New Software to Help Land Managers Protect Sensitive Land
EarthVision Environmental News
November 13, 2000
GAINESVILLE, FL -- New software developed by University of Florida (UF) scientists will help land managers protect natural resources while balancing land use activities.
"Agencies face many conflicts in terms of serving the public while trying to adopt measures that will guarantee the integrity of delicate ecosystems," said system developer Loukas Arvanitis, a professor of forest resources and conservation in UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. "This system will give land managers an efficient method of gathering, manipulating and reporting information."
The system combines two high tech methods of gathering, storing and displaying data. In the field, Global Positioning System, or GPS, receivers precisely pinpoint the items being counted, such as species of trees, vegetation, trails, waterways and other components of the landscape. With GPS, the exact locations of different species will be identified to within a meter and done in a more cost-effective manner. Arvanitis said that the accuracy of GPS receivers is invaluable. Data can be collected using aerial and satellite photographs or through actual fieldwork.
Once collected, the information is stored in a database management system and displayed using a Geographic Information System (GIS), which is a powerful computer program capable of generating informative maps. Land managers can then review these maps to make informed decisions regarding conservation of natural resources and recreational activities.
An example of how this software could work is as follows: a water district is interested in putting in camping facilities along a riverbank. A land manager checks the computer system and finds that the potential site is not the best choice; the trees and grasses are delicate and could not stand human activities. Additional research reveals a site located farther downstream that would be ideal. Instead of scrapping the plan, the facilities are simply relocated to the better site.
Initially the software will be limited to forest and vegetative information. But Arvanitis said that the system could be expanded to track wildlife, exotic plants, geological features, water access points and other details of various ecosystems.
"Land managers will be able to develop models and establish cause-and-effect relationships between different resources," Arvanitis said. "Current systems are not able to quantify how levels of resources affect each other because they lack reference points that allow the documentation of changes over time."
One of the benefits of GIS is that it allows you to create multiple layers of information. Once the data is collected and stored, it can be updated and shared in a variety of formats.
Development of the software was funded with a $100,000 grant from the Suwannee River Water Management District. Arvanitis said that the timetable and mechanism for making the software and database formats available to other agencies is still under development.