NATIONAL PARK SERVICE GEOLOGIC RESOURCES INVENTORY REPORTS: INTEGRATING GEOLOGIC DATA, PARK LANDSCAPES, AND EFFECTIVE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

National Park Service Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) products connect park staff to geologic data, park landscapes, and resource management concerns. The GRI program produces digital geologic map data (GIS) and accompanying reports for national parks, monuments, memorials, seashores, lakeshores, and other types of National Park System units across the country. To initiate these products, National Park Service employees and geologic experts meet to discuss each park’s geologic features and processes and associated issues. Since their inception in 2004, the reports have evolved considerably in their scope and linkage to the GRI geologic map data. There is an increased focus on resource management issues identified during the scoping meeting such as debris flows, flooding, and seismic activity. The reports highlight prominent or distinctive geologic features and processes, for example, glaciers, lava flows, coastal and inland dunes, caves, barrier islands, and fossils. A succinct geologic history ties together depositional settings, geologic processes, and existing rock formations and deposits to show how the current landscape has evolved over time. The geologic map data section includes a summary of the GIS data; a map unit properties table that lists issues, features and processes, and connections to park stories for each mapped geologic unit; and a graphic with the GIS data draped over a shaded relief image. The illustrated reports also include a glossary, bibliography, and additional-references section to aid resource managers who may not be familiar with geologic resources and terminology. The reports are peer reviewed, professionally edited, and submitted to the NPS Natural Resource Report series for publication. As of July 2011, 93 of the 270 reports planned for the inventory are complete and available for download by park managers and the public at http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/inventory/gre_publications.cfm. Future development could lead to increasingly interactive products that would be accessible to a wider audience. Interactive PDFs and web-based applications are potential future directions. These would continue to enhance connections between report content and geospatial map data.