Coastal GIS Applications Quarterly Report
David Hart
July to September 2001
General Support
Continued provision of technical assistance on coastal GIS issues to Wisconsin local
governments. This included assisting Door County with finding funding for a large
mapping project.
Assisted Doug Wilcox of the USGS Great Lakes Science Center with development of
land use statistics for the watersheds draining into coastal wetlands along the Lake
Superior coast.
Assisted a citizen with clarification on state septic system regulations.
Coastal GIS Applications
Shoreland Management. Continued analyses of coastal development setback policy
options utilizing existing sources of digital spatial data acquired from coastal local
governments. Assisted Lin Li with calculation in the change in property values
associated with a study of the impacts of shore protection structures.
Water Quality. No activity.
Floodplain Management. No activity.
Shore Recession. Continued to utilize the Orthomapper software developed by Prof.
Frank Scarpace to create digital orthophotos from historic aerial photography for use in
delineating bluff tops and toes.
Data Acquisition and Integration for Coastal Hazard Damage Assessment—Corps
of Engineers, Detroit District
One of the tasks under this agreement is to continue acquisition and integration of new
large-scale digital data (parcels, tax roll data, planimetric and topographic mapping,
orthophotos, soils, land use, and land cover) of the Lake Michigan coast as they are
developed by local governments and other sources. Digital parcel mapping has been
received for the entire Lake Michigan coast, except parts of Ozaukee County. Ozaukee
County staff are working to complete this area. Tax roll data has been linked to parcel
mapping for 77% of the 540 miles of the coastline. Planimetric and topographic mapping
is partially available along the coast, primarily in the southern counties. We will contact
Kenosha and Racine Counties to see if they have new mapping in the coastal area. First
generation coverage of digital orthophotos is complete for the Lake Michigan coast.
Several coastal counties (Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Manitowoc, Kewaunee,
and Brown) are beginning to receive delivery of high-resolution, second-generation
digital orthophotos based on photography flown in Spring 2000. SSURGO soils mapping
is underway in Oconto County (digitizing in progress, due 2001) and Marinette County
(due 2002). Land use data are available along much of the coast, primarily from the Bay
Lake and Southeastern Wisconsin RPCs. WISCLAND land cover is available statewide
interpreted from 1992 satellite imagery.
Scanned aerial photography for 1956 (Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha) and 1961
(Kewaunee) has been obtained from the USDA Farm Service Agency, Aerial
Photography Field Office in Salt Lake City. Historical digital orthophotos have been
prepared using the Orthomapper software developed by Prof. Scarpace for Kewaunee,
Racine, and Kenosha Counties. Photo orientation has commenced for digital orthophoto
production in Milwaukee County.
The Lake Michigan Orthoserver (http://ortho.lic.wisc.edu) has been re-established and is
being expanded during the fall to include additional current and historical orthophotos
and scanned 7.5’ topographic maps. The site is being expanded to Lake Superior and
research is ongoing to integrate vector and raster maps in the interface.
The 1988 land use inventory completed by contractors for the Corps of Engineers in
Kewaunee, Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha Counties has been converted to an ArcView
shapefile in UTM Zone 16, NAD83 and update of the land use based on 2000 digital
orthophotos is underway.
Methods to “hot link” oblique photos and video of coastal features (from the Corps
helicopter survey and other sources) to coastal mapping using ArcView have been
explored. Digital video images (.mov and .mpg) have been developed for a section of the
Lake Michigan coast in Kewaunee County from one of the flights along the coast. The
file size is very large and the resolution is grainy, raising questions on the functionality of
the files.
GIS Training
Conducted a GIS training session for DNR Water Management Specialists at UWMilwaukee on July 24. 9 attending.
Conducted a GIS training session for DNR Water Management Specialists at Northland
College in Ashland on June 30. 15 attending.
Conducted a GIS training session for DNR Water Management Specialists at the Midstate
Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids on August 21. 13 attending.
Conducted an “Introduction to ArcView” training course at LICGF on September 25-26.
6 attending.
GIS Presentations
Organized and moderated a session titled “Integrated GIS for the Great Lakes Coast” and
gave a presentation on the “Wisconsin Coastal GIS Applications Project” at the Coastal
Zone ’01 conference in Cleveland, Ohio on July 19. 50 attending.
Gave a presentation titled “Humpty Dumpty and the Coastal Parcel Map:
The Tale of a Horizontally and Vertically Integrated GIS for the Lake Michigan Coast of
Wisconsin” at the National States Geographic Information Council 2001 annual
conference in St. Louis, Missouri on September 11. 75 attending.
Meetings/Conferences
Participated in meetings of the WCMP Coastal Hazards Technical Advisory Committee
on July 9.
Attended, presented, and moderated a session at the Coastal Zone 2001 annual conference
in Cleveland, Ohio on July 14-19.
Attended and participated in an meeting with state and NOAA officials on the Wisconsin
Height Modernization project in Madison on August 8.
Met with staff at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab in Ann Arbor, Michigan
on August 13
Met with staff of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss coastal GIS projects in
Detroit on August 14.
Attended the Remote Sensing of Great Lakes Shorelines – Second Stakeholders
Workshop at Veridian Systems, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan on September 5.
Attended and presented at the National States Geographic Information Council 2001
annual conference in St. Louis, Missouri on September 7-11.