Wisconsin Coastal GIS Applications Project

Coastal GIS Training

[Coastal GIS Applications Home] [LICGF Home] [UW Sea Grant Home]

Contents

Coastal GIS Needs Assessment
Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Course
Shoreland Management GIS Training Exercise
Coastal Erosion GIS Training Exercise
Shoreland and Coastal Management Using ArcView Training Course
Shoreland Management Using ArcView Training Course
Wisconsin Coastal Management Program Coastal GIS Training Grant
Coastal GIS Demonstrations
Mobile GIS Training Lab
Future Directions in Coastal GIS Training

Coastal GIS Needs Assessment

At the outset of the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute/LICGF Coastal GIS Applications Project, a needs assessment was conducted to share information on the goals and objectives of the project and learn what interest Wisconsin Great Lakes coastal counties had in the application of GIS/LIS to coastal management issues. A series of meetings were arranged during Spring 1995 with land information staff from all 15 coastal counties. At the meetings, county staff expressed a strong interest in GIS training and stated that training funds, in general, were scarce in county budgets. Specific training interests included getting started with a new software package and, in cases where spatial database development was more advanced, applying GIS to specific coastal issues. To meet this need, GIS training was included as a major element in the Coastal GIS Applications Project.

Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Course

The first phase of the training strategy was the implementation of an Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications training course. The course is general in nature, designed to provide an overview of desktop GIS capabilities and an example of GIS applied to a coastal issue. The course has been held three times so far. It is held at the GIS training lab at the Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility (LICGF) in the basement of Steenbock Library on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The LICGF training lab can accommodate up to 14 students in a given session. The training was open to staff from coastal counties, coastal municipalities, and other agencies that have a role in coastal management in Wisconsin. Lodging, meals, parking, training materials, and course fees were covered by Sea Grant, while transportation to and from Madison was the responsibility of the attendee. Lodging and meals were at the J.F. Friedrick Center, a Cooperative Extension Conference facility on campus.

Structure of the Course

The first Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications training course was held on November 1 and 2, 1995. The first day was devoted to an overview of desktop GIS concepts utilizing ArcView 2 software from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI - Redlands, CA). A number of coastal counties in Wisconsin utilize other GIS and mapping software including MGE from Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, AL), Genamap from Genasys II (Ft. Collins, CO), and AutoCAD from Autodesk Inc. (Sausalito, CA). ArcView was presented a vehicle to communicate the basic functionality of desktop GIS and was not presented as the only GIS solution to coastal management issues.

The desktop GIS training was conducted by Tom McClintock, the GIS training manager at LICGF. Tom is a certified ArcView instructor with several years of experience in GIS training for government officials. The training consisted of a condensed version of the Introduction to ArcView two-day training course developed by ESRI. Database management and spatial query and analysis sections were emphasized, while the chart making and address matching sections were dropped from the training. The course began at 9:00 a.m. and included an evening session until 8:30 p.m.

The second day of the November training course focused on examples of coastal GIS applications including shoreland zoning, nonpoint source pollution assessment, and land use planning. The land use planning session was conducted by Math Heinzel, the LICGF lab manager. Also featured was an overview of the use of TIGER/Line files in coastal management by Jerry Sullivan, Steve Allenstein, and Don Ferber of LICGF. The second day ran from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The course was also held twice in Spring 1996 and once in the Spring of 1998. A number of modifications were made in the structure of the course. Instead of spanning two days and starting early on the first day, the training course was spread over three days, starting at 1:00 p.m. on the first day. This was done to make the length of the course and associated travel more pleasant and manageable. Some attendees to the November 1995 course left at 4:00 a.m. to catch the beginning of the training and didn't finish the evening session until 8:30 p.m.--a long 16-plus hour day. For the subsequent courses, the evening session was dropped and the desktop GIS fundamentals component extended for the first half day and the entire second day. The third and final day was devoted to a morning session focusing on a single coastal GIS application (shoreland management) using Wisconsin data and drawing on all the skills learned in the first two days of the course. The application was structured similar to an exercise in the ArcView training manual. The training was modified to produce a more relaxed learning environment, ease travel to and from Madison, allow additional time to cover desktop GIS concepts, and allow the concepts learned to be put to use in designing a coastal GIS application "from scratch." The revised training schedule utilized for the April 2-4 and May 8-10, 1996 courses is included as Table 1.

Table 1. Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Course Schedule

Day 1 (afternoon only)
Desktop GIS/LIS Concepts
1:00 Introductions
1:15 Overview of LICGF GIS/LIS Projects
1:30 GIS/LIS Terms and Concepts
2:00 GIS/LIS Data Sources
2:15 Desktop GIS Basics (Ch. 1)
3:00 Break
3:15 Creating Views and Themes (Ch. 2)
4:30 Working with Themes (Ch. 3)
5:45 Dinner - Friedrick Center
Day 2 (all day)
Desktop GIS/LIS Concepts
8:30 The Power of Tables (Ch. 4)
10:00 Break
10:15 Spatial Query and Analysis (Ch. 5)
12:00 Lunch - Friedrick Center
1:00 Creating a Map Layout (Ch. 7)
2:45 Break
3:00 Addresses and Other Event Themes (Ch. 8)
4:00 Creating Image Themes (Ch. 9)
5:30 Dinner - Friedrick Center
Day 3 (morning only)
Coastal GIS/LIS Application
8:30 Development of a coastal GIS application following a structured exercise and utilizing the skills learned in the first two days.
12:00 Future Directions in Coastal GIS/LIS Training and Training Evaluation
12:30 End

Training Attendance

A total of 49 persons attended the one of the four training coursess. The majority were from coastal counties, although representatives from municipal, regional, state, federal, and tribal agencies also attended the sessions (see Table 2).

Table 2. Attendance at Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Courses by Institution
Institution Number of Attendees 
County Government 28
Municipal Government 10
Regional Planning Commissions 3
Sea Grant Institute 3
Tribal Government 2
State Government 2
Federal Government 1
Total 49

A total of 13 of the 15 coastal counties sent representatives to the training courses (see Table 3). The municipalities represented from Ozaukee County included the City of Cedarburg, the City of Mequon, and the City of Port Washington. The municipality represented from Manitowoc County was the City of Manitowoc, while the municipalities represented from Door County were the Village of Ephraim and the City of Sturgeon Bay.

Table 3. Attendance at the Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Courses by County

County

 Number of Attendees County (+Municipal) 
Kenosha 2
Racine 3
Milwaukee 0
Ozuakee 1+3
Sheboygan 0
Manitowoc 4+3
Kewaunee 3
Door 4+4
Brown 2
Oconto 1
Marinette 2
Iron 1
Ashland 2
Bayfield 2
Douglas 1
Total 38

Table 4 lists the attendance by non-local government organizations. Examining the geographic area represented by the training attendees: 34 were from Lake Michigan jurisdictions, 10 from Lake Superior jurisdictions, and five represented statewide perspectives.

Table 4. Attendance at the Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Courses by Other Organizations
Organization Number of Attendees 
Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission 2
Northwest Regional Planning Commission 1
Bad River Natural Resources Department 2
Wisconsin Coastal Management Program 2
National Park Service - Apostle Island Natl. Lakeshore 1
University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute 3

A wide variety of job classifications were represented by the training attendees (see Table 5). Planning was the most common profession, followed by land conservation and engineering. The diversity of those attending worked to make the training more interesting and indicates that coastal management in Wisconsin is an interdisciplinary undertaking.

Table 5. Attendance at the Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Courses by Function
Function Number of Attendees 
Planning 12
Land Conservation 6
Engineering 6
Zoning Administration 3
Land Information 3
Sea Grant Advisory Services 3
Village Administration 2
Forestry 2
Sanitation 2
Coastal Management 2
Water Resource Management 1
Facility Management 1
Lease Administration 1
Cartography 1
Wastewater Treatment 1
Register of Deeds 1
Land Description 1
Data Processing 1
Total 49

Evaluation

Evaluation responses about the Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications courses were generally very positive (see Table 6). The responses were compiled from ESRI evaluation forms included in the back of the Introduction to ArcView training manual. Several people took the time to write individual comments on possible improvements to the training (slowing the pace down and better describing GIS terminology) and on aspects of the training that worked well. Two people submitted letters of appreciation describing the value of the training to their local GIS projects. Finally, many attendees appreciated the shoreland management application included in day 3 of the training, commenting that it helped to clarify how desktop GIS could be used for Wisconsin coastal issues and that it helped to reinforce the concepts learned in the first two days of the course.

Table 6. Overall Rating of the Desktop GIS Training Component by Session
November 95 April 96 May 96 April 98
Excellent 6 1  2 4
Very Good 6 8  6 6
Good 1 2  4 0
Fair 1 0  0 0
Poor 0 0  0 0
Did Not Complete Form 0 0 0 1
Total 14 11  12 11

Application Interests

Attendees identified an impressive list of coastal GIS applications that are either in the process of being implemented or for which interest in implementation exists (see Table 7). The general categories of these applications include coastal erosion, watershed management (including nonpoint runoff and floodplain management) land use planning and regulation, economic development, tourism, wetland management, harbor management, infrastructure management, forestry management, habitat restoration, cultural resource management, and mapping

Table 7. Coastal GIS Application Interests Identified at the
Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Courses
Application Interests
Coastal recession rates, shore erosion, coastal setbacks
Bluff stability
Shoreland planning and zoning
Inventory of shore structures, shore development monitoring
Stormwater management, urban runoff, nonpoint source modeling
Economic development database
Visitor database, tourism
Floodplain mapping and monitoring
Priority watersheds, watershed management
Support for remedial action plans, contaminated harbors
Assessment of dredging areas and dredge disposal sites
Graphics for zoning and sewer studies
Land use planning and zoning
Analysis of socioeconomic conditions and land tenure
Infrastructure management
Marina design and management
Forest management, white pine restoration (Bayfield County)
Streambank erosion, sediment modeling (Raspberry River)
Educating public officials about water quality issues
Linking GIS and water quality process models
Identifying bare soil in a watershed
Environmental corridor analysis
Assessment of sewer service areas
Identifying boundaries of tax increment financing districts
Providing public information on soils
Inventory of on-site waste disposal sites
Identifying wells in watersheds, well contamination
Organizing tribal land leases
Wetland protection, determining functional classes of wetlands
Cultural resource assessment near the coast in National Parks
Assessing habitat loss and restoration for endangered species
Analyzing FEMA flood zones (V zones) along the Great Lakes

Shoreland Management GIS Training Exercise

A GIS training exercise that allows the user to build a shoreland management GIS application "from scratch" using local government data sets for the Blue Lake in Oneida County, Wisconsin. The exercise requires ArcView 3 software from Environmental Systems Research Institute in Redlands, California and supplies the required data sets and step-by-step instructions to build the application.

Shoreland Management GIS Workshops

Coastal Erosion GIS Training Exercise

A GIS training exercise that allows the user to build a coastal erosion GIS application "from scratch" using local government data sets for the Town of Mosel in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. The exercise requires ArcView 3 software from Environmental Systems Research Institute in Redlands, California and supplies the required data sets and step-by-step instructions to build the application.

Coastal Erosion GIS Workshops

Shoreland and Coastal Management Using ArcView Training Course

A day-long training course was developed that combined the shoreland management and coastal erosion training exercises. The morning session is dedicated to the Blue Lake shoreland management training exercise. The afternoon is dedicated to a review of Great Lakes coastal erosion issues, review of the Town of Mosel coastal erosion training exercise, review of the Ozaukee County Coastal Hazards Emergency Management GIS Demonstration Project, and the NOAA Coastal Services Center Alabama Coastal Hazards Assessment CD. A training packet was prepared that included an agenda, the Blue Lake training exercise instructions, a handout on the UW Sea Grant Coastal Processes Manual, a copy of the Resource Guide for Great Lakes Coastal Hazards in Wisconsin, the Town of Mosel training exercise instructions, a summary of the Ozaukee County Coastal Hazards Emergency Management CD, and an article on the Alabama Coastal Hazards CD.

Shoreland and Coastal Management Using ArcView Training Course

Table 8. Evaluation of the Shoreland and Coastal Management Using ArcView Training Course
Based on the Response to the Statement "Overall, I am Satisfied With the Workshop"
Response October 98 May 99
Strongly Agree 3 4
Agree 4 1
Neither Agree or Disagree 0 0
Disagree 0 0
Strongly Disagree 0 0
Did Not Complete Form 1 1
Total 8 6

Shoreland Management Using ArcView Training Course

A day-long training course was developed that focused on the role of GIS in shoreland management for inland lakes at the regional/county, individual lake, and site scales. A training packet was prepared that included an agenda, background information on shoreland management issues, the lake classification process used in Vilas County, the Blue Lake training exercise instructions, and the use of visualization tools for assessing coastal development.

Shoreland Management Using ArcView Training Course

Table 9. Evaluation of the Shoreland Management Using ArcView Training Course
Based on the Response to the Statement "Overall, I am Satisfied With the Workshop"
Response October 99
Strongly Agree 4
Agree 4
Neither Agree or Disagree 0
Disagree 1
Strongly Disagree 0
Did Not Complete Form 1
Total 10

Wisconsin Coastal Management Program Coastal GIS Training Grant

A cooperative agreement with the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program has been developed to conduct application specific and general coastal GIS training for coastal counties. The following are the four training courses that were sponsored by the cooperative agreement. The Introduction to Coastal GIS Applications Training Course was 16 hours in length and held at the LICGF GIS Training Lab in Madison. The two Coastal Erosion GIS workshops were half-day sessions utilizing the Town of Mosel Coastal Erosion GIS training exercise. The Coastal Hazards GIS workshop was a half day session utilizing the Ozaukee County GIS Demonstration Project CD. The workshops were conducted using laptop computers from the LICGF Mobile GIS Training Lab at sites more convenient to coastal counties (UW-Manitowoc, Bayfield County Courthouse Annex, and UW-Waukesha).

A total of 31 persons received coastal GIS training as a result of the cooperative agreement. Table 10 indicates that eight Great Lakes coastal counties, three regional planning commissions, two state agencies, one traibal agency, and two academic institutions sent staff to the training.

Table 10. Attendance at the WCMP-Sponsored Coastal GIS Training Courses and Workshops
Organization Number of Attendees 
Douglas County 2
Marinette County 1
Door County 5
Kewaunee County 1
Manitowoc County 7
Sheboygan County 1
Ozaukee County 1
Racine County 2
Northwest Wisconsin RPC 1
Bay-Lake RPC 1
Southeast Wisconsin RPC 1
Wisconsin Coastal Management Program 1
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 2
Bad River Natural Resources Dept. 1
UW Sea Grant Institute 3
UW-Manitowoc 1
Totals 31

Evaluation responses about the Coastal GIS course and workshops were generally very positive (see Table 11). The evaluation form was modified from a master developed by the NOAA Coastal Services Center and contains a total of 29 questions covering the topics of program content, program materials, presenter, workshop environment/logistics, action plans, and overall reaction. Several people responded to open-ended questions requesting comments on the most and least valuable parts of the workshop and desired changes to the workshop. Some notable general comments include the following:

I feel that it was a good workshop and dealt with things and ideas we will use.
Lengthen the time of seminar, to take on more tasks.
Since we don't have any GIS equipment, just being able to follow and learn what ArcView can do is important. I know how this could help me on my job.
Though there are some areas I would like to see explored in greater detail, given the different levels of experience among the participants, it would require more than one day to accomplish it.
I appreciate the time, effort and enthusiam the presenter gave to the workshop. It is bound to assist me as I continue learning more about how GIS can benefit my employer.
Complete summaries of the evaluation for each workshop have been completed.

Table 11. Evaluation of the WCMP-Sponsored Training Workshops
Based on the Response to the Statement "Overall, I am Satisfied With the Workshop"
Response December 97 April 98 July 98 December 98
Strongly Agree 3 9 3 2
Agree 2 1 1 0
Neither Agree or Disagree 0 0 0 0
Disagree 0 0 0 0
Strongly Disagree 0 0 0 0
Did Not Complete Form 2 1 1 6
Total 7 11 5 8

Acknowledgement

The Coastal GIS Training Project is funded in part by the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program. Financial assistance for this project was provided by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended, administered by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration pursuant to Grant #NA670Z0276 and the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program.

The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, part of the Wisconsin Department of Administration, and overseen by the Wisconsin Coastal Management Council, was established in 1978 to preserve, protect and manage the resources of the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior coastline for this and future generations.

Coastal GIS Demonstrations

Several demonstrations of coastal GIS have been conducted to agencies at the local, county, state, and federal levels of government, as well as professional associations and other interested parties.

Table 12. Coastal GIS Demonstrations
Organization Location Date Attendance
Great Lakes Sea Grant Network Chicago, IL September 1996 25
Sheboygan County Staff Sheboygan, WI November 1996 6
Manitowoc County Staff Manitowoc, WI November 1996 4
Town of Barksdale Planning Committee, Bayfield County Town of Barksdale, WI December 1996 30
Oneida County Staff Rhinelander, WI December 1996 6
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District Detroit, MI January 1997 12
Oneida County Board of Supervisors Rhinelander, WI March 1997 60
Wisconsin Coastal Management Council Manitowoc, WI May 1997 25
Green Bay GIS Users Group Green Bay, WI June 1997 25
Wisconsin Emergency Management Madison, WI June 1997 2
Coastal Zone '97 Conference Boston, MA July 1997 140
National Sea Grant Program Director Madison, WI August 1997 2
OCRM/FEMA Great Lakes Hazards Mitigation Workshop Traverse City, MI August 1997 75
Vilas County Board of Supervisors Eagle River, WI September 1997 40
Governor's Conference on Emergency Management Stevens Point, WI September 1997 200
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District Madison, WI January 1998 8

Mobile GIS Training Lab

A mobile GIS training lab, consisting of five laptop computers with ArcView desktop GIS software, has been developed. The laptops allow GIS training to be conducted in coastal locations, resulting in greater convenience for professional staff and decision-makers. So far, coastal GIS training sessions using the laptops have been conducted in Manitowoc, WI; Middleton, WI; Bayfield, WI; and Waukesha, WI.

Future Directions in Coastal GIS Training

Additional Web-Based Training Exercises Additional Coastal GIS Training Courses through LICGF GIS Training Program GIS Training at Coastal County Sites using the LICGF Laptop GIS Lab
[Coastal GIS Applications Home] [LICGF Home] [UW Sea Grant Home]

Last modified by David Hart on August 30, 2000
URL http://coastal.lic.wisc.edu/trainsum.htm