MWR Geospatial News
Fall 2009

Map of the Quarter:

Lewis and Clark in the Land of Blackbird.

Midwest GeoFact: The Midwestern region is home to several trails, including the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Trail, the second longest trail in the United States. It starts in Illinois, and in total spans 3700 miles and crosses 11 states, including; Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

Did you know... You can download conveniently aggregated, prepackaged data to answer questions like "Where are all the Wal-Marts?" from AggData?

GIS TIP:Editing is essential, and it's easy to make it more convenient within Arcmap. Go to Tools -> Customize in ArcMap, then click on the Editor category under the commands tab. Once you find "Start Editing", "Stop Editing" & "Save Edits" you can click on each of these and drag it into the editor toolbar in Arcmap, making these controls easier and more accessible for quick edits.

Park GIS Conf. Calls

Each month (roughly every second Thursday), GIS-minded employees in the NPS hold a conference call that's open to anyone. You can join the call by dialing 877-989-1671 (code 894050). Topics range widely but are always engaging and you can expect to come away better informed about GIS goings on in the Service. Contact Ben Zank for more info.

Wilderness Boundaries Standard Out for Review

The NPS GIS Council, in conjunction with the NPS Wilderness Stewardship and Recreation Management Division, is soliciting input on a draft data transfer standard for current NPS wilderness boundaries. This draft standard was developed by the NPS GIS Council, Wilderness Boundary Working Group. Submit your comments to: "pwro_gis_group@nps.gov". (In Lotus Notes: "PWRO GIS Group") Please use "Wilderness Boundaries Standard" as the subject line.
The comment period will close October 30

GIS Day at UW-Madison

The MWR GSC will be participating in the "GIS Day" events Nov. 20th. We will display some maps and other information on projects going on in the MWR. If you'd like to have your map or other information (especially internship and hiring opportunities) displayed, please contact Doug Wilder.

Submit Your Own News

Do you have news, facts or tips you think are worth sharing? You can go here to submit your own news, where it will subsequently be added to the next newsletter.

Park Brochure Maps

The MWR Geospatial Support Center recently added an easy way to view park brochure maps. On the home page, select one of the Midwest Region parks from the "Park Maps on nps.gov" drop-down list. The map that displays is linked to the park page on nps.gov.

The Rediscovery of Historic Cultural Sites of the Omaha Tribe

The National Park Service and the Omaha Tribal Historical Research (OTHR) Project are currently engaged in multi-disciplinary, colloborative research aimed at mapping and rediscovering historic sites of importance to Omaha cultural heritage. As part of this project, the NPS staff at the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Midwest Archeological Center, the Geographic Resources Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the OTHR Project conducted ethnohistoric, cartographic and geophysical survey investigations in order to help locate the burial site of Wazi ga sabe, or Blackbird (ca. A.D. 1750-1800), a prominent chief of the Omaha tribe during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

EGISS Meeting Report

The NPS Enterprise GIS Subcommittee held a meeting in Lakewood, CO Aug. 18-20 to discuss the overall mission of the subcommittee. The meeting and subsequent discussions/emails concluded that the scope of EGISS is the server-based technologies and tools and related knowledge and experience needed to deploy GIS data services for concurrent multiple users independent of scale. The goal of the EGISS is to provide a forum for learning, testing, communicating, and providing guidance to the GIS community about technical, workflow, etc. requirements for EGIS. The GISC and EGISS will work to minimize the disparity in approaches, to provide common tools, to define collaborative workflows, etc. for EGIS implementation in the NPS. A formal business strategy (or mission statement) is expected sometime this winter.

VOYA Training

Reese Hirth of the MWR GSC conducted training in "Introductory Trimble GPS and ArcGIS" at VOYA, Sept. 9-11. Twelve staff from the park participated in the training. If you're interested in onsite GIS or GPS training, staff at the GSC can customize the training to your needs and arrange to visit your facility. Please contact Doug Wilder or Reese Hirth.

How to use ESRI Virtual Campus

Information and recommendations on using the ESRI Virtual Campus was recently posted to the MWR GSC website. Included is a list of recommended courses. The list includes:

• Basics of the Geodatabase Data Model
• The 15-Minute Map: Creating a Basic Map
• Creating and Maintaining Metadata
• Understanding Map Projections and Coordinate Systems
• Understanding GIS Queries

Fees for any of the Virtual Campus courses are covered by the NPS licensing agreement with ESRI.

NPS Buildings Layer Notice

The RISD is poised to start using ESRI's "Check Out Replication" (aka "Disconnected Editing"). Because of this, those working on populating or editing park buildings are requested to find a good stopping point and upload to the EGIS site. This data upload request period will last three weeks (10/19 - 11/2). After this, the up/download function will be disabled in preparation for the next data collection cycle which will utilize the new check out replication. The next cycle is targeted to begin on 11/9.

Image Server Webinars

Learning more about Image Server in the DOI Enterprise: EGIM and ESRI are working in partnership to offer a series of knowledge and technology transfer sessions regarding the value, use, implementation, and direction of the DOI’s ArcGIS Image Server Investment:

10/20 for Managers, End Users, All Staff (completed)
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM CDT

10/27 for Technical IT & GIS Staff
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM CDT

11/10 for Enterprise Geographic Information Management Team (EGIM), Computer Technology Officer Council (CTOC), and Technical Reps
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM CDT

New Specifications for GIS Computers

In July, the MWR GSC posted revised GIS computer specifications on MidwestNet (NPS Only). There are five configurations including the new "Traveler" specifications designed for GIS coordinator types.