Navigation Tools

Map Navigation - Provides basic navigation of the map.

• Hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse across the screen.
• Results: The map is redrawn, centered on the location the map was dragged to.



• Mouse-wheel forward.
• Results: The map is zoomed in.



• Mouse-wheel backward.
• Results: The map is zoomed out.

Zoom In - Zooms in to a smaller geographic area for more detail. Zoom In by drawing a rectangle on the map or clicking a point.

• Draw a Rectangle: Click once on the Zoom In tool. Click on a point on the map and while holding the mouse down, drag a rectangle around the extent of the new map view.
• Results: The map view will be zoomed in on the extent enclosed by the rectangle drawn on the map.

Zoom Out - Zooms out to a larger geographic area with less detail. Zoom out by drawing a rectangle on the map.

• Draw a Rectangle: Click once on the Zoom Out tool. Click on a point on the map and while holding the mouse down, drag a rectangle on the new map view.
• Results: The map view will be zoomed on an extent centered on the rectangle. A smaller rectangle will zoom out further than a larger rectangle.

Zoom Full- Zooms out to a view of the entire Washington extent. To use:

• Click the Zoom Full tool once.
• Results: The map will be redrawn, repositioned to the extent of the entire region.

Selection Tools

Once you've zoomed in to the area of interest, you can use one of the following selection tools to get back a list of water rights in that area.

The behavior of the identify and select tools is somewhat unusual in terms of what it actually selects. When the user gives a select area (through a shape with Box Select, Polygon Select, or Radius Select), the application finds all Water Device Points and Places of Use in that area. In addition to these features it also finds all Water Device Points and Places of Use that share a wr_doc_id with any of the already selected Water Device Points and Places of Use. Wr_doc_id is a unique identifier for an entry in our database for water right documents and is not the same as the file number. This behavior may change in the future.

Box Select - Make selection by drawing a box. To use:

• Click the Box Select tool. Next, press the mouse down to start drawing a select box and when you've completed the box let the mouse up.
• Results: Any water rights with device points or places-of-use touched or enclosed by the polygon will be selected.

Polygon Select - Make Selection by drawing a polygon. To use:

• Click the Polygon Select tool. Next, draw a polygon around your selection by mouse clicking to add a point and double-mouse clicking to finish polygon.
• Results: Any water rights with device points or places-of-use touched or enclosed by the polygon will be selected.

Radius Select - Make selection by drawing a radius around an area. To use:

• Click the Radius Select tool. Next, select a radius distance buffer distance drop-down list. Click a point on the map to center the search from.
• Results: A selection will be made by a radius distance from a center point.

Other Tools

Clear - Clears selection. To use:

• Click on the Clear button.
• Results: Selection is cleared and the map will be refreshed.

Print Map - Creates a layout page ready for printing. To Use:

• Click the Print Map tool. Print the page with your browser's native print functionality.
• Results: A print ready-page is created.

If you have trouble with the Print Map tool, you can instead take a screenshot of the map. On Windows machines pressing ALT+Print Screen will copy an image of the active window to your clipboard. This image can be pasted into an application such as Microsoft Paint, then printed from there. On a Mac pressing Command+Shift+4+Space will let you choose a window, then an image of that window will save to your hard drive.

Identify - Click on a Gauging Station, County Parcel, or Shoreline Photo location to bring up details.

• Click Identify tool. Turn on the Gauging Station layer, County Parcels layer, or Shoreline Photos layer. Click the map at the desired location.
• Results: A new window comes up with information on Gauging Stations, County Parcels, and Shoreline Photos at that location.

Shoreline Photos:

Once you are zoomed into an area you can turn on the “Shoreline Photo” layer and use the Identify tool to click on a shoreline photo point. This action will bring up an information window listing the shoreline photo at that point. Click the hyperlink to open a page showing an air photo of the shoreline area taken at an angle other than straight down (also known as oblique air photos). There are both high resolution (4288 x 2848 pixels displayed in your browser at 1000 x 664 pixels) and low resolution photos (800 x 531 pixels). The date the photo was taken is on the image and also listed along the bottom of the page. The “Next Image” buttons on the left side and right side of the photo can be clicked to take you to the next sequential photo (currently this function is disable and being worked on). You can click the download links to download the high and low resolution (you can view the high resolution photos in the full form on your computer).

County Parcels:

Once you are zoomed into an area you can turn on the “County Parcels” layer and use the Identify tool to click on a parcel.

An information window will open showing the parcel number and providing a hyperlink to the county’s property search web page. The first page usually encountered is a “Terms of Service” page which must be agreed to before proceeding further. Once at the main county search page the parcel number provided through the Columbia River Mainstem Water Resources Information System may be copied and pasted into the county property search page. Alternatively the parcel number can be typed into the county parcel search page.

Note: County parcel numbers and polygons available through the Columbia River web site can be outdated. Parcel numbers and parcel property boundaries (polygons) data available on the Columbia River web site are updated yearly and thus may not match with current parcel information maintained by the counties. Parcel data may not be available for certain counties for two reasons; (1) the county does not currently have its parcel information available in a digital Geographic Information System (GIS) format or (2) the county has not given Ecology written permission to use its parcel data on the Columbia River web site.