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Digital Raster Maps: The Missing Link in Natural Resource Management
By Richard D. Schulman "Natural Resources." To most of us, these two words immediately bring to mind rushing rivers, giant forests, pristine deserts and breathtaking coastlines. Computer based technology has become a critical element in our effort to mitigate the conflict between humans and nature and prevent or minimize the ravages of flood, coastal oil pollution, species extinction, and poor land use.
During the past five years we have seen dramatic improvements in computer based technologies. Each development, taken alone, has promised and delivered new benefits for users in government, industry and academia.
Within our industry, the "body politic" has come to the understanding that all the technologies, formally separate islands of technology and automation, are beginning to fuse into a much more powerful and productive force. GIS, GPS, orthophotography and remote sensing are merging into a larger system. This changing paradigm is being reflected in the way users, producers and publications such as EOM communicate.
Today, a successful GeoTechnology software provider has to be able to combine satellite and orthodata, vector based GIS, and GPS. Among the companies striving to cover these bases are: Autodesk, ERDAS, Earth Resource Mapping, Environmental Systems Research Inc. (ESRI), Genasys II Inc., Intergraph, MapInfo, and PCI. Synergism: "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts"
The newest addition to the magic blend of technologies are georeferenced, full color, seamless raster maps. Horizons Technology Inc. of San Diego, Calif. is a pioneer and leading supplier of this highly useful digital data. When added to the GIS, GPS, remote sensing mix, the newest ingredient, digital raster maps, performs like the missing link or catalyst in a chemistry equation. The result is synergism at its best. These results are impressive and instantly useful.
To truly appreciate the synergism created by fusing these technologies let's pursue some important governmental and industrial applications: Mitigation of Natural and Man-Made Disasters From California to Florida
The Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989 reminded, if not inspired, world governments to be mindful of the risks associated with the transportation and handling of petroleum products near areas with sensitive biological resources.
California, with its more than 1,100 miles of marine coast, thousands of species of native plants and animals, and its large petroleum industry is certainly a potential risk area. For the past three years, the California Department of Fish and Game and the consulting firm of Ernst and Young have been implementing an information management system to help mitigate the risks of both natural and man-made disasters. Because spatial or geographic data is a critical element of the system, geographic information system technology has become the foundation for this integrated system.
John Ellison, GIS manager, California Department of Fish and Game, describes some of the mapping features of the new system: "The Department is using Sure!Maps Raster at 1:100,000 scale. This product provides full color scans of USGS maps for use with our GIS and desktop mapping applications. All of California is provided as a seamless mosaic on a single CD and the Horizons software permits the user to extract any sized georeferenced sub-area for use in the GIS display. There is considerable information on these CD map sets that are not available in a digital vector form. Also the Sure!Maps product obviates the need to spend hours adjusting the color and symbology of digital vector layers to imitate the USGS products. The Sure!Maps Raster product will be used throughout the department for its GIS programs."
The Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI), a bureau in the State of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, has been tasked with the development of a statewide coastal and marine GIS application, using ArcView, to be used by "on-scene" state and federal oil spill responders. The main purpose of this application is to provide up-to-date natural resource information to spill responders in the form of maps and analyses so response strategies can be quickly developed, for actual as well as simulated spills.
Henry Norris, GIS Analyst and Reseach Scientist with FMRI discribes the institute's mapping strategy: "FMRI will be using SureMaps! Raster 1:80,000 NOAA nautical charts and 1:24,000 USGS quads as base maps in the application primarily because spill responders are familiar with these maps and can easily read them. Scanned and rectified NOAA charts were used as base maps during the 1993 Tampa Bay oil spill and FMRI found that these maps were very popular with responders because they contained extensive annotation as well as landmarks and graticules. These base map elements made it much easier to visualize the distribution and location of natural resource data, such as turtle nests, mangrove stands and seagrass beds. It was this experience along with the fact that Sure!Maps images are georeferenced, in a common projection and, most importantly, joined into a seamless statewide image that led FMRI to acquire Sure!Maps chart and quad images. We are delighted with both the labor savings aspect and quality of this map set." Public Access to Environmental Data
The Information Center for the Environment (ICE) is a cooperative effort of an interdepartmental team of environmental scientist at the University of California, Davis, and collaborators at over 30 private, state, federal and international environmental organizations. The ICE server provides a variety of information including pictures, maps, bibliographies, database listings and contract information. According to the center's director, James F. Quinn, "UC Davis is a major participant in the web of California sites helping to democratize environmental information. We are harnessing the true potential of both the World Wide Web and the power of digital map data. Internet technology, data presentation and links to other programs are constantly being enhanced. For example, ICE has a special Web-GIS link as part of the California Rivers Assessment program, which allows users to create maps from set menu options."
The center's coordinator for GIS, Karen Beardsley describes some of the projects using digital mapping technology: "Currently we are using Sure!Maps Raster 1:100,000 USGS quad images as a background in ESRIs ArcView. These map sets serve as excellent visualization tools allowing users and analysts to have a georeferenced background showing the familiar quad map features. We've used the image overlaid with the Natural Diversity Database, which includes observed locations of rare, threatened and endangered species. This overlay is a real eye-opener and attention getter. People generally prefer to view data layers when combined with known ground features, and the Sure!Maps Raster product provides that context. It's a very powerful visualization tool." Flood Control - An Awesome Challenge
The U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES) located in Vicksburg, Miss. was established by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1929. The original mission was to test flood control plans for the Mississippi River following the disastrous flood of 1927. WES' annual work program includes more than 2,200 projects for over 250 sponsors including the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy and numerous other federal sand state agencies. Flood control is the Experimental Station's major mission. Carrying out this assignment requires a wide variety of engineering disciplines; staff includes chemists, ecologist, physicists, agronomists, botanists, biologists, microbiologists, oceanographers, foresters, geologist and mathematicians. The Scientific Visualization Center guides these WES researchers in applying the latest visualization tools and techniques.
The Hydraulics Laboratory of the Waterways Experiment Station is presently conducting several GIS projects. The Demonstration Erosion Control (DEC) Project and the Mojave River Floodplain Anaysis Project are described by laboratory mathematician, Brenda Martin: "The DEC, located in the Yazoo Basin, Miss., provides for the development of a system for control of sediment, erosion, and flooding in the foothills area of the basin. The engineering database/GIS was developed using Intergraph hardware and software. The types of data included in the database are vector data such as Digital Line Graph (DLG) files and raster data such as satellite imagery and aerial photography. Other raster data includes gridded layers of soil type, land use, slope, and elevation. For analysis, vector data can be overlaid onto a satellite photo of the study area. Then, we can make determinations such as lateral stream movement. We can also at this time digitize and attribute features such as grade control structures in streams.
"The Mojave River Project is located in San Bernadino County, Calif., and involves the floodplain mapping of a 5-mile reach of the river. This database/GIS was developed using ARC/INFO. Here, also, we have layers of elevation data, digitized roads, and contrours. The Sure!Maps Raster data can be used with ARC/INFO coverages to very quickly see what areas might flood during a certain flood event." GeoReferencing - Key to Successful Raster Map Integration
Before integrating another technology into their system, GIS managers ask, "is the data georeferenced?" and "is the conversion task easy to accomplish?" In the case of Sure!Maps Raster the georeferencing (lat/long information) is part of the data and in most cases integration is automatic and nearly instantaneous. However, in those GIS systems where a specific coordinate systems is required the geodetic map data must be converted into the local map projection. In Alaska this projection is usually Albers whereas in the lower 48 states the State Plane and UTM are commonly used. Jim Jurgens, GIS systems manager at the National Park Services, Alaska Systems Support Office, states that, "Projection is critical to data for overlaying presentations and spatial relationships. We want to insure that everything registers properly and the conversion of Sure!MAPS RASTER latitude and longitude coordinates to the Alaskan ALBERS Equal Area projection is smoothly performed.
Like many other potential government, business and academic user's, conversion of georeferenced data to the users coordinate system is a critical step in product acceptance. Since Sure!Maps Raster data is in a latitude/longitude coordinate system, the data can be easily converted into any projection." The Fragility of Humankind
We often focus, properly so, on human's negative impact on the environment and natural resources. There is also a reciprocal effect, the fragility of humankind. Floods, tornadoes, wildland fires, landslides and long heat spells represent nature at work and man at risk. Coping with these perils after they occur requires massive human effort, often with seemingly little impact on the overall course of events. However, there is at least one activity which frequently produces a happy ending... specifically, search and rescue missions. Search and Rescue - Blending GPS, GIS and Digital Raster Maps
Search and Rescue (SAR) is an endeavor where time is of the essence. Not reaching the goal may very well mean the loss of human life. The search and rescue mission is conceptually simple, and often difficult in practice: Find the lost or injured party and then bring in the appropriate resources to aid and rescue them. USGS maps and a compass are often the primary navigation tools, particularly for ground personal. Fortunately, the U.S. military has developed and successfully used GPS system technology for a wide range of applications for over 25 years. Today, commercial GPS receiver and portable computer prices have plummeted and manufacturers have been able to produce small, lightweight handheld units. State and local governments and even volunteer SAR units can now afford to employ the combined technologies with excellent results.
Robert Welch is president of Synergos Technology, a systems integration firm based in Austin, Texas. Welch states, "The mission of our firm is to provide timely, easy to use and cost-effective tools for government and businesses that are looking to blend GIS and GPS." Synergos has two major product lines, a low-cost search and rescue navigation system, as well as a demographic analysis system used by retail store management. Synergos is one of a score of companies that use a GPS receiver, portable computer and mapping software to assist search and rescue. Horizon Technology's Sure!Maps Raster CD provides the required USGS regional maps so that the search and rescue team can rapidly find its geographic position and the way points to or from the victim's location. The GIS component of the Synergos system is based on MapInfo software. Field portable GPS receivers used for SAR missions are designed and manufactured by such companies as Trimble Navigation, Magellan Systems, Garmin International and Motorola. Available Map Data Sets
Map data sets available today provide complete coverage of the U.S. at 1:2,000,000, 1:250,000 and 1:100,000 (48 states) and selected coverage of the U.S. at the 1:24,000 scale. The 1:100,000 map data shows streets, highways, freeways, parks, hospitals, airports, waterways of all kinds, topographic contour information and names of cities and city areas. The 1:24,000 maps show details such as water tanks and radio towers, building footprints, golf courses, railroad tracks, bridges, levees, dams, topographic contours, detailed street information and much more. Additional Information and Services Available
In addition to the standard map data sets HTI also provides custom scanning services whereby they convert paper maps of all types into digital, seamless, mosaiced and geo-referenced digital RASTER maps ready for export to virtually any raster capable system. HTI can also scan and create 1:24,000 scale USGS mapsets of your area on request. Custom and standard map data sets are delivered on CD ROM along with extraction and database software. About the Author:
Richard D. Schulman is president of Resource Strategies Inc. in San Diego, Calif. He may be reached at 619-581-6682 (phone) or 619-581-6683 (fax).
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