GIS Hardware, Software, User Support and Data Configurations

Background

GIS technology has been in use for over 25 years. It has a proven track record in assisting land managers to correlate and analyze large amounts of spatial and tabular data, resulting in scientifically sound land management decisions. As with any tool, GIS is not appropriate in all situations. Offices where staff are supportive of GIS technology, in situations where the data will be used a number of times for analysis, on-going management activities, planning, or research are the most logical candidates for GIS implementation. Upper management should not mandate GIS technology if local support does not exist. Regional coordination can facilitate and assist local managers in evaluating GIS potentials.

Implementation of a major centralized GIS computing facility is not feasible for every region, but some centralized GIS coordination should be implemented either for the region as a whole or within individual programs. Centralized coordination can facilitate documentation and inventory of existing data bases, assist in coordination with other agencies on digital data transfer and interagency data sharing, and provide other specialized GIS services. The centralized coordination will increase enterprise benefits across the Service and will serve as a focal point for GIS activities within the Service.

Decentralized systems can easily handle incremental increases in users and applications as demand for GIS capabilities increases. Decentralized systems have the advantage of being more acceptable in a complex institutional environment where different organizational entities can better justify operating with a distributed processor. Given the geographically scattered locations of Service offices as well as the concept of ecoregion management, 'Nodes' and 'Satellites' should be developed within each ecoregion (or other manageable division such as a state) .

Organization

A node would be a major point of GIS activity and support for GIS needs within an ecoregion. It could support the needs of all Service organizational units within an ecoregion. Such a facility would provide the technical expertise and specialized equipment for any type of GIS needed by any of the Service programs. Example: Realty/Refuge Programs, within any given ecoregion, could work as a node or cluster in that ecoregion with support from the RO Refuge Division and in conjunction with co-located Ecological Services and Fisheries offices.

This parallels the deployment of other activities in an ecoregion such as efforts directed toward endangered species management or detailed work on a forest plan. It maintains some consistency between all programs within a field office in terms of reporting relationships, establishment of priorities, and budget setting.

A satellite would be an office with GIS capabilities but not at the same technical level as a node. Any smaller installation such as a remote refuge, smaller ecological services field office, or fisheries or migratory birds office could be a satellite. That office would depend on a node for major analytical capabilities, data entry, and other support. Satellite offices would be connected electronically to the node through the Internet. Biologists would then be able to use GIS software to make decisions using GIS data sets provided by the node.

Uncoordinated GIS activities, such as stand-alone computers, should also be incorporated into the GIS strategy. Some applications may not gain benefits from decentralized or centralized systems, and implementation of uncoordinated GIS could reduce initial costs and establish systems quickly for specialized applications.

Nodes, particularly their coordination activities, are necessary to insure some degree of consistency in the development, acquisition, and use of data within an ecoregion. Establishment of a node could be handled cooperatively between field offices, with one working analyst assigned the role of node coordinator. This person would be responsible for updating Ecoregion management on progress toward a coordinated GIS approach.

The role of the regional office in this scenario is to coordinate efforts across ecoregion lines and to provide internal and public access to metadata. Coordination efforts will often involve data acquisition or data standards. The ecoregions will focus on field level implementation (i.e. planning, staffing, equipment acquisition, data management, and analysis) with coordination and standardization within the ecoregion provided by a designated coordinator or a centralized ecoregion node.

Factors defining systems

1- GIS applications - The GIS applications that will be required or desired define the software, hardware, data base management and data analysis approaches that would be most effective.

2- GIS software - ESRI software, such as ArcView and ArcInfo, are more widely used in the Service and by FWS partners than any other GIS software. Other GIS software such as ERDAS and MapInfo are used for specific projects. AutoCAD is frequently used by surveyors or realty offices for tracking legal property lines. Case by case, these software tools are appropriate when close partnerships exist or specific analysis tools are required. In some instances close coordination of data and methods is required between partners. The exchange of data and/or software can be maximized if the parties involved are all using the same hardware/software platform.

3- System configurations - The type and size of data bases and analyses required provide input for evaluating appropriate system configurations. These configurations are the specific hardware and software required to support the applications. SUN computers predominate in some regions in the Service, PC systems in others. Migration to the NT platform will probably be helpful and give more consistency across the organization, but should only occur as appropriate (within time and budget considerations) for each given office using a GIS. As SUN workstations near replacement or require major upgrading, cost analysis studies should be made to determine if the time is right to move to the NT environment. A range of technical specifications can be found at the end of this document.

4- Data base management and analyses - Data base management and analysis include the data characteristics and analysis techniques required for each application. Data base requirements include data acquisition costs, manipulation costs, data quality, data scales, and data base size. Data analysis techniques are the functional capabilities of the software and hardware, which impact system configurations.

Data base requirements can vary widely depending on the scope of the application; ecosystem, individual refuge, state, etc. The type of data also impacts the size of the files; some satellite data files are 20 MB each, or more. Simple ArcView shapefiles for a small refuge might be 30KB. Manipulation of data files can require 2-3 times as much disk space as the file itself, in addition to the RAM requirements. Generally 'satellite' stations will be processing smaller files, for individual stations or projects while nodes will be dealing with the larger data sets. This diversity of data size and complexity of analysis is probably the best reason to consult with the Regional GIS Coordinator or staff at a "node" to design and purchase the correct system configuration.

Data & Metadata

Stable base data sets will be available to all users in a region from a number of nodes within the region. Data sets may be obtained from partners, states, contractors, non-government organizations, or other federal agencies. The base data held in the ecoregion office archives will be considered stable for the purpose of GIS analysis. Associated metadata will detail the origins of the data. In any given area of the region, there are subject matter experts on the data in that given area. These people will have stewardship responsibilities for the data on the target system(s). That is to say, they insure that the base data sets are current, that quality control checks are met, make changes when necessary and act as point of contact for all questions. Only those names listed as subject matter experts should be allowed to modify the 'master' digital information. All others are limited to read access only, or manipulation of copies. Metadata will be sent to the Regional GIS Coordinator for posting on the Regional or National GIS home page. This metadata will serve as the clearing house for all data in the Region.

A distributed system requires that all host office have the necessary disk space and communication lines to be an effective distribution point for GIS data. At this point in time, that may be a problem for some offices. Alternatives are available. Metadata and base data sets could be made available from the national FWS GIS homepage. The same concept applies; only the Internet address is different. Regardless of who you are and where you are in the Region, you will be able to obtain metadata from one point. Metadata will direct you to the ecoregion office which hosts the data.

Budget (estimated!)

Technical specifications

Note: These are recommended technical specifications for the ESRI software of Arc/Info and ArcView on PC or NT platforms; other software packages may require different technical specifications. AutoCAD, in particular, may have additional requirements. Software may function with smaller amounts of memory (RAM), but would likely be frustratingly slow.

ArcView 3.0a

Processor: 486 or higher (586, 200 MHZ recommended)
Operating System: MS Windows 95 or NT
RAM: 16 MB Ram (32 recommended)
Hard Drive: 2 gigabyte (get more if you can - hard disks always fill up)
CD-ROM Drive: whatever is the current standard speed (at least 12x)
Monitor: 17 inch minimum, 21 inch preferred:
VRAM; 2-4 MB recommended
Tape Drive: (or other backup system)

Arc/Info 7.1

Processor: 586 or higher Intel System(266 MHZ): or Dec Alpha system (Note: NCTC recommended a dual processor system for heavy computational loads)
Operating System: Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 (4.0 strongly recommended)
RAM: 32 MB Ram (64 recommended for Intel - get 128 if possible)
Page File Size: 100 MB (200 strongly recommended)
Hard Drive: 5-10 gigabyte (350-440 MB needed for installation, plus data storage needs)
CD-ROM Drive: whatever is the current standard speed (at least 12x)
Monitor: 17 inch minimum, 21 inch preferred
VRAM; 2-4 MB recommended
Tape Drive: (or other backup system)

Additional notes:

1- NCTC has had very good luck with Jazz drives (internal or external) for up to 1 gigabyte of extra disk storage, backups, sharing data, etc.

2- Wide SCSI versus wide IDE hard drives: depends on usage. If you will be using the unit as a file server, or accessing data from multiple drives often, get the wide SCSI. Data transfer rates are higher. Otherwise, the IDE will be fine, and cost much less.

3- For any monitor look for a refresh rate of at least 72-hertz (75 is better), a dot pitch of at least 28 mm (22 mm is better), and a minimum 14 MHZ bandwidth (20-30 MHZ preferable).

Arc/Info 7.1 on Unix:

Some offices may still need to purchase UNIX machines for GIS. This will occur most often when there are existing UNIX machines or applications. The following is information on current specifications that have worked well for Arc/Info.

Processor: Sun UltraSPARC 2 Model 1300 (this is a 300 MHZ machine, and a second hard CPU can be added)
Operating System: Solaris 2.5.1 (or possibly 2.6, not tested)
RAM: 128 MB
Hard Drive: 2-2.1 Gigabyte Internal HDD, 1 external Sun Multi-Pack with 6-9 GB HDD
CD-ROM Drive: Internal Sun 12x
Monitor: 20" (with preferably Creator 3D graphics rather than Turbo GX graphics)
Tape Drive: 4mm or 8 mm
3.5 inch floppy drive

For additional information regarding this Web page, contact Deb Southworth Green, in the Division of Information Resources and Technology Management, at Deb_Green@fws.gov

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Keywords=GIS, configurations, hardware, software
Last Modified January 02, 2001 11:54 AM