digital wetlands of southwestern pennsylvania presenter:samuel m. zehel jr. california university of...
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Digital Wetlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania
Presenter:Samuel M. Zehel Jr.California University of PA
Wetlands are a sparse but important feature of a complex southwest Pennsylvania topography. The
region’s historic coal industry, agriculture and more recent urban expansion and the resulting ecological effects from these activities make information on natural systems such as wetlands and associated
drainage systems increasingly important.
Long-term Goal Provide a unique,
interactive digital database and web-mapping service within a geographic information system for public utilization of mapping data for wetland status, function, and associated resource vulnerability assessment.
Equipment Design & Implementation Dell Poweredge 2950
Intel Xeon E5320 @ 1.8 GHz 4 Gigabytes RAM 600 GB Drive space
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition SQL Server 2005 IIS 6.0(Internet Information Server) Microsoft Office 2003 format
Text Editor – HTML design ESRI(Environmental Systems Research Institute)
ArcGIS Server 9.2 ArcGIS Desktop 9.2
GeographicalInformationSystem Design
Datum:North American 1983 Projection:US State Plane 83 (Pennsylvania South) External Maps
USGS - Digital Raster Graphics quadrangles(DRG) & National Hydrography Dataset(NHD) : http://www.usgs.gov
Fish and Wildlife Service(FWS) - National Wetlands Inventory(NWI) : http://www.fws.gov/nwi
PennsylvaniA Spatial Data Access(PASDA) - Aerial Photography of Westmoreland County : http://www.pasda.psu.edu
GIS Design (cont.)
External Maps (cont.) United States Department of Agriculture(USDA)
National Resources Conservation Service(NRCS)- Soil Survey Map : http://soils.usda.gov
Unidata & the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) – Real-time Satellite cloud cover of Eastern Continental U.S.: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu
Internal Map (gathered field data) 160 + points surveyed using GPS, photography, and
Wetlands Assessment tools. Name, location, assessment data and images linked
together in a searchable web interface.
Wetland AssessmentLevel 1
REMOTE SENSING DATANO SITE VISIT
Level 2RAPID ASSESSMENT
SITE VISIT WITH HABITAT, FUNCTION, & STRESSOR CHECKLISTS
Level 3FUNCTIONAL OR BIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTSDETAILED QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL, AND/OR
PHYSICAL,AND/OR BIOLOGICAL DATA COLLECTION
Field Survey Data Collection Design
Purpose & Function Assessment tool primarily developed as a tool for
performing regulatory categorization of wetlands by Ohio EPA
For our study: modified from Ohio Rapid Assessment Method (ORAM)
Focus is on overall wetland condition and ecological integrity; indirectly function
Parts of RAM 5 main parts of RAM:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION SECTION SCORING BOUNDARY SECTION NARRATIVE RATING QUESTIONS QUANTITATIVE RATING QUESTIONS CATEGORIZATION WORKSHEET
Wetland Assessment Metrics Disturbance metrics
buffer width, intensity of surrounding land use, hydrologic, substrate, and habitat intactness
Other metrics Size, water source, hydroperiod, connectivity, habitat
development, special wetland communities (e.g., bog, old growth), plant community quality, microtopography, habitat heterogeneity, amphibian habitat
Fulfilling User Needs
By combining public data with field survey data, we hope to provide the user community with a tool that can be used to compare/contrast wetlands conditions from the past, and into the future.
Time/Cost Analysis
Public data VS. Private dataAdvantages
Price/Availability TimelyEstablished Specific
DisadvantagesMundane CostlyGeneral Niche data
Strengths and Advantages
Recent & accurate field data using rapid assessment site visit with habitat, function, & stressor checklistsMore detailed information on habitats than other surveys of the areaSeveral layers available to compareEase & availability of use.
Next Steps of Action
Provide wetland metrics in descriptive as well as numeric representation
Improve/update field survey metadata Include map search by city & street address as
well as name (currently only wetland available) Improve speed & reliability of mapping app. Increase & improve data content (more surveys) Represent wetland by polygon instead of point.
Thanks to:
California University of Pennsylvania Faculty, Staff and Students (www.cup.edu)
Government Agencies:- Environmental Protection Agency for Primary
Funding(www.epa.gov)- USGS, FWS, and USDA for map data
(www.usgs.gov, www.fws.gov&www.usda.gov)
ESRI Technical Support (support.esri.com) Unidata real-time satellite cloud cover
imagery(www.unidata.ucar.edu)
Questions([email protected]) and Demo