Ministry of Forests

Ministry of Forests

Landscape Unit Plan Pilot

Business and Technical Procedures and Standards:

LUP Data Preparation

June 12, 2000

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2

Purpose and Intended Audience 3

Introduction 3

Objectives 4

Issues and counter-measures 4

1a. Sliver Removal Issues: 4

1b. Sliver removal counter-measures: 4

2a. Standardized data presentation issues: 5

2b. Standardized data presentation counter-measures: 5

3a. Non-standard attribute names issues: 5

3b. Non-standard attribute names counter-measures: 6

4a. Data Hand-off Point Between DSC and District Office issues: 6

DSC Data Preparation (Pre-Viewer Processing) 7

Overview 7

Data Collation 7

Where to get FC1 and FIP files 7

MoF Arc/Info coverage naming convention for FC1 files 8

Where to get TRIM files 9

MoELP Arc/Info coverage naming convention for TRIM files (adopted by MoF) 9

Other LUP template naming conventions 9

Other LUP template data requirements without digital naming conventions 11

Detailed Data Processing Steps using Arc/Info 12

Variations in datasets 18

Providing map projection information for GeoMedia users 18

List of Contacts 21

Appendix A: Sliver Removal 22

Appendix B: FIP Attribute Names Cross Reference 25

Appendix C: Spatial Data Delivery Package Checklist 29

Appendix D: Example Net Down Criteria 30

Appendix E: Glossary of Terms Used in This Document 32

Appendix F: Acronyms Used in This Document 36

Purpose and Intended Audience

The purpose of this document is to assist Data Service Centers (Working Group 1) with guidance in collecting and preparing spatial data used in the Landscape Unit Plan process.

Introduction

Several Regions and Districts are currently piloting Landscape Unit Plan (LUP) preparation, analyses and reporting in conjunction with Forest Practices Branch (FPB) and Information Management Group (IMG). The purpose of these pilots is to prepare LUP’s using the procedures recommended in the Landscape Unit Guide, otherwise referred to as the Guide in this document, as well as employ ArcInfo and GeoMedia software to prepare and process data for LUP output (tabular reports and thematic mapping). Automation of most mandatory LUP preparation functions is required to complete the approximately 1300 LUP’s that must be produced by July, 2002. This document is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of all data preparation steps, in line with the Guide.

The strategy employed is for Data Service Center staff to prepare the input data that the District (Working Group 2) staff will use to analyze and produce output. Using the LUP template, local staff should be able to easily produce reports required according to the Guide (Tables 2.8, 2.9 and 3.1). This sharing of workload and functions should provide reasonable efficiency given the Ministry’s limited resources. In addition, use of an LUP template, based upon LU datasets prepared and delivered in a standardized manner, should provide end users with an easy-to-use means of deriving targets and producing baseline themeatic mapping as preliminary steps for locally defining candidate OGMA’s. Please note that the actual delineation of candidate OGMA’s, or other derived outputs has not been automated in this process.

A custom GeoMedia/MS Access front end has been developed for analyses and reporting on the prepared LUP data sets: this front end is referred to as the LUP template. Information Management Group (IMG) is the application custodian of the LUP template. Much of the information used for LUP assembly comes from various Ministry and non-Ministry data custodians and current data standards for these data custodians have been adhered to. The LUP data set with related reports and thematic outputs, containing Old Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s) and the like, is considered to be a resultant set of information for which Forest Practices Branch (FPB) is the data custodian. It is the intent of IMG and FPB to digitally archive LUP resultant data sets once these have been completed.

It is important to note that very specific net down processes are defined and handled as part of the LUP data preparation at the DSC/WG1 level prior to these data sets being delivered to Districts for further analyses, reporting generation and OGMA placement. The critical items for LUP data preparation to meet GeoMedia needs are: the creation of the standard ArcInfo coverages including generation of an LUP_Overlay resultant file; inclusion and use of the common field names with standard naming conventions; and optimization of file size for ease of viewing and reporting.

Objectives

The primary objectives of LUP data standards and implementation of a GeoMedia LUP template are as follows:

· Provide guidance to both DSC’s and Districts, in the form of a set of LUP data preparation standards, as the basis for developing a standard set of queries and outputs (tabular reports and thematic displays) in GeoMedia for Province-wide application.

· Provide an LUP template custom front-end under GeoMedia to simplify some of the LUP analyses and reporting at the local level.

Issues and counter-measures

A number of outstanding data and process related issues are frequently encountered during LUP data preparation. These issues need to be considered and addressed, as follows:

1a. Sliver Removal Issues:

When one feature class is overlaid with another feature class, its respective polygon boundaries act like “cookie-cutters” to stamp out new resultant polygons based on the combined polygon boundaries of both feature classes. Frequently the resultant polygons are then overlaid with several more feature classes, with each successive overlay being chopped up into smaller and smaller areas. Eventually, some of the polygons get so small that we refer to them as “slivers” and their value to us is questionable, yet each one has its own database record and uses processing power whenever the resultant polygons are used in a GIS or viewer.

1b. Sliver removal counter-measures:

With 1300 Landscape Units in the province to complete, it may not be feasible to examine the sliver polygons in every LUP dataset. Each DSC should decide how much time to devote to examining sliver polygons. At a minimum, a sampling of datasets should be examined. Use the guidelines in Appendix B: Sliver Removal. Ask yourself these two questions:

· What is the affect of different sliver removal criteria on the quality and accuracy of each dataset, and what should the maximum sliver polygon size be? This document recommends as a default, using 200 square meters as the maximum size for sliver polygons. Appendix A: Sliver Removal, shows the affects of removing sliver polygons in two typical Landscape Unit datasets.

· Should sliver polygons get merged into neighbours using a hierarchy that is based on business relationships between neighbouring polygons (i.e. LU boundary, ownership, forest cover), or should spatial relationships alone should determine the merge (i.e. size or shape of neighbouring polygons)? Note: This document recommends as a default, merging sliver polygons into neighbouring polygons that have the largest shared border between them. See Detailed Data Processing Steps using Arc/Info, Step 6, for more information.

2a. Standardized data presentation issues:

This issue is summarized as follows:

· Information needs to be presented in standard format for output required on a Province-wide basis;

· Review report tables (as per LU Guide):

1. 2.8- LU Summary by BEC Variant, Targets – Old, Existing (required).

2. 2.9- WT’s (required).

3. 3.1- OG target, OGMA delineation (required).

4. 3.2- tabular summary of OGMA’s (required but not yet automated in the LU template).

2b. Standardized data presentation counter-measures:

· The LUP template provides all required tables in the format specified in the Guide. Creation of additional tables is optional at the decision of the District, i.e. these are not supplied with the first version of the template.

3a. Non-standard attribute names issues:

This issue is summarized as follows:

· There are presently four different sets of FIP attribute naming conventions in use (see Appendix B: FIP Attribute Names Cross Reference).

· There is a need to base stored queries on one standard as per data custodian naming convention and build cross-reference tables with alias attribute names to link queries to other data sets not using standard names.

3b. Non-standard attribute names counter-measures:

· Use FIPDBF names until this messy issue is permanently resolved.

4a. Data Hand-off Point Between DSC and District Office issues:

This issue is summarised as follows:

· Determine optimum dataset size, using overlays in line with the Guide as a starting point, and adding other local overlays if required, keeping in mind that the larger the dataset the slower the viewer software will perform analyses.

· Decide where the cut-off point is between raw dataset processing and processing done for analyses, i.e. should the DSC perform none, some, or all of the landbase classification process or just prepare the raw data and have the local office do any subsequent processing using the spatial tools in the viewer

· Establish a timeline priority between District and DSC for any re-processing of data that is required

Flexibility is required since overworked DSC’s may not be able to provide processing for all Districts in the time required.

DSC Data Preparation (Pre-Viewer Processing)

Overview

Approximately 70% of the total workload to produce an LUP is spent in data collation and preparation prior to doing any LUP analysis. Ministry staff have to acquire and convert an enormous amount of Corporate and non-Corporate spatial and attribute data. The analysis will be done using Intergraph’s GeoMedia software. GeoMedia reads spatial & attribute data using a special translator called a GDO (Geographic Data Objects) in any of the following formats: ArcInfo Coverage, ArcView Shape, MGE, MS Access, Oracle or other ODBC compliant relational data base (RDB). ArcInfo Coverage is preferred because it has strong (level 3) topology and can be optimised for use within the Geomedia software. Most of the data collation and preparation is done by the DSC’s, with subsequent data sets being then sent to each District for additional LU analyses and output.

Data Collation

Where to get FC1 and FIP files

The Ministry of Forests corporate data is Resources Inventory Branch’s FC1 and FIP files, available in the following formats and locations:

· FC1 IGDS & FIP ASCII files are available through ODM (Object Data Management) using the WinODM software application. These maps were digitised in the UTM projection.

· FC1 files are also available in Arc/Info Coverage format files on the MoF GIS server FSSPA-S1 (142.36.206.200). Updated tiles are re-posted every two weeks. During the FC1-to-Arc/Info translation, maps are re-projected to the Albers Equal Area projection.

· FIP data is also available from an Oracle database. Information on getting access to the Oracle database can be found on the website http://wwwinternal.for.gov.bc.ca/isb/gis/Databases/oracle/UserIds.htm. Oracle data is accessible as “views” that separate records based on Rank, Layer and Record type. The convention for Oracle field names is the attribute names from the MoF Relational Data Dictionary (more recently incorporated into the Integrated Data Dictionary). The Oracle long attribute names can be used directly with Arc/Info in a native SQL expression inserted into an Arc/Info command, e.g. RESELECT f_fc POLY ^fippoly where non_productive_cd > 0, but cannot be stored in INFO because some item names exceed the number of characters allowed by Arc/Info for item names. The Oracle data can be used directly with GeoMedia too by joining it through an Oracle warehouse connection, but unless you create a query first and use the query to join to only the mapsheets that you need, GeoMedia will grind away reading the entire Oracle database. Since there may be a delay between when the LUP dataset gets cut, and when the GeoMedia user connects the dataset to the Oracle database, it may be a better to cut the records from the Oracle database and store them in MS Access. The MS Access database can then be included with the LUP dataset. Instructions for doing this are on the MoF GIS website at: http://wwwinternal.for.gov.bc.ca/isb/gis/Databases/Access/ImportOracle.htm

MoF Arc/Info coverage naming convention for FC1 files

F_alr (Management overlay – Agricultural Land Reserve – FC1 level 13)

F_anno (Annotation subclasses for Forest Cover – centroid & nodeside, lakes, rivers and roads – FC1 levels 5,6,8,10,19)

F_arrows (Forest Cover label arrows – FC1 level 19)

F_bec (Biogeoclimatic – FC1 level 25). Note: LUP template requires that this source of BEC data be renamed. See the additional notes on BEC mapping below.

F_cads (Cadastral boundaries – FC1 level 8)

F_da (Roads – FC1 level 8)

F_de (Railroads – FC1 level 8)

F_ea (Powerlines & Pipelines – FC1 level 8)

F_fa (Surveyed boundaries – FC1 level 7)

F_fc (Forest Cover – FC1 level 9,10. Note: Attribute Fc_tag can be used to join to most external FIP data). LUP template validation looks for feature class F_fc with attributes Np_cd and Proj_agecl.

F_ga (Rivers single-line – FC1 level 5)

F_gb (Lakes & Rivers double-line – FC1 6)

F_ja (Seismic lines – FC1 level 8)

F_neat (Map neatline – FC1 56 or 62)

F_open (Silviculture openings – FC1 level 9)

F_oper (Management overlay – Operability – FC1 level 32. Note: If you have more accurate local data derived/collected from SEA or part of an FDP then use it)

F_own (Management overlay – Ownership – FC1 level 31. Note: You may need to check ownership line work with RTEB as FC1 ownership boundaries may not be up to date)

F_pcell (Management overlay – Planning Cell – FC1 level 24)

F_pfor (Management overlay – Provincial Forest – FC1 level 34). Note: Identify any non-Provincial forest.

F_psyu (Management overlay – Public Sustained Yield Unit – FC1 level 28)

F_rc (Management overlay – Inventory Region / Compartment – FC1 level 23)

F_rd (Management overlay – Forest region / District – FC1 level 33)

F_rec (Management overlay – Recreation – FC1 level 47). Note: Better VQO and ROS data may be available in a separate Recreation inventory file.

F_rg (Management overlay – Stock / Range / Pasture – FC1 level 43)

F_rg_feat (Range improvements – FC1 level 15)

F_rms (Remote sensing update – FC1 level 42)

F_tsab (Management overlay – Timber Supply Area / Block – FC1 level 27)

Where to get TRIM files

The Ministry of Environment, Lands & Parks corporate data is Geographic Data BC’s TRIM (Terrain Resource Information Management) files, available in the following formats and locations:

· TRIM files are available in Arc/Info Coverage format files on the MoF GIS server FSSPA-S1 (142.36.206.200). These maps were digitised in the Albers Equal Area projection.

· TRIM_Gridded_DEM files are available in Arc/Info GRID format files on the MoF GIS server FSSPA-S1 (142.36.206.200). TRIM_Gridded_dem is interpolated from the TRIM feature class Tdem in a 25 meter grid. Each file covers an area equal to a 1:250,000 NTS quadrangle.

MoELP Arc/Info coverage naming convention for TRIM files (adopted by MoF)

Tctr Contour lines, spot heights, cliffs, peaks, and related text. LUP template validation looks for feature class Tctr with attribute Elevation.