McNulty-Huffman, Dan. 1992. Development and Preliminary Use of a GIS Database for Wind Cave National Park. Prepared for NR510.

Abstract

Currently Wind Cave National Park does not have a GIS database for above-ground resources. (Park staff are using a CAD system for mapping of the cave.) Therefore, the first objective for this project was the development of a GIS database that would provide the needed information on the total area of each vegetation class within each management unit. Additionlly, since the database will likely be heavily used by the park in the future, I was also interested in developing some additional themes, such as topography.

My second objective was to determine and perform the GIS modeling procedures to generate the needed data on the area of each vegetation class within each management unit. A direct inteface between the simulation model and a GIS would provide tremendous capabilities and ease in changing management unit boundaries. However, the current hardware and software capabilities of the parks that will be using the simulation model dictate that the simulation model operate independently on a DOS based computer. Therefore, my goal was simply the ability to generate a table of data in ASCII format for use by the simulation model.

And finally, as this course is my first intensive personal experience with Geographic Information System use, I wanted to explore the procedures for import of existing digital data sources commonly used in natural resources management of GISs, and better learn the capabilities of ArcInfo and the procedure for its use.