GIS
The Geographic Information
System
Group: David Hood,
…
Summary
The
latest computer hardware and software effectively run broad, less detailed GIS
databases for areas the size of
entire National Forests or regions.
More detailed databases, however, will not run satisfactorily with current equipment. By limiting the GIS to an area of less than 100,000 acres, we can use many GIS capabilities
otherwise unavailable. For example, we expect to be able to load 10 sets of aerial photos
dating back to 1939. By georeferencing
these photos, we can zoom in
on any area at various scales and observe changes through time. We can
also take advantage of the ArcGIS, 3D-Analyst program to droop aerial photos
over the digital elevation map
for 3-dimensional viewing of the watershed.
We expect the GIS will prove
a valuable tool in identifying populations of stands with many similarities
except for contrasts of
interest. With fully georeferenced
historical and current data, we can carry out sophisticated retrospective analyses on the watershed.