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Description:
Project Manager:
Gretchen Chiques
Project Years:
2016
2017
Project Summary:
PURPOSE: GIS (geographic information system) is a proven technology that has been in use for several decades by many government agencies and other organizations as a decision support tool and information management system. GIS provides the capability to collect, manage, manipulate, analyze, and share information that is location based. This information is ‘layered’ in a map-based environment to provide a better visual image of location, patterns and relationships. Ecosystems are inherently “multi-scalar” spatially and temporally. Geographically standardized ecosystem inventories such maps or databases enable scientists to pursue conservation planning through gap analysis, resource management, and predictive forecasting of ecosystems conditions. OBJECTIVE: Training scientists and staff in GIS will provide the tools to build robust and high-quality geographic data that will help to maintain and share accurate, reliable, and consistent geographic data to protect, conserve, and restore natural resources, and effectively manage natural resources in the state of
Hawai’i and other jurisdictions.ISSUES: Despite being a management agency with a spatially bound mandate, DAR has very limited capacity to enter, manipulate, or communicate geospatial data. This impedes efficient information flow between DAR and its stakeholders despite initiatives requiring the agency to be increasingly responsive to its constituents, including the Community Based Subsistence Fisheries Area mandate. In a survey of DAR personnel, less than half of respondents indicated they knew how to use ArcGIS software. The advanced skills of participatory mapping and OpenNSPECT are far less understood. Despite the number of personnel familiar with ArcGIS software, the vast majority (88%) of respondents indicated that more training in using GIS software would be valuable to their job. APPROACH/METHODS: After building a geospatial software foundation, NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM) will provide two specialized geospatial trainings. The first training, Participatory Mapping (PGIS), will give the tools to DAR staff to engage and capture community based knowledge. The second advanced training is OpenNSPECT, the open-source version of the Nonpoint Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool, which will teach participants how to investigate potential water quality impacts from development, other land uses, and climate change. These two approaches are described in more detail in the Project Methods section below. It is often difficult to apply software skills learned in a classroom setting back on the job. Simple problems such as installing the ArcGIS software, activating needed extensions, and setting up the desktop may preclude DAR personnel from using the new skills they learned. Additionally, there is likely to be uncertainty about where to find needed data layers, how to process existing data to import it into GIS, etc. To address these problems a Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) GIS expert will spend a total of approximately one month at DAR offices walking personnel through tasks they would like to perform, such as ingesting monitoring data, developing maps, etc. This additional training, working their projects with their data on their computers will enable DAR staff to convert classroom acquired skills into tools they can use.
Expected Outcome:
OCM proposes to integrate skills and expertise provided by NOAA OCM and NOAA CREP to help DAR create and deliver GIS data needed by a collection of local organizations. Four main deliverables are expected:
GIS layers that translate State biological monitoring results or other data of interest into maps that show place-based parameters of reef and coastal ecosystem condition, developed by DAR personnel under the instruction of CREP GIS experts.
Participatory GIS (P-GIS) training to engage and capture community-based knowledge.Updated layer of the different types of marine managed areas and associated information for the Main Hawaiian Islands, and documentation of same to guide and assist future updates by DAR personnel.
Foundational GIS training for DAR Staff, which will include field biologists from all the counties that collect and manage monitoring data. Examples of potential map projects include preparation of exhibits for public hearings, DLNR Land Board presentations, analysis of the outcomes of management efforts (e.g., removal of invasive algae, protection of herbivores), creation of new Marine Managed Areas, and publicly accessible online maps.
Project Locations:
- Hawaii
- American Samoa
- Guam
- Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Project Category:
Fishing
Project Type:
Closed
Project Status:
Completed
Associated Products:
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