GIS Development

Timpanogos Cave National Monument

At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, I established some their first GIS applications.  I originally received free ArcView licences from Conservation Grant from ESRI.  The monument presented three interesting challenges: 1. Scale, 2. Relief, and Caves.  The monument was only 250 acres in size.  Any mapped activity had to be accurate.  The USGS topo maps were too small of scale to deliver the proper detail needed to allow GIS to be helpful.  The monument was surrounded by cliffs which made accurate GPS reading very tricky.  And finally the main resource was the Timpanogos Cave System.  Two important layers had to be created monument base map and cave base map. 

We were lucky to have had a detailed 10-foot contour map created of the entire monument.  The map was scanned and georeferenced using GPS control points.  To perform rock fall studies, Brenden McNeil digitalized the contour to create a Digital Terrain Model.  To create a smaller base and ArcPad friendly version, Tim Barnhart removed all of the maps features to isolate the contour lines.  He then used ArcScan to create accurate contour lines to be attributed to its representing elevation.  The result allows the ability to create accurate 3D models of the monument and very impressive hillshade layers when considering the scale.  Tim then went on to create 3D representations of the monument’s buildings. 

Former Cave Specialist Rod Horrocks produced a map in 1993 that was also scanned and georeferenced.  Wishing to have more detailed layer, Brandon Kowallis took up using Rod Horrocks’s original notes to create a detailed 1 to 4 meter map of the cave using Adobe Illustrator.  This map was then georeferenced to the two main tourist entrances at each end of the cave.  This map was then exported into BMP pieces to be used with ArcPad.  We are still waiting for ESRI to incorporate referencing vector graphic files.     

We used these two map layers to inventory everything in the monument and to document the project research work.  We have received two $10,000 funded proposes to first inventory the cave’s significant features and then to inventory the entire monument significant features.  The recreation of the cave map was one of the products resulting from the cave inventory.  In 2007, seasonal employees were using compass and tape techniques to accurately place building, powerlines, facility lines, etc as part of the surface inventory.

At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, I had two articles published.  One was on using ArcPad to inventory cave features and the other was on implementing GIS technologies at Timpanogos Cave National Monument.  The articles can be viewed by visiting the Publication Page.

[Timpanogos Cave Map with contours] [ArcScan Contour Map] [Cave Trail map with hillshade]

[3D Views of Timpanogos Cave NM]

Tony Grove Cave Project

I was data manager for the Tony Grove Cave Project.  I used ArcGIS to organize the resulting cave location and cave survey data.  I was able to compile the geology, cave survey data, and dye tracing results to create to derive new conclusions about the cave’s development and trends.

[Caving Geology of Logan Canyon and Tony Grove Map]

Carlsbad Field Office

In Carlsbad Field Office, I deal with the cave GIS needs.  I have created database of cave locations, cave withdraw areas, areas of high cave and karst concerns.  One interesting layer I created was being able to delineate the large sinkholes through the Carlsbad Field Office using 10 meter DEMs.  I first filled all of the sinks with ArcGIS Sink Fill tool and then created a new grid layer by subtracting the elevations of the two layers.  The sinkholes can be shown by depth.

I also created a 3D view of the Chosa Draw area (the nation’s foremost gypsum karst area) to illustrate the usually high occurrence of caves to the oil and gas industry looking to drill within the area.  The resulting view shows all of the karst features (sinkholes, cave entrances, open cracks, disappearing streams,etc.) in the area as yellow dots and then the mapped cave passage could be seen through the transparent color aerial photo.    

[Sinkhole Map] [3D View of Chosa Draw (PDF)] [Interactive 3D View of Chosa Draw (3D PDF)]

Great Basin National Park

I first introduced ArcView to the park in 1999 as a free license through the Conservation Grant.  I quickly used the ArcView to inventory cave resources by georeferencing as many cave maps as I could.  Most of the inventories focused on mapping bat use in caves.