Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Google Fusion Tables Tutorial: Displaying Facilities from TRI.NET
This tutorial will introduce you to the following:
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
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Obtaining Data from TRI.NET
Mapping TRI.NET quantitative attributes
Creating webmaps for sharing TRI.NET results
Part 1: Obtaining TRI.NET Data
There are many resources for obtaining data from the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which documents annual releases of
toxic chemicals from most industrial sources on an annual basis. The Toxics Release Inventory webpages provide extensive
documentation on the process of data collection, strengths and weaknesses of the data, and ways that the data have been used
to inform communities about industrial pollution. Of the tools available to search and study the TRI, TRI.NET provides the
most extensive search and query options. Information on TRI.NET, the free software download, as well as examples of how to
use it are available on the EPA website. To use the software, you will need to download it and install it on your computer.
Once installed, you can query TRI.NET to identify facility specific information. Click Build Query, then click GROUPING
variables to select the point location that you want, for example, for information on facility, you may want the name and
address of the facility, and, importantly, you need the Latitude and Longitude fields checked, so that you can map the location
information. Suppose I just want information for New Jersey, for 2005. I can change the “DATA” drop down menu to query the
right range of years (if options are not available for other years, you can update your software to query more TRI data), and in
the FILTERING variables, I can select Geography > New Jersey, and Year > 2005.
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Click OK, then “Run Query.” Depending on the query you specify, it may take some time for the software to
run. When the query is complete, click the send to Excel button to export the data to an Excel spreadsheet.
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Drew University – Spatial Data Center
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Part 2: Mapping TRI.NET Quantitative Attributes
Step 1: Edit Downloaded Data
After your Excel file exports, open it to see what is contains. It should automatically open in Excel.
The current format is not suitable as an input in Google Fusion. You’ll need to first delete the extra header rows (as shown
below, the top two rows have been deleted. To do this, simple select row one and two, right-click and choose delete).
Then, save your edited data as a .csv (Comma Separate Values) file. Excel will give you warning about the file format, but the
transition to .csv file should go smoothly. Once it’s saved, close Excel.
Step 2: Add Spreadsheet to Google Fusion
To use Google Fusion Tables, you will need a Google Account. Google accounts are free, and you can register for them at
Gmail.com. Once you have a Google Account, visit drive.google.com. Click Create, than Connect to More Apps, and search for
Fusion Table. Once you find it, connect to it, then you can use this app in Google Drive. In Google Drive, click Create > Fusion
Table. You will be prompted to upload a .csv file. Navigate to the file that you just created in the previous step, and upload it.
Then, click Next >>, Next >>, and Finish.
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Step 3: Display Points
The spreadsheet that you downloaded and edited, should now appear as a Fusion Table (example below).
Click the Map of Latitude tab to display the point locations (an example of points for New Jersey in 2005 are shown below).
You can click on the points to learn the attributes associated with each facility (displayed by lat/long).
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
There are more attributes in your data sheet than are displayed in Google Fusion Tables by default. To see more (or less), click
“Change info window…” to select or unselect fields to change the pop-up information that is seen.
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Step 4: Change the Point Symbology
A common way to illustrate the point symbology is to use graduated symbols. To change the symbol color, based on a criteria,
click “Change feature styles.” Click Points > Marker icon, then click the buckets tab. Here you can select the quantitative
column that you wish to map (e.g. Total Air Releases), and then you can select the break points for each color classification.
Click “use this range” to show the point markets for all data points for the field that you want to map.
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
By clicking Legend > Automatic Legend, you can add a legend to your map, by checking “Show marker legend,” and Save.
By changing the symbol color, and adding a legend, you can improve the readability of your map, allowing you to sift more
easily through numerous data points.
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Another useful way to display your data is to create a heat map. To create a heat map, just click heat map, and select the
weight that you would like to visualize.
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Drew University – Spatial Data Center
Geographic Information Systems
2014-2015 Tutorial, EPA TRI University Challenge
Part 3. Creating Web Maps to Share Your Data
When you are done editing the web map that you would like to create. Then, click on the title to edit the title name to be
descriptive of your work. Then, click Done (on the left side of your map). You can share either your Google Fusion Table,
which includes the table and map, or you can share just the map (or both). To share just the map, select Tools > Publish, then
copy the URL to share in an email or post on a website. For example,
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?q=select+col6+from+1Id73Pr60QXGPo9FhuxNjSaWOj61kvLjm6sKXUpD+where+col8+%3E%3D+1+and+col8+%3C%3D+4833892.05&viz=MAP&h=f
alse&lat=40.30594943851241&lng=-73.91540588378903&t=4&z=9&l=col6&y=2&tmplt=2&hml=TWO_COL_LAT_LNG
To share the Google Fusion table, select Share in the upper right corner, and change the permission to allow others to view the
document. Then, you will have access to a URL directly to your fusion tables. For example,
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1I-d73Pr60QXGPo9FhuxNjSaWOj61kvLjm6sKXUpD
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