ADVANTAGES AND PITFALLS FOR SUCCESSFUL USE OF COMPUTER-BASED GIS SYSTEMS FOR FIELD GEOLOGY

Several years of experience with field GPS and GIS mapping systems indicate that they are a significant improvement over traditional, “pencil-and-paper” geologic mapping methods. These technologies are changing the way field geology is done in two fundamental ways. First, field GIS imparts the geologist with the capacity to collect far larger volumes of inherently georeferenced data with great precision and more rapidly than previously possible, increasing the efficiency and productivity of field work. Second, field data can now be merged and manipulated with other geospatial information, both on-the-outcrop as well as in the office. This empowers the geologist with geospatial tools that are simply not available in the field with pencil-and-paper. Numerous difficulties, however, remain in using computer GIS systems in the field. One is the continual evolution (and obsolescence) of computing technology, which requires costly upgrades. Other issues include display technologies that are not well adapted to field use as wells as power consumption limitations. Technological advances are rapidly improving these defects, and we are convinced that field GPS and GIS skills are critical for the next generation of geologists. In undergraduate courses, field GPS and GIS change how we teach field geology. These systems require instructors to be skilled the software and hardware in the inevitable event of problems in the field. These systems also require a more disciplined approach to pre-field preparation (of digital base maps, etc.) so that the technology is an aid for data collection, interpretation, and presentation rather than a hindrance. For students, the systems greatly accelerate learning in some areas, such as the ability to locate, navigate, and map contacts and orientation information. However, in other areas, such as geologic interpretation, the techniques can create pedagogical obstacles that require alternative teaching strategies. The time has come to abandon paper based mapping, and we would hope that within a decade we will look back on geologic mapping using a Brunton compass and paper maps as an artifact of the past, reminiscent of the plane table and alidade, the blow-pipe for mineral analysis, or other archaic technologies.