Background


Research
The Environmental Data Center is focused in a variety of disciplines spanning various scales and scopes. These include local, regional, national and inter-national scales working with local, federal, academic and regulatory agencies.

Current Projects
Major projects recently undertaken at the EDC include modeling and mapping Critical lands for conservation, landfill siting, coastal and freshwater wetland restoration assessment, shoreline change analysis, biodiversity mapping, natural hazards risk modeling, Lyme Disease risk assessment, wildlife management, landscape characterization, and environmental monitoring of near-coastal environments.

The EDC specializes in designing and serving static and interactive GIS maps over the Internet. The RI Atlas is a series of 7 natural and cultural resource maps produced for each city and town within the state. The Coastal Eelgrass Habitats project provides the public an interactive mapping experience utilizing cutting edge technology. Along with serving the RIGIS database the EDC serves RI Statewide 1:12,000 digital orthophotography through a web-accessible browser developed in cooperation with MIT and EPA. The Center has built capacity to host web-based interactive mapping and is active in developing several applications of this technology.

In partnership with RI Cooperative Extension, the EDC offers introductory and advanced hands-on ESRI Certified GIS training.The EDC serves as the National Park Service's (NPS) Regional Technical Support Center for GIS in the Northeast Region of the United States. The EDC also provides GIS application support to the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program.

The EDC provides technical GIS application support to the Cooperative Extension Source Water Assessment Project which focuses on land use and best management practices in water supply watersheds. In addition, the EDC is in tegrating web services for the National and New England Regional Water Quality Programs.

The EDC is working with the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency to produce hardcopy maps for the statewide Hazard Mitigation Plan being developed for cities and towns in RI. Working with the State Hazard Mitigation Officer, two draft base maps are designed and produced by the EDC from federal, state, and municipal source data. Each map reviewed by RIEMA and the municipality for accuracy and completeness and then changes are incorporated by the EDC.

Since 1991, the EDC has operated a Global Positioning System Base Station. Mapping grade (2-5m accuracy) reference data from this station have been available free of charge first through a dial-in bulletin board and then through a WWW interface starting in 1995. In July of 2001 the system was replaced with a high-order Trimble 4700 reference station which supports precise (mm accuracy) survey as well as traditional mapping applications.

Past Projects
A Protocol for the Assessment of Biodiversity Hotspots for RI Municipalities
Comparison of the Positional Accuracy of Wetland Delineations Using Digital Orthophotography and Aerial Photography
Landscape Correlates of Breeding Bird Diversity in Rhode Island
Patch Size and Scale Asymmetry: Limits for Detecting Wildlife Habitat Selection
Very Large Scale Digital Orthophotography as a Foundation for a Municipal GIS
The National Park Service Field Technical Support Center Program: Integration of Missions and Resources.
Establishing GIS Capacity Within the National Park Service Field Units
Relationships Between Geomorphological Variation and Biotic Diversity: A Multi-scale Assessment.
Applications of GIS in the National Park Service New England Support Office
Shoreline Change, Threats, and Analysis: Fire Island National Seashore, NY
Bathymetric Change Analysis, Moriches Inlet, Fire Island National Seashore, NY
Alongshore Variability in Shoreline and Foredune Mobility: Space/time Scaling Fire Island National Seashore New York
Serving GPS Community Base Station Data and Rhode Island GIS Data Over The World Wide Web
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Internet: Mapping From Your Den
Automated Vegetation Mapping Using Digital Orthophotography
Training in the Use of Desktop Mapping and the RIGIS Database.
Training Local Officials in User-Friendly Geographic Information System Software and Applications for Watershed Management
Gateway National Recreational Area GIS Implementation Plan
Spatial Variation in Marine Ecosystems: Visualization of Patterns and Trends
Patterns and Correlates of Landscape Change in Northern Thailand