North Seattle Community College Wetland Trail Basemap:

1
North Seattle Community College Wetland Trail
Basemap

• A collaborative project with Homewaters Project
  and NSCC

University of Washington Geography 461 Final
Project Winter 2004 March 11, 2004 Elise
Bowditch Man Wang Matthew W. Wilson
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Purpose / Problem Statement

• NSCC and Homewaters Project (HP) is in need of a
  basemap for the greenbelt areas of NSCC campus
• The organizations need a GIS to manage the
  wetlands and analyze possible locations for
  trails, signage, etc.
• UW team would like to maintain a collaborative
  focus on this project, using an Internet
  websitestudents.washington.edu/mwarrenw/nscc_tra
  il
• UW team would like to focus on basedata creation,
  to better appreciate data requirements for
  analysis

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Project Method

• The project was conceptually brokeninto 3
  macro-phases
• Phase A Initial basemap creation
• Collection of existing datasets
• Meet with HP and NSCC team to establish data
  needs
• Digitizing of new datasets
• Phase B Informed basemap creation
• Use GPS receiver to take readings
• Meet with HP and NSCC team to update GIS
• Provide documentation for datasets, etc.
• Phase C Trail siting analysis

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Workflow
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Georeferencing Photography
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Spatial extents forPhase A and Phase B
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GPS Readings

• NSCC collected GPS readings, which were converted
  into a point shapefile
• Additional GPS readings were collected to
  determine the location of existing trails

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Trail Digitizing

• Using GPS readings, aerial photography, contour
  lines, and mental maps, a trail was digitized for
  the north greenbelt to form a basedata layer for
  NSCC and HP

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Vegetation Digitizing

• Using interpretation of the SPU aerial
  photography, zones of vegetation were digitized
  to express the range of landscape development

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Basedata DevelopmentBuilding a Community GIS

• Greenbelt layers
• Water bodies
• Existing trails
• Potential trails
• Recent construction
• Parking lots
• Sewer/drainage
• Historic sites
• Roads
• Sidewalks

• Core campus layers
• Buildings
• Parking lots
• Roads
• Utilities
• Sidewalks

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Conclusions and Recommendations

• Initial field tour and ground truthing were
  critical components for basemap development
• Project design included placeholder layers for
  habitats, historical points, and trees of
  interest, which need further field work to
  populate
• Move forward on Phase A and B for second spatial
  extent (south greenbelt) and then begin to
  implement Phase C (analysis of interpretive trail
  siting)

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Thank you. Questions?