GIS - What's New

3/30/2005

Geodata Updates

- Each office now has the geodata for all of the surrounding counties
- Updated transportation, hydrography, and government units (MI CGI Framework v4b)
- Countywide DRG Mosaics - "f:\geodata\topographic_images\drg_s_mi[FIPS].sid"
- 56 counties now have SSURGO soils data
- Several counties have updated DOQ data, including 1998 CIR photography
- Draft copies of the FSA Common Land Unit (CLU) data have been placed in "f:\geodata\common_land_unit"
 

Updated Aerial Photography Planned

USDA has entered into a national partnership to acquire National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery for Michigan in 2005. The imagery will be based on CIR, leaf-on photography acquired this summer, and will be 1 meter resolution (the same as our existing DOQ data). The national long-range plan for digital aerial photography is to acquire 1 meter NAIP every 5 years, and 2 meter NAIP every year in between as a replacement for FSA's traditional 35mm compliance slides.
 

NRCS-MI Tools Extension v1.6
 

The latest version of the NRCS-MI tools (version 1.6) has been deployed to service center servers. In addition to a few small changes, the latest version includes the "Import Land Units" tool to assist conservation planners in utilizing FSA's CLU data as a source for digitized land units in Toolkit. The updated extension will copy to the user's PC when checking a client out from Toolkit Central. Non-Toolkit users can double-click on "f:\geodata\project_data\nrcs\arcview\update_extensions.bat" to copy in the latest version.
 

New GIS Skill Builder

A new GIS skill builder "Using Digitized Land Units" has been posted under the "Skill Builders" section of the GIS web page. This document explores the usage of the "Import Land Units" tool for using pre-digitized land units in Toolkit.
 

Online GIS Training
 

USDA SCA employees now have the opportunity to take online GIS courses through the ESRI Virtual Campus. Full details will be distributed in the near future. NRCS-MI will take soon advantage of this excellent training opportunity by requiring one of the basic ArcGIS courses as a prerequisite for Toolkit 5 training.3/18/2004 - GIS/GPS News

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