research project details
Project Title: Forest Inventory Project Proposal: GIS Support of the PDMVA ITAM Program
Investigator(s): Todd Bacastow and Doug Miller
Sponsor: Pa Department of Military and Veterans Affairs
Environmental Problem Addressed:
Land use management.
Research Project Objectives:
Project objectives are to provide GIS support to the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (PA DMVA) in the area of land management, training management, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Specifically, the PISE researchers will assist DMVA with military range and training land needs associated with the following:
- Inventorying and monitoring of military land conditions as part of the Army’s Integrated Training Area Management (ITAM) program. This includes the use of relational database and GIS technologies in the land use decision process. The service permits the collection of physical and biological resources data from training land in order to relate land conditions to training and test activities. These data provide the information to effectively manage land use and natural and cultural resources;
- GIS-based decision support services to integrate requirements for land use with natural and cultural resources and management processes. This includes integrating the installation training requirements for land use derived from the Range and Training Land Program, the range operations and training land management processes, and the installation training readiness with the installation’s natural resource conditions; and
- Corrective land rehabilitation and maintenance to reduce the long-term impacts of training on DMVA lands. The goal is to mitigate training effects by combining preventative and corrective land rehabilitation, repair, and/or maintenance practices. It includes training area redesign and/or reconfiguration to meet training requirements.
Summary:
The Army recognizes that military training affects the environment. As such, all activities, including training, must be environmentally sustainable and meet current needs without compromising the integrity of the environment for future generations. The Army's Integrated Training Area Management (ITAM) program was established to achieve optimum, sustainable use of training lands, through a program that includes inventorying and monitoring land conditions, integrating training requirements with land carrying capacity, educating land users to minimize adverse impacts, and providing for land rehabilitation and maintenance
There are three subtasks associated with these efforts:
- Support of the Army ITAAM Program and Enterprise GIS
This subtask will address data compatibility, eliminate redundant GIS efforts, and integrate GIS databases and GIS applications across the enterprise system. Data will be documented in accordance with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata. - Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring
This subtask will apply the biodiversity profile approach using a multi-scale and multi-seasonal assessment of many different collecting and sampling techniques targeting all taxa of plants and animals, particularly invertebrates. - Forest Management
Under this subtask the staff at the Penn State Forestland Management Office will continue the development and implementation of a computerized, integrated approach to the inventory and management of forestland utilizing portable data recorders, global positioning units, GIS and database technology. Penn State will oversee all aspects of a forest-wide inventory of overstory and understory vegetation within the borders of Fort Indiantown Gap.