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Spencer Rose edited this page Jul 7, 2026 · 2 revisions

MLE Explorer Documentation Wiki

Welcome to the documentation for the MLE Explorer application, a web-based platform designed for browsing, searching, and managing the Mountain Legacy Project (MLP) photographic library. The MLP features the world's largest collection of systematic, high-resolution historic mountain photographs along with a rapidly growing dataset of modern repeat survey images.

1. Getting Started

The MLE Explorer allows researchers and users to navigate, search, and filter vast arrays of collection items based on surveyor metadata or the geographical location of survey stations.

What is Repeat Photography?

Repeat photography involves taking a modern photograph from the exact location, direction (azimuth), and time of year as a historic photograph. By creating image pairs (the historic photo and its modern repeat), researchers can analyze temporal landscape changes to explore ecological, climate, and human-induced dynamics over time.

Creative Commons Licensing

All images in the collection are available under a Creative Commons license, allowing for copying, printing, and sharing for personal, non-commercial use. For public or commercial usage, contact the team at mntnlgcy@uvic.ca.

2. Data Organization & Model Hierarchy

The collection is structured using a hierarchical data model where every item is classified as a node containing specific attributes and relationships.

[Surveyor / Project]
       │
       └─── [Survey]
              │
              └─── [Survey Season]
                     │
                     └─── [Station]
                            ├─── [Historic Visit] ──> [Historic Captures]
                            └─── [Modern Visit]   ──> [Locations] ──> [Modern Captures]

Core Hierarchy Nodes

  • Projects: Alternate containers for stations that do not fit into the standard surveyor-based hierarchy (e.g., the Alberta Fire Lookout Towers project).
  • Surveyors: The principal surveyor responsible for a historic survey.
  • Surveys: Specific geographic regions covered by a surveyor, often spanning multiple years.
  • Survey Seasons: Groups all Stations completed within a specific year for a particular survey.
  • Stations: Geographic locations where a historic surveyor identified high points to capture photographs in multiple directions. A Station loosely clusters nearby sub-locations within walking distance.
  • Historic Visits: The initial visit to a Station by a surveyor; acts as a container for Historic Captures (maximum of one per Station).
  • Modern Visits: Subsequent field visits made explicitly to repeat historic photography. Uniquely identified by date, a station can have multiple Modern Visits.
  • Locations: Clearly defined, precise coordinates proximate to a Station where a specific modern capture was taken.

Understanding Captures vs. Capture Images

  • Capture: A unique photographic record representing a specific landscape view defined by location, azimuth, date, and time.
  • Capture Images (Image States): A single Capture can have zero to many modified file versions or formats derived from it. These are tracked by Image States:
    • Raw: Uncompressed original format (e.g., modern .3FR Hasselblad files or raw historic scans).
    • Master: A finalized image that has been registered/aligned with its temporal counterpart.
    • Interim: Intermediate state during the alignment process.
    • Gridded: Images featuring visible grid overlays.
    • Miscellaneous: Unconventional adjustments or perspective transformations.

3. Application Layout & Navigation

The interface is split into a Navigator Panel (left side) and a Viewer Panel (right side).

Navigator Panel Modes

The left-hand navigator provides four distinct methods to search and explore:

Mode Functionality
Map Interactive map visualization displaying clusters of stations.
Tree Hierarchical list organizing the data linearly from Surveyor down to Captures.
Search Full-text query engine searching through all metadata fields.
Filter Refines station markers visible on the map by Surveyor, Survey, Season, or Status.

Upper View Options Toolbar

Located right beneath the breadcrumb navigation trail, this bar includes active functions:

  • Download Package: Download images designated as attached files.
  • Refresh: Refreshes current viewport data.
  • Alignment Tool: Direct route to the Image Alignment Workspace.
  • Export: Export raw capture metadata into structured file formats like JSON or CSV.

4. Map Navigator Tool

The Map Navigator displays geographic locations of surveys and stations, utilizing automatic map clustering to simplify data density.

Map Interface Controls

  • Zooming / Panning: Pan by dragging the map interface. Zoom in or zoom out using buttons or double-clicking.
  • Cluster Markers: Multiple stations aggregate into a cluster showing total station volume. Click a marker to reveal its station list, or double-click to center and zoom onto it.
  • Layers Control: Dynamically toggle the backdrop base layer (e.g., Street maps vs. Satellite imagery).
  • View/Cluster Stations: Toggle the map visibility of station markers or flatten them out of clusters.
  • Features Tool: Opens a dialog window to project specialized geographic features onto the map view.
    • NTS Map Sheets: National Topographic System indexes covering Canadian landmasses scaled at 1:50,000 or 1:250,000.
    • Boundaries: Historical metadata bounds designating park or historical survey borders.

5. Station & Capture Lifecycle Statuses

Color-coded status updates quickly summarize data readiness across the application.

Station Readiness

  • Mastered Station: The station has been successfully repeated and all associated captures are fully mastered.
  • Partially Mastered Station: Contains repeat captures where at least one is mastered, but others remain pending.
  • Repeated Station: Contains repeat captures, but none have gone through the mastering process yet.
  • Located Station: Historic captures are grouped, and geographic position is estimated, but no repeat field photography exists.
  • Grouped Station: Historic captures are grouped together, but geographic position remains completely unestimated.

Capture Readiness

  • Mastered: Sorted and possesses at least one image paired/mastered with its historic or modern counterpart.
  • Repeated: Capture is sorted and paired, but lacks a finished master image.
  • Sorted: Attached correctly to an Historic Visit or Modern Location node, but possesses no alignment pairing yet.
  • Unsorted: Extraneous capture not yet bound to an explicit Visit or Location container.
  • Missing Images: A metadata record entry for a capture that currently references zero uploaded image files.

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