This section provides the relevant technical instructions to navigate the web interface. The table below guides through the different general functionalities of the GloFAS Map Viewer.

For zooming in and out you can use the bar on the top left hand side or a mouse wheel.

G zooms out to the global view.

Operational status of GFM system components

Clicking on the arrow next to the user profile symbol () you can sign out, edit your profile settings and view messages from the GloFAS operational team.

Using buttons on the top right-hand side, you can quickly 

  • move to the Home page (HOME),
  • change your background map (MAP BACKGROUNDS),
  • find information about GloFAS (Tutorial, Data, Products and Terms and conditions sections) (ABOUT GLOFAS),
  • Access the portal to download GFM data, and use specific GFM functionalities such as the definition of area(s) of interest (FLOOD MONITORING),
  • search a specific location in the map viewer (SEARCH).

The GloFAS products are presented in layers, which are sorted in different categories in the top menu bar:

A detailed explanation of the layer categories is provided in the section 3.2.2  “Layer categories explained”.


To activate a layer, hover over the top menu bar, find your layer in one of the categories and press the toggle. Now, your activated layer will appear in the menu on the left hand side. As an example, in the figure to the left, the Reporting Points layer was selected from the category Hydrological. You can move the whole layer menu by dragging and dropping at the top of the menu and hide/show by clicking on .

You can select different forecast dates in the calendar on top of the layer menu (). Clicking on the clock symbol (), you select the latest GloFAS forecast. GloFAS forecasts are available from 01-01-2011 to real time. IMPORTANT NOTE: the available layers and their definition must always take into account the operational release version (e.g. not all the layers are available from 01-01-2011). Detailed information on the operational versions are provided on the wiki page GloFAS versioning system.


Below each layer, a number of buttons are displayed which are explained below:

Layers can be kept in the list but disabled by moving the on/off button (blue is enabled, white is disabled).

Layers can be removed from the selection in two ways: (i) by clicking on the x in the list or (ii) by disabling them directly in the relative category of the menu bar on the top.

In the list, the order of layers displayed can be changed by clicking up- or downward arrows.

This button allows you to visualise the full extent of the layer, which by default is global extent in GloFAS.

The legend for the layers pop up in a new window when clicking on the symbol i in the list.


The Map Viewer uses a multi-tab approach. If more layers are available on a specific location, a pop-up window with several tabs is displayed and the user can switch between the single tabs:

Information from 3 layers (Reporting Points, Rapid Impact Assessment and Major Rivers) is available in different tabs.

1 Comment

  1. Svea Bertolatus

    I had to add "GloFAS" to the title because I could not publish a page with a same name that already exsisted...