A NEW RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL GIS FOR SOUTHWESTERN INDIANA

The Indiana Geological Survey (IGS) and Bernardin, Lochmueller and Associates, Inc. (BLA), have created a geographic information system (GIS) for southwestern Indiana. The GIS includes data for 25 counties along and west of Indiana State Road 37 and south of Interstate 70, and Brown County. The GIS constitutes part of an Environmental Impact Statement that BLA is preparing for the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) in consideration of a new Interstate highway between Indianapolis and Evansville. The GIS includes approximately 150 shapefiles, grids, and georeferenced images. These layers were derived from a variety of sources, including federal and state agencies, as well as IGS and BLA. Layers relate to planimetry, infrastructure, history, environment, biology, geology, resources, and hazards. All layers are in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 16, North American Datum (NAD) 83. Most of the layers have been clipped to a common boundary, which was compiled at a scale of 1:24,000. Metadata were generated for all layers in a format prescribed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). Internal discussions among personnel of IGS led to the development of a common format for file names and metadata titles, as well as common word usage for selected metadata sections. Most of the metadata were generated using a metadata collection tool produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Coastal Services Center, current as of November 4, 1999, and used as an extension to ESRI ArcView, Version 3.2. All datasets and their associated metadata were subjected to extensive spatial, technical, and editorial review by IGS. Metadata were pre-parsed and parsed using CNS (Chew and Spit, Version 2.6.1) and MP (Metadata Parser, Version 2.7.1) software from the U.S. Geological Survey. The errors identified by MP were all addressed and corrected. The result is a large and internally consistent GIS, including metadata that is fully compliant with FGDC standards.