Productivity, Accuracy, and Timeliness Automating water crossing calculations benefits company's forest operations A large manufacturer of paper and wood pulp in North America has experienced a 75 percent increase in productivity since it incorporated GIS into its operations. Domtar Corporation is the largest integrated producer of uncoated freesheet paper and one of the largest manufacturers of paper-grade market pulp in North America. [Freesheet paper does not contain groundwood pulp and is a brighter white than paper made from groundwood.] The company also operates Domtar Distribution Group, an extensive network of strategically located paper distribution facilities. The company also owns and manages more than half of the 15 million hectares of forestlands located in the province of Ontario, Canada. Accessing forest resources in northern Ontario quite often necessitates building access roads and crossings for the many streams common in these areas—an expensive undertaking. Building stream crossings requires in-depth planning to determine the proper type of crossing (e.g., culvert or bridge) and proper size of crossing to be installed. Prior to using GIS, forest operations staff members determined the drainage basin associated with each corresponding water crossing based on 1:50,000-scale maps. They used a dot grid overlay to determine the area of each corresponding drainage basin and associated area of lakes and swamps. This information was used with a formula that determined the proper size and type of crossing. Next, they produced a paper map showing the location of the proposed water crossing and its associated drainage basin to accompany the required paperwork. Depending on the location of a water crossing, the size of the drainage basin, and the experience of the person doing the calculations, it took one to several hours to complete calculations. Domtar set out to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its road building activities by using GIS as a framework. The company created an application using both ArcObjects and the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension that automates the process of performing water crossing calculations. A proposed crossing location is identified by clicking on a map, and the application determines the associated drainage basin by analyzing raster layer data from Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR). This layer includes hydrologically corrected digital elevation models (DEM) data, flow accumulation, and flow direction along with Domtar's forest resources data. Foresters and forest technicians can click on a proposed crossing location, and the application determines the associated drainage basin by analyzing raster layer data. The data includes hydrologically corrected digital elevation model (DEM) data, flow accumulation, and flow direction along with Domtar's forest resources data.