ASGIS User Group Minutes
June 3, 2004

Presentation by Karyn Caldwell

Karyn Caldwell provided a briefing on an archeological inventory project that she is currently working on in Tutuila. Karyn works for the Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) within Colorado State University. She is using GPS for mapping historic properties within the military training area on Island and mapping training area infrastructure. She has developed a data dictionary for her fieldwork. The data dictionary records attributes including boundary (NW, NE, SW, SE), feature type (trail, path, train activity area, training feature), and date recorded. She will be collecting field data for the next 10 days for the Army Reserve training facility in Malaeloa

Palau Community College Benchmark and GIS training Update

David Kulberg started instruction for the second module (Access) in the Palau Community College Benchmark and GIS Training program. The Access training began June 1st at the ASCC Information Technology Lab. The class is being taught from 4:30-7:30 and will continue for the next 8 days (Mon-Fri). It is to be decided if the third module will start without a 3 week break.

Transformation of ASD62 State Plane to NAD83 HARN UTM Zone 2 South (Troy)

A revised state plane projection and datum file is available through the ASGIS User Group website. The revised projection file allows one to convert data from ASD62 state plane projection to NAD83 HARN UTM Zone 2 South within ArcGIS’s ArcToolbox. Previously the procedure required both ArcView and ArcToolbox and several steps in order to convert data from the local state plane to the NAD83 HARN UTM Zone 2 South projection and datum. The new projection file and procedure to convert data are available through the “News” webpage. Any questions on the process can be directed to Troy Curry at DOC.

Using GIS and Spatial Analysis for Fisheries Management in the American Samoa EEZ (Francesca Riolo)

Francesca Riolo will be attending the GISMAP 2004 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. The topic of her presentation is GIS and spatial analysis techniques applied in DMWR to analyze and display entity, distribution, and success of longline fishery in the American Samoa Exclusive Economic Zone. Francesca presented on the methodology and GUI’s that she customized for analyzing DMWR’s tabular data (1996-2004). The longline fishery data is stored in a Fox Pro database managed by DMWR. Map products include spatial distribution of selected fishing activities, species, and catch per unit effort (CPU). Please see Francesca for a copy of her paper or questions.

Quickbird imagery update

There have been 6 scenes collected thus far: 2 East Samoa and 4 for West Samoa. There are still 4 scenes to be collected for Samoa. The acquisition will run through July of this year.

ASGIS User Group Website/FTP update (Troy)

As mentioned above, the revised projection file for the ASD62 State Plane Projection is available on the ASGIS “News” webpage. Other webpages that have been updated for the ASGIS User Group website include the members, maps, and minutes webpages.

GIS Day (Laurie/Tali)

International GIS Day is November 17th 2004. This year there will be several activities through the duration of the week. Such activities include a geographical awareness week November 15-19th) and GIS Day (November 17th). Geographical awareness week will likely include a teacher’s workshop via the DOC and DCI contacts on an “Introduction to GIS.” There will also be several school level map competitions and presentations at various high schools (select audience only) on GIS. The presentations will include information on what GIS is, how we use it in American Samoa, job opportunities and salary. It was proposed by Nancy to submit a more formal proposal to request monetary funds from participating agencies.

Agency updates

FBNMS – Nancy announced an opportunity within FBNMS this summer for an intern. The responsibilities would include updating the GIS located in FBNMS and work on a atlas for the national marine sanctuary.

DOC – Laurie informed the group about a land cover/use change project that she has started for Tualauta County. The land cover/use project will look at changes from 1961 to 2004 and incorporate information derived from aerial photography and satellite data. Also, there are new land cover and land use GIS data layers for the Tafuna Plains area that have been converted through using the revised ASD62 state plane projection file (see Troy for details).

Attendees

American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) – Faafetai Wells
Colorado State University (CSU) – Karyn Caldwell
Department of Commerce (DOC) – Laurie Williams, Troy Curry, Tali Tuinei
Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) – Francesca Riolo
Fagatele Bay National Maine Sanctuary (FBNMS) – Nancy Daschbach
Land Grant – Neil Gurr, Tipisone Fa’alogo, Jessica Ludgate, Eric Hanson, Mila Misa, Simon
South Pacific Archaeological Consulting Services – Julie Taomia
USARC / IMA-ARCD – Dell Greek