Notes and Research
Resource Maps and Project Data Management
Forest Resource Maps
We produce maps in any form and size to suit the needs of your projects. We can e-mail an oversized map to you (pdf, jpeg, or preferred format) or send you a paper-copy.
All our maps are produced on a computer-based geographical information system (GIS), allowing great flexibility in form and content. Like any computer document, we can develop and revise maps in endless ways. Working with the GIS, each map is created from a map project, which includes a database that stores all pertinent data, from feature names, to latitude and longitude, to altitude, to any number of possible attributes. From the GIS project, we can generate hundreds of maps from the same data, giving us unlimited opportunities to revise maps for various needs and analytical purposes.
When building a map project, we generally use a georeferenced photo-image for the base, so one of our maps, hard-copy or virtual, looks like an aerial photograph, but acts like a map. In the GIS project, every point on the photo has a latitude and longitude, easily referenced or uploaded to a GPS unit.
Our paper maps appear professional and serve any of several purposes. Some of these general applications might include:
- Directional maps for locating features in the field -- forest stand boundaries, miscellaneous landmarks and markers, property boundaries, or any number of possible points of interest.
- For a general visual overview of a land parcel, forest stand, or other area of interest.
- To visualize forest stand or landscape data, such as wildfire fuel loadings, stand density, or other meaningful attributes.
- To visualize and illustrate data and information in paper-copy reports and memos.
- To display in special places, on the office or home wall (thin-sheet or poster-style).
- To facilitate forest operators in the field.
When planning for forest stewardship, we use GIS map projects and maps for any number of reasons. Some of these applications include:
- For visualization of stand and forest data to be used in planning and stewardship.
- For comparing stands with different characteristics, for examples, different fuel loadings, biomass volume, or important habitat for a bird, mammal, or fish species.
- For representing and visualizing potential stewardship problems, for instance insect outbreaks in near proximity to forest stands.
Forest Resource Data Management
Besides providing awesome map utility, our GIS system provides enormous database utility. In fact, a GIS is really an enhanced database, able to store, retrieve, and render data graphically and tabularly. Therefore, every feature on our maps is associated with a record in a relational spatial database. (For instance, a stand is a feature represented by a polygon drawing.) We can update data and represent it spatially in endless ways, according to the client's needs and preferences.
Furthermore, in the near future we will be able to serve all GIS data by internet so clients can access it remotely to update and retrieve (query) data and see the results on a dynamic GIS map. We are currently developing a MySQL platform and links to an Internet Map Server, so you will be able to see the results of your data updates through your browser, as well as adjusting scale, zoom, and other properties. We plan to have these capabilities by May, 2008.
For our mapping needs, Interface Forestry uses Manifold System GIS. For our database purposes, we are currently developing a MySQL database platform.