Groundwater Model Karst Contributors Wanted
ESRI recently hosted a MultiDimensional and Groundwater Data Model Workshop chaired by David Maidment of University of
Texas and Joe Breman of ESRI. The meeting was convened at ESRI to establish the basis for a groundwater data model and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas related to multidimensional data modeling. The contact information and a collection of presentations from leaders in the discipline and ESRI development specialists are posted on the ESRI groundwater data model Web site at http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=downloads.dataModels.filteredGateway&dmid=37.
Since there is a strong link between groundwater and cave/karst data, it is only natural that the invitation for review is being extended to this domain. If you have any feedback or ideas or would like more information regarding this work, contact David Maidment (maidment@mail.utexas.edu). To become a member of the groundwater data model review team, contact Norm Jones (nlj@email.byu.edu).
For more information on data models, visit the following:
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/geodatabase/about/data-models.html
http://support.esri.com/datamodels
GIS Used for Studying the Karst Landscape of Cockpit Country
The April–June 2004 issue of ArcUser features an article by Parris Lyew–Ayee, a doctoral student in the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, detailing the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology in his study of karst geomorphology and the management and optimization of field data in Jamaica's Cockpit Karst. View the article online at http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0404/cockpit.html.
To search for other cave and karst-related articles or to subscribe to ArcUser, visit http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/.
2004 ESRI User Conference Cave and Karst SIG
The Twenty-Fourth Annual ESRI International User Conference will be held August 9–13, 2004, at the San Diego Convention Center and Marriott Hotel and Marina in San Diego, California, USA. The conference presents a unique opportunity to learn from others and share GIS experiences. More than 10,000 attendees are expected this year. For more information, visit http://www.esri.com/uc.
The 7th Annual ESRI Cave and Karst Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 10, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in room 24-C of the San Diego Convention Center. The SIG meeting will feature discussions and presentations by GIS users in the cave and karst community. If you would like to make a short presentation at the SIG, contact Bernie Szukalski at bszukalski@esri.com or 909-793-2853, extension 1315.
Western Kentucky University Incorporates GIS in China Caves Project
A recent three-week expedition by a team from Western Kentucky University's Hoffman Environmental Research Institute employed GIS in a cave exploration and karst research project to help solve water needs in a major karst area in the Hunan Province. GIS was used to create basemaps for the area and to incorporate global positioning system (GPS) locations and survey data from caves that were mapped each day. More information is available at http://www.wku.edu/news/releases04/april/cave.html.
Cave Survey Programs Add and Extend GIS Support
Several popular cave survey programs—Compass, Walls, and WinKarst—have recently added or extended GIS support.
Compass now supports direct export to ESRI shapefile format, allowing cave data to be used directly by ArcView and other ESRI programs. The export capabilities include nine different options, so different aspects of the cave passages can be viewed separately. The options include stations, surveys, features, and 2D or 3D passage modeling. The 3D modeling includes additional features to create realistic approximations of the passage walls. For more information, visit the following:
http://www.fountainware.com/compass/
http://www.fountainware.com/compass/compesri.htm
Walls Project Editor v.2.0 maintains cave and karst terrain survey data in a tree-like hierarchy of files of various kinds, including raw survey data, scalable vector graphic files, and GPS data. The processed and compiled data can be exported into a variety of formats including ESRI shapefile format. Walls currently produces five types of shapefiles, with 2D or 3D options. Each type has a unique set of attribute fields describing various properties. Walls also supports "flag" and "note" shapefiles that can be used for inventory data. For more information, visit http://www.utexas.edu/depts/tnhc/.www/tss/Walls/tsswalls.htm.
WinKarst 11.0 now supports export to ESRI shapefile format. The export model creates five objects—Caves, Surveys, Shots, Stations, and Controls. Each includes a database with associated data. All information can also be exported into a single dBASE IV file. Cave data can also be referenced to Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates, supporting use with GeoTIFF topographic maps in ArcView. For more information, visit http://www.resurgentsoftware.com/WinKarst.html.
Free Virtual Campus Training Seminar: What's New in ArcGIS 9
This free online seminar provides an introduction to the new features included with ArcGIS 9 and will highlight some of the important new functionality now available. Other ArcGIS 9 courses are available on the ESRI Virtual Campus . General information concerning ArcGIS 9 can be found at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/about/whats-new.html.
ESRI Cave and Karst News Wanted
News and calendar items for future editions of ESRI's Cave and Karst
e–Newsletter are wanted. If you have any news concerning cave and karst GIS activities or events, please send a brief descriptive paragraph along with URLs (if any) to bszukalski@esri.com for inclusion in a future e-news issue.
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