Rob Krumm Illinois State Geological Survey krumm@isgs.uiuc

1. Life West of the Border: GIS Clearinghouse Activities in Illinoisor…Serving Gourmet Data on a Fast Food Budget Rob KrummIllinois State Geological Surveykrumm@isgs.uiuc.edu

2. Who Let This Guy In? • Why am I here, resident of the Land of Lincoln, attending the Indiana GIS Meeting? • History of working with staff members from the Indiana Geological Survey • Interested in GIS program activities in many states • Hoping to convince some of you to attend a meeting of the Illinois GIS Association • Jill twisted my arm • Shapiro’s Deli

3. Presentation Outline • Information about the ISGS • Information about the Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse • A recent project – historical aerial photography • What’s in store – future directions

4. Illinois State Geological Survey • Founded in 1905 – located in Champaign, IL • A research and service agency – affiliated with University of Illinois – about 200 staff members • Emphasis on environmental concerns & mineral resources • Human interaction with near-surface geology e.g., waste disposal, groundwater, construction materials, geologic hazards & much more • Historic and continued interest in mineral resources – oil & gas, coal, sand & gravel, limestone • Provide information - publications, maps, GIS dataGIS data, GIS data, run field trips, outreach efforts • Visit us on the web -- www.isgs.uiuc.edu

5. Organizational Challenges • Our work needs to be driven by societal relevance and as such, focus of work changes • Geologic/topographic/hydrologic information needs to be integrated with other information -- land use planning, habitat analysis, wetland restoration, engineering data, etc. • In a relatively short time, field activities & map production have transitioned from manual techniques to the digital environment – GIS, GPS, field-based computing, digital databases, desktop publishing, the web

6. Organizational Challenges • Some of our clients expect to find everything they need on the web, and they want it now (or yesterday) • Evolution of GIS use within the organization • Early on, we rode the crest of the GIS wave – a relatively small group of users generated some exciting results • As the user community expanded, so has the software offering – many staff are interested in many applications • A continued, internal need for user education, training, the development of standards (getting people to pay attention to the standards, etc.) • Coordination of efforts and management of digital data resources • More data on-line means a huge impact on network computing, the continued need for more disk space, robust servers, increased demands on back-ups, PC & server upgrades, etc.

7. Projects & Applications • Coal resources & mined areas • Oil & gas development maps • Carbon sequestration • Regional seismicity & earthquake hazards • Aquifer mapping, groundwater protection • Geologic quads - 1:24,000 • Map production • Providing digital databases as deliverables • GIS Data Clearinghouse & more

8. www.isgs.uiuc.edu/nsdihome Illinois Clearinghouse

9. Clearinghouse Milestones • Illinois NSDI node registered July 1, 1997 • Initial data catalog complete May, 1998 • Statewide and County ArcInfo export files • USGS DRG data access complete Dec., 1999 • USGS DOQ data access complete Feb., 2002 • Historic Aerial Photo Archive on-line Aug., 2003 • Clearinghouse development is driven by project-specific contract funding

10. Illinois ClearinghouseMilestones • Over 1 Terabyte of data downloaded by the 5-year anniversary on July 1, 2002 • For Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2004 • average of 311 unique visitors per day • average of 2,970 page views per day • average of 500 DOQs downloaded per day • average of 10.5 GB of data downloaded per day • More than 556,000 users since July ’97

11. Illinois ClearinghouseMilestones • DOQ Image Service named Geography Network 3rd Place Winner, July 2001 ESRI & National Geographic • Illinois named 2001 Digital State Survey 2nd Place Winner in GIS/Transport. category Center for Digital Gov’t • 2002 Digital State Survey – tied for 1st Placewith Arizona in GIS/Transport. Category • Clearinghouse favorably cited in multiple press releases from Governor’s office(former Gov. Ryan…)

12. Historical Aerial Photography Project • The oldest statewide historical aerial photography for Illinois was acquired 1936 to 1941 • Film negatives were destroyed by the National Archives in the 1980s • The overall collection consists of about 30,000 photographic paper prints • A fabulous collection! • Project was initiated to scan the photos, convert to images and provide on-line access • A keen interest to preserve this collection

13. Historical Aerial Photography Project • Photography was acquired by county • Prints are organized by flight line, film roll number, and exposure number • On-line file access for 45 counties • Don Luman (Mr. Remote Sensing), Dee Lund, Sheena Beaverson & Robert White worked on this project • Additional funding is required to complete the remainder of the state

14. Historical Aerial Photography Project • Access Illinois Historical Aerial Photography by Interactive Map • Digital versions of ILHAP photographic paper prints are available by county as MrSID compressed files, which can be saved to your desktop • The .sid files may be viewed either with a Web browser, after the installation of a plug-in, or an image viewer • LizardTech (MrSID Plug-Ins & Viewers) available free of charge

15. Historical Aerial Photography Project • Provided on-line - Instructions for downloading Historical Aerial Photography in MrSID format; a screen shot of the Interactive Mapping Web Interface; and descriptions of the navigational tools of the Interactive Mapping Web Interface • Web browser must have Frames and JavaScript enabled • Best viewed using Internet Explorer

16. HAP – Project Areas Historic AerialPhotography: 45 Counties ArcIMS interface

19. Illinois ClearinghouseHAP Project • Historic aerial photographs provide a ‘snapshot in time’ reference for the landscape of Illinois in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s • Photos can be compared to newer maps, aerial photography or satellite imagery to address issues such as landscape change, urban sprawl, agricultural practices, vegetation change, historic landuse patterns

20. The Clearinghouse didn’t happen overnight • Perhaps the most visible result of a 20-year investment in GIS technology by ISGS, Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, Illinois State Museum & others • Many people contributed to the data sets that are on-line – present and past employees of the state scientific surveys and other agencies • Also, map-driven access via ArcIMS • ILOIL application – oil & gas well data • ILWATER – access to water wells & other data • These applications are very popular and taxing our existing infrastructure as well Illinois Clearinghouse

21. Illinois ClearinghouseWhat’s in Store? • 2005 statewide DOQ update • A follow up to a similar effort based on ’98-’99 photography • The ’98-’99 project helped put the Illinois Clearinghouse on the map • The first time that DOQs for the state were available on-line

22. 2005 DOQ Update • So far, a lot of enthusiasm for the 2005 DOQ program, just very little funding for distribution • The planes are in the air! • A huge hurdle in front of us • State budget is in a world of hurt • Lack of stable funding for data acquisition, GIS program coordination

23. 2005 DOQ Update • A huge effort with multiple data products • ’98 – 99 product was 1 m resolution/b&w for the entire state • ’05 products to include natural color imagery in the six-county Chicago urban area (1.0 ft.) and b&w imagery for remainder of the state (0.5m) • A tremendous amount of data • An expectation that the data will be available on-line

24. 2005 DOQ Update • Funding needed to support staff, application development, server, disk storage, etc. – estimated costs are about $400,000 (over 2.5 years) • A tremendous challenge • Response: It can’t possibly cost that much. • ’98-’99 DOQ effort required $280,000 • Reminder: project staff are supported by contracts and grants. No long-term funding from the State of Illinois. • A continuous education process to inform people about the level of effort & costs involved • For ’05 cost of data acquisition ($2,204,000) will be less than the costs of the ’98-’99 effort • Shouldn’t data distribution costs also be less? • Nice web applications look easy, so they must be easy to design, get the data on-line, etc

25. Future EffortsExpand The Data Catalog • Making more data readily available is a great goal; what are some of the issues? • Long-term funding is needed to address future data purchases • Age of data sets is a real concern • Emphasis on priority data sets – talking with users, determining what’s needed, what datasets will serve the needs of the user community? • Elevation data – LIDAR • Updated roads data • Updated floodplain/flood hazard maps • Maps concerning groundwater resources

26. Thank You Consider a road-trip to attend meetings of the Illinois GIS Association - www.ilgisa.org Next Meeting – April 21 & 22 in Springfield, IL -- Mapquest - 3 hrs. 18 min. -- 211.35 miles, Indianapolis to Springfield Visit the Illinois Clearinghouse at www.isgs.uiuc.edu/nsdihome/ Questions & comments – please email me at krumm@isgs.uiuc.edu