Geographical information just a few mouse clicks away

  • Published
  • By Gary Hatch
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  With just a few clicks of a mouse, workers can use the base Geographic Information System to display maps of roads, buildings, utilities, elevation, environmental factors and much more. 

The GIS is an interactive mapping and spatial analysis program capable of displaying images containing one to several hundred levels of information. 

"GIS is the driving force behind all that we do," said Robert Wood, division chief for Environmental Management. "GIS creates visual representations of real-time data. The user can apply different layers of information to take a unique snapshot of any geographical area on base."
 
Since its creation in the late 1980s, GIS has grown to include more than 400 layers. Each layer contains data linked to a geographic spot on base. GIS is the hub of information for many base functions including utility infrastructure, facility condition and use, and siting new projects. 

"You can customize a map to include only the factors you want to see," Wood said. "If you want an elevation map of the base that uses brighter colors to indicate higher elevations, GIS can do that." 

If an individual wanted to check if a site proposed for a new building is in a floodplain, GIS will not only show them if the site is in a floodplain but it can also show if the site has any environmental issues, electrical or sewer lines nearby and how level the ground is, he said.

"The GIS layers are updated continuously, making the latest information readily available to the user," Wood said. "If we tried to put all of this information into a comprehensive report, by the time the report was finished, the information would be obsolete." 

The ability to quickly access up-to-date information translates into time and money saved, he said. Without GIS, biological surveys of the more than 487-square-mile area that makes up Edwards would be costly and time consuming. 

According to the 2007 Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan released by the base, "GIS has been and continues to be instrumental in the formulation of threatened and endangered species management strategies." 

One important species tracked by GIS is the desert tortoise, which is federally listed as threatened. The system contains key factors about desert tortoise critical habitat areas and population densities. 

The base used GIS to find previously unknown colonies of a rare desert plant, the desert cymopterus. Biologists used predictive modeling based on spectral imagery taken from satellites to map new areas where the cymopterus might also be found. Using the map, biologists were able to find several new populations of the plant. 

These finds helped convince the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the desert cymopterus would not need to be listed as a threatened or endangered species. Had the plant been listed, parts of the base would have been designated critical habitat requiring an increased level of management oversight. 

"The models help us narrow down the search area and identify potential locations of sensitive species," explained Dr. Stephen Watts, conservation team lead and EM representative for the Edwards GIS working group. 

Watts plans to develop a predictive model for Mohave ground squirrels, currently listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. 

The Edwards GIS covers more than just the base. It also covers all the land under the R-2508 Range Complex -- some 20,000 square miles in parts of six counties managed by Edwards, Fort Irwin, and China Lake. The complex was established for subsonic and supersonic flight test mission operations. 

"Environmental cataloguing of the R-2508 complex relies heavily on GIS because of the amount of land that is involved," said Keith Dyas, an environmental engineer at EM. "It would take a massive collaborative effort, time and money to physically manage the data for the complex. The GIS acts as our electronic data repository." 

The GIS is a powerful tool for managing several layers of information about a given area. In addition to natural resources data, the R-2508 complex section contains information on archaeological resources, severe weather areas, sensitive noise areas, water resources and much more. 

One of the bigger projects in GIS is the management of hazardous waste cleanup for the Environmental Restoration Program at Edwards AFB. There are 10 operable units with 471 sites containing 9,098 sample locations where more than 40,000 samples have been collected, resulting in more than 2.5 million analytical results and hundreds of plume concentration maps. 

"Managing land use controls through GIS demonstrated to our federal and state regulators that we are fully capable of monitoring our cleanup areas and protecting human health and the environment," Watts said. 

The Edwards GIS is available to most on-base computer users.