The History of Texas is Under Your Feet and at Your Fingertips

Daniel K. Pearson, US Geological Survey

Transcript

1. U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey The History of Texas is Under Your Feet and at Your Fingertips! Daniel K. Pearson USGS Texas Water Science Center CTPO Studies Chief Austin, TX TX GIS Forum October 28, 2015
2. Overview §  Brief Intro to USGS/Cooperative Program §  Geologic Atlas of Texas (GAT) §  Project History §  Development Approach §  Texas Geology Web Map Viewer §  Press Release and Response §  Joe Vrabel (USGS), Florence Thompson (USGS), Data and Spatial Studies (USGS), TNRIS, UT-BEG Credits/Acknowledgements
3. Introduction to USGS §  Dept. of Interior - Founded in 1879 §  Six Science Mission Areas §  Water Resources §  Ecosystems §  Energy, Minerals and Environmental Health §  Core Science Systems §  Climate and Land-Use Change §  Natural Hazards §  Nationwide about 9,000 employees §  Conduct interdisciplinary scientific monitoring, assessment, and research… distribute that information to the public
4. …to provide hydrologic information and understanding needed by others to achieve the best use and management of the Nation’s water resources. USGS accomplishes this mission in cooperation with State, Local, and Other Federal Agencies. Water Resources Mission –
5. “In cooperation with…..” §  Work with over 100 municipalities, river authorities, groundwater districts, local, state, and Federal agencies
6. The Investment §  TGIC/GAT Workgroup (2001-02) §  Inventory, standards, funding, data custodian §  Strategic Mapping Program established in 1997 by Senate Bill 1 to develop consistent statewide digital data layers §  Geology was not one of the core layers, but the GIS Community in Texas realized the need §  …and so it was in the early days
7. The Original Source - GAT §  The Texas Geologic Atlas Project was first cited in the 1961 UT-BEG Annual Report §  38 GAT hardcopy map sheets in the series – 1:250,000 §  Production involved the work of 28 geologists from UT-BEG and collaboration with other agencies, seven cartographers, and several editors §  The last GAT sheet was published in 1987, map sheets remain best seller from UT-BEG
8. The Architect §  Dr. Virgil E. Barnes (1903-1998) served as Geologist and Research Scientist, Associate Director, and Senior Research Scientist at UT- BEG, as well as a faculty member in the University’s Department of Geological Sciences. §  Dr. Barnes directed the production of the Geologic Atlas of Texas and was updating it at the time of his death
9. The Agreement §  In October 2002, the United States Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB/TNRIS), began development of a simple geodatabase model to capture the power of these data.
10. Data Production: Simplified §  Phase I (2002-2004): Produced library of 38 Esri personal geodatabases representing the original 38 UT-BEG GAT map sheets. §  Phase II (2005-2006): Development of a statewide dataset, combining the 38 individual geodatabases into one containing more than 145,000 geologic features. Interpretive, new product. **Captured all GAT booklet information (Age, Description)
11. Things that kept me up at night…
12. Deliverable provided to TNRIS §  January 2006, the result of this effort was a statewide compilation of surficial geologic data housed in a single geodatabase containing: §  117,000 Rock Unit polygons §  16,000 Member Formations (polygon and line) §  11,000 Faults §  554 unique geologic symbols for the Seamless dataset §  Various sheet unique geologic formations (Vents, Dikes, Collapse Structures, others)
13. Wrap up work at USGS §  Built a webpage to support use of the data in Desktop ArcGIS – http://tx.usgs.gov/GAT/ §  Overview, Project Summary, Database Contents…. User’s Guide §  Pointed folks to TNRIS Data Download page §  And there it has been since 2007…. After 7 years, is there still interest in the webpage? Yes! Google Analytics, Google Searches, Ask USGS
14. What happened in the last 5-7 years? §  Revolution/Evolution §  Google Maps/Earth §  Mobile Technology §  Open Source §  Maps everywhere §  Infographics §  Use of Social Media §  Focus on communicating to both technical and non-technical audience
15. Transition at USGS TXWSC §  Over the last 5 years, have slowly transitioned from data production shop to web visualization and geospatial analysis §  Focused on simplifying our science for public consumption §  “Simple, clean and modern” §  Why not build a click and point web application to explore the Geology of Texas?
16. We have done this before - Streamer http://nationalmap.gov/streamer/
17. Walker Basin Hydro Mapper - NV http://nevada.usgs.gov/walkerbasinhydromapper/
18. Smart Development? §  Concerned with overhead associated with maintenance and upkeep of applications §  Develop frameworks that can be re-used and recycled §  Invest in common set of tools and focus on mainstream technologies §  Get comfortable with SDLC §  Applications are born, they live and are retired and/or replaced §  Investigate new technology!
19. How did this all come together?
20. Use existing tools! §  Built using Esri JavaScript API as foundation §  Custom tools and widgets built using jQuery and jQuery UI §  Using AGS to handle identify tool with relationships built into the geodatabase §  Base geology data is being served as a cached tile layer to improve speed and performance
21. Search tool pays dividends Power of GNIS --> Search API §  Developed for Streamer §  Geographic Names Information System – Federal register of place names for the US §  Core requirement to be able to search for physical features using GNIS §  Intellisense search, uses all available GNIS categories and logical groups §  http://txpub.usgs.gov/dss/search_api/
22. Always wanted to Explore the Geology of Texas? §  Pedernales Falls §  Chisos Mountains §  Enchanted Rock
23. Virtual Tour + TX Geology Web Map §  Boquillas Canyon – Brewster County
24. Virtual Tour + TX Geology Web Map §  Davis Mountains – Jeff Davis County
26. Panoramio API §  If you are going “Explore Texas Geology”, then you might want to see it too! §  Panoramio Widget API lets you display the photos from Panoramio on your own web site §  Geolocated photos from Panoramio are great to enrich your maps or illustrate information where location is an important factor §  So… we added the QC’d library of landscape photos into the application
27. Purpose and scope §  Statewide, 1:250K this is the highest resolution available §  Audience – General Public, K-12, Universities, Industry, Natural Resource Developers, more §  To be able to provide baseline descriptions about surface geology and rock age via web browser in one-stop-shop §  Share the “Story of Texas Geology”
28. Time for the demo! http://txpub.usgs.gov/dss/texasgeology
29. Official Release – June 2015 §  USGS Top Story! §  National and State Press Release with TNRIS/ TWDB partnership §  Application release + updated webpage on TXWSC homepage to support §  “Interactive Geologic Map of Texas Now Available For Online Viewing: Find Extinct Volcanoes, Oil and Gas Formations, and Where Dinosaurs Roamed”
30. Public Response
31. Comments/Feedback §  “Did Texas annex parts of New Mexico and Oklahoma?” §  “This is outstanding!” §  “And to think…. This was all under water at one time.” §  “Is this available for California? Rest of US?” §  “And to think I just bought a 7’x7’ 4-piece wall map” §  ….and a few other colorful comments.
32. Parting thoughts to share §  Smart development is key for a small group §  Reuse and recycle components when/where you can §  Targeted applications tell more succinct story of your data, 2 apps may be better than 1? §  When does a mashup become a mess? §  Do not try to replicate GIS over the web! Tons of icons, tons of complex tools §  Goal: Expand the audience for your data
33. U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Questions or comments? Daniel K. Pearson USGS-TXWSC Central Texas Studies Chief dpearson@usgs.gov 512-927-3561