Conversion wizards and data input forms are available to translate data to a 



standardized format. Typical records include date, contractor, location 



(i.e., station or river mile), horizontal dimensions, depth of cut, design and pay 



volumes, disposal location, sediment data, and dredge specifications. Typically, 



preparation of this portion of the database will require manual input of printed 



data. 



One of the advantages to a GIS-based approach is derived from the 

 geographic relationships inherent in the data. For example, dredging records 

 document project performance at a location and thus have a geographic 

 component. Therefore, the data can be referenced to coordinates indicating that 

 location (i.e., stationing, northing/easting, latitude/longitude). These data can 

 then be selected for analysis based initially on the location. Specific problem 

 areas can be isolated and examined to determine trends not readily discernible 

 through standard tabulated data. Several charts (e.g., dredge production and 

 historic shoaling) can be generated based on these records. 



Digital photographs 



Digital photography provides a means to document general and specific 

 changes to a system over time. These photographs can include aerial 

 photographs, oblique ground-level shots of specific locations, documentary 

 evidence of projects - essentially any aspect of the project that will benefit from 

 photographic evidence. A scanner can convert conventional photographs to 

 digital format for incorporation in the database. Digital images should be 

 converted to JPEG format at a standard resolution of 640 by 480 pixels through 

 third-party software packages. The database includes options to document the 

 source, date, and description of the photograph. The user may easily scroll 

 through the images, select and print those of special interest, and incorporate 

 these images in various reports. Georeferenced aerial photography (i.e., stretched 

 to match the adopted coordinate system) can be incorporated as an additional 

 theme in the project base map. 



Miscellaneous 



Any additional relevant data fall under the miscellaneous classification. This 

 category can include sediment grain-size curves, tabulated sediment data, a tidal 

 record time series, datum corrections, and sea-level rise rates based upon survey 

 epoch. In a manner similar to that used to maintain the dredge records, the end 

 user incorporates these data into an Arc View database where they become 

 readily viewable and searchable. 



Case Study - East Pass, Florida 



The case study of East Pass involved testing and evaluating the concepts 

 driving Data Manager development. As stated above, the initial step in 

 developing a DMS-Data Manager project is selection of a common coordinate 

 system for the data. All data shown on the following pages are referenced to the 

 State Plane Coordinate System, North American Datum of 1927, Florida North 

 Zone. Figure 6 shows a typical Data Manager screen. The themes shown along 



1 8 Chapter 2 DMS-Data Manager 



