records that are no longer active display content.

Some standard layers, such as openings, kiosks, occupants, relationships, and sections, may exist without any confirmed features. Do not assume an empty layer means the physical feature does not exist; it means it has not yet been added to the canonical map data.

See the repository's DATA_DICTIONARY.md for field definitions and locally used values.

Data quality and provenance

The map combines museum-maintained data with locally reviewed public reference data. Building and footprint records include OpenStreetMap-derived geometry with source URLs, licence information, attribution, and local interpretation. Museum-floor geometry, fixtures, exhibits, and navigation lines record how they were created and their review status.

Useful provenance fields include:

  • review_status, which identifies locally confirmed or derived features;
  • geometry_source and geometry_method, which describe how geometry was produced;
  • source_url, source_license, and source_attribution, which retain the external source trail; and
  • source_issue_number, source_issue_title, and source_url, which connect proposed features to their GitHub review history.

Read DATA_SOURCES.md for the current derivation methods and review decisions.

Report a correction or add a location

You do not need to edit GeoJSON to contribute. Use the repository's issue templates to propose a new or corrected amenity or opening.

Provide as much of the following as possible:

  • the visitor-facing name;
  • what kind of location or feature it is;
  • where a visitor should stand, look, or arrive;
  • how the location was confirmed;
  • whether visitors can see or access it;
  • whether it should be searchable or usable as a route destination;
  • its related cabinet, drawer, island, or fixture, if known; and
  • photos, measurements, coordinates, landmarks, and uncertainty notes.

Indoor phone GPS can be inaccurate. When possible, take several readings and also measure from a fixed reference such as a wall corner, doorway, column, stair, elevator entrance, or confirmed fixture. Avoid measuring from movable objects.

Submitted issues can be converted into candidate GeoJSON and a pull request. The pull request is the approval gate: maintainers review and correct the candidate data before it is merged into the canonical layers.

Review GeoJSON directly

For a visual review of the data, load the repository's preview.geojson into geojson.io. This combined file places the main layers in a useful drawing order so that amenities remain visible above larger polygons.

If you propose a point directly:

  • use a unique feature ID;
  • keep coordinates in [longitude, latitude] order;
  • retain the correct underground level_id;
  • test the complete data in geojson.io; and
  • do not guess at unknown fields—include a note for maintainers instead.

Technical standards

The project is moving toward Indoor Mapping Data Format conventions while remaining easy to review with common GeoJSON tools. Pedestrian routing is a local extension because IMDF 1.0 does not define a standard routing-graph layer.

Technical references: