Spatial Data Taxonomy Pam Keller Bureau of Land Management March 2011.

Spatial Data Taxonomy Pam Keller Bureau of Land Management March 2011

SDT is a comprehensive framework for organizing and standardizing geospatial data. Photo credits-Bureau of Land Management, Burns District Office, Mark Armstrong & others

Wildfire Plant Survey Roads Climate Wilderness Fauna Chemical Treatment County Vegetation Water Sampling Harvest Watershed Geology Fencing Recreation Sites Cultural Sites Land Status Energy Potential Prescribed Fire Urban Zoning

Wildfire Roads Fauna County Recreation Sites Land Status Prescribed Fire Wilderness Vegetation Cultural Sites Fencing Urban Zoning Range GISTimber GIS Recreation GIS Realty GISFuels GIS Harvest Land Status Chemical Treatment Watershed Water Sampling Climate Water GIS

Wildfire Roads Climate Wilderness Fauna Chemical Treatment County Vegetation Water Sampling Harvest Watershed Fencing Recreation Sites Land Status Energy Potential Prescribed Fire Wilderness Vegetation Cultural Sites Climate Roads Fencing Urban Zoning Range GISTimber GIS Recreation GIS Realty GISFuels GIS Watershed Harvest Water Sampling Cultural Sites Chemical Treatment Land Status Recreation Sites Urban Zoning Prescribed Fire Chemical Treatment Vegetation Climate Fencing Range GIS Water Sampling Prescribed Fire Chemical Treatment Watershed Vegetation Climate Water GIS Water Sampling Chemical Treatment Roads

Design Flaws Perspective too narrowdesigning for current data and uses Complex data structures, hard to maintain Software dependent, not robust over time

SDT Design Principles Well-defined and understood data Holistic organization Store once, use many Simplify

Philosophy behind the SDT What is a taxonomy? A system for describing and representing similarity of properties, behaviors, relationships and constraints within a particular domain (group).

What is spatial data? Both the location & data about the location. What is geography? Study of the earth & its lands, features, inhabitants & phenomena. Branches of geography Human geography Physical geography Environmental geography Translate to high-level categories of the SDT

SDT Resources Physical Geography Boundaries Human Geography Activities Human Geography Environmental Geography

SDT Domain is Natural Resources

And their Management

Haecceity: discrete, unique properties, the essence of a particular thing (John Duns Scotus) Quiddity: universal, shared qualities, the whatness of a thing Somewhat like species and genus (Aristotle) Essence is the set of attributes that make an object what it is, without which it loses its identity (Leibniz) Ontology: formal representation of knowledge by a set of concepts within a domain (Heidegger) These concepts are important in identifying the lowest level of SDT, the elemental,atomic entities Philosophy of Categorizing Data

The Essence of Data Entities in SDT What inherent rather than interpreted or derived What -- rather than who, how, when, why What -- the definition of a thing What -- inclusivity and mutual exclusivity What includes the characteristics that make it a particular thing and those that it shares Drives the SDT structure & feature classes

Wildfire Plant Survey Roads Climate Wilderness Fauna Chemical Treatment County Vegetation Water Sampling Harvest Watershed Geology Fencing Recreation Sites Cultural Sites Land Status Energy Potential Prescribed Fire Urban Zoning

Wildfire Climate Fauna Chemical County Vegetation Water Sampling Harvest Watershed Fencing Cultural Sites Land Status Energy Potential Prescribed Fire Wilderness Roads Recreation Sites Urban Zoning GIS Resources Boundaries Activities

SDT Overview Three categories at the highest level. Resources : physically existing raw materials of natural resource management. Activities: human activities (physically manifested) associated with natural resources. Boundaries: human constructs (concept or description) with no physical existence, bounding areas of regulation/restriction on resource management.

Vertical/Inherited Relationships Resources Activities Boundaries Species Occurrence Landscape Cover Potential Resource Water Climate Terrain Sampling Survey Structures Treatments Land Status Planning Designations Political Administrative

Other inherent data qualities Basic who/how/when/why attributes Spatial characteristics Creation and use of the data Update frequency (dynamic vs static) Accuracy needs Similarities group naturally within the SDT hierarchy and already defined atomic entities

Horizontal Relationships: Cause&Effect Interdependence Business Cases Activities take place on, in or with Resources inside some Boundary

Horizontal Relationships between Feature Classes Species Occurrence: Survey ID Sample ID Landscape Cover: Current Veg Sample ID Sampling: Sample ID Survey: Survey ID Structures: Trtmt ID Plan ID Treatments: Trtmt ID Plan ID Special Designation Area: Plan ID Planning Area: Plan ID

Relationships between Feature Classes and External Databases Resources Activities Boundaries Species Occurrence Landscape Cover Potential Resource Water Climate Terrain Sampling Survey Structures Treatments Land Status Planning Designations Political Administrative Basic - Detailed Relationship

Overlay of Weeds Chemically treated in County X on BLM. Master -- Derived Relationships Species Occurrence Political Boundaries County X Weeds Land Status BLM Surface Jurisdiction Treatments Chemical

Example Implementation: OR/WA BLM Called the Oregon Data Framework, ODF Taxonomy represented in UML Lowest levels (feature classes) automatically inherit from higher levels (abstract classes) Domains shared among many feature classes New data standards quickly implemented Includes creation of the feature classes and population from scattered data sources Full framework more than half implemented

Benefits Simplified data structures make maintenance easier Reduced redundancy and inconsistency Improved accuracy and currency Better defined data and data analyses Data more accessible and sharable Robust when HW/SW changes

The art of ranking things in genera and species is of no small importance and very much assists our judgment as well as our memory. You know how much it matters in botany, not to mention animals and other substances, or again moral and notional entities as some call them. Order largely depends on it, and many good authors write in such a way that their whole account could be divided and subdivided according to a procedure related to genera and species. This helps one not merely to retain things, but also to find them. Gottfried Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding, 1704 The world of spatial data is in need of systematic taxonomy. The spatial representation of geographical entities, as a whole, and according to their inherent qualities is still lacking.

Questions or Comments? Contact: Pam Keller (541) 573-4486 [email protected]

Resources Subcategories Species Occurrence - Specific locations of plant and animal species and change over time. Overlapping polygons. Core attributes include species, discovery date, revisit date, a link to survey area, accuracy, season of use for fauna and % cover for flora. Water Inland water on the surface of the earth. Points, lines and polys. Core attributes include USGS name, local or special name, flow, fish presence, riparian condition, water quality, link to water rights data. Landscape Cover Entities that can be thought of as covering the surface of the earth from wall to wall such as soil and plant communities. Ecological Potential (Soil and potential plant community/ecological site) and Current Cover (dominant plant community). Wildfire Wildland fire started through natural, accidental or malicious causes. Overlapping polygons and points for ignition points and very small fires. Core attributes include name, incident number, date, cause code. Geology Formations, Faults Climate Precipitation isolines and zones, Lightning, Air Quality, Wind Zone, Temperature Zone, Solar Insolation Cultural Sites location of archeological finds Terrain Entities describing the shape of the earths surface. Elevation contours and zones, Landform, Viewshed, Aspect, Slope, Hydrologic Unit (watershed), Physiographic Province Potential Resource Group of entities for predicting the natural world when direct measurement is not possible. These are futures or past oriented: what we think the physical resource looked like in the past or will look like in the future. Does not refer to a representative model. These are new entities created from two or more other entities. Mineral potential, Energy Potential, Wildlife Habitat Potential, Fire Behavior, Cultural Site Prediction, Flora Site Prediction, Visual Resources Inventory, Wilderness Characteristics Inventory. Core attributes include date and method.

Activities Subcategories Treatment Deliberate human action for the purpose of natural resource management that results in alteration of the landscape. Overlapping polygons track multiple treatments through time. Core attributes include name, method, agent, purpose, target, date, and links to the authorizing plan and planning databases. Prescribed Fire, Harvest, Mechanical, Revegetation, Chemical, Biological and Protection with feature classes for both completed and proposed treatment. Proposed treatments have an attributes for status. Survey Location of deliberately searched areas. Overlapping polygons track repeated surveys through time. Core attributes include name, date, method, surveyor, survey target, found flag. links to Species Occurrence if found. Flora Survey, Fauna Survey, Weed Survey, Archaeology Survey, Reforestation Survey. Sampling Deliberately collected data recorded at specific point locations. Specific data and methodology details and repeated measurements through time are kept in external, linked tables. Point data. Includes vegetation sample plots, timber stand exams, soil pits, stream sample points, prism (climate) plots, wildlife observation points, treatment monitoring points and many others. Could all be combined on one feature class. Core attributes include XY coordinates with projection, general sample type, sample identifier, method, last sample date, direction, accuracy, and links to resource feature or treatment feature. One feature class. Structures Human-built structures, construction. Two feature classes, Lines and points. Existing and proposed. Polygons created from lines or points if necessary using radius attribute. Lines created from points if necessary with side length attribute. Core attributes include name, special name, structure type, date constructed, maintenance responsibility, closure status, easement flag, condition, material, agent, and links to the authorizing plan and to maintenance and budget databases. Line structures include roads and trails, pipelines, fences. Point structures include gates, culverts, water development, towers, toilets, quarries, buildings, boat ramps, airstrips. Smaller structure features (picnic tables, signs, spigots, etc) kept in XY tables.

Boundaries Subcategories Political & Administrative Boundaries related to public policy and law or to the management of government entity jurisdictions. Core attributes include name and information about the authorizing instrument. Feature classes include Wilderness, declared Roadless Areas, National Historic Districts, Wild & Scenic River Corridors, National Monuments, Endangered Species Critical Habitat, Grazing Allotments, Wildhorse Herd Areas, Urban Growth Boundary, BLM Resource Areas, National Forests, Counties, Congressional Districts and Census Blocks. New Political & Administrative boundary proposals are relatively rare. Special Management Area Boundaries for special areas created or updated through land use planning efforts. Core attributes include name, special values, management restrictions, plan name. Wall-to-wall designation zones for OHV, Mineral Stipulation, Land Tenure, Right-of-Way Avoidance, Visual Resource Management, Fire Management. Selected areas for Riparian Preserve, Forest Preserve, Wildlife Management, Special Recreation Management, Research Natural Areas, Special Products. Feature classes for proposed SMA boundaries are created when a new plan is initiated and include an additional attribute for planning alternative. When the plan is approved Proposed SMA boundaries are incorporated into existing SMA boundary features and then archived. Land Status Entities containing official description of land parcels and the legal rights and restrictions on land parcels. All features are snapped to the Geographic Coordinate Database points (survey grid). Feature classes include Township/Range/Section/ , Surface Jurisdiction, Subsurface (mineral estate) Ownership, Easement/Right-of-Way areas and lines, Withdrawals, Claims and Leases, and Land Tenure Transfer (history of acquisition and disposal). Core attributes include type, right holder name or code, and case file (serial) number that links to the legal record. Proposed Land Tenure Transfer updates Surface and Subsurface ownership as well as existing Land Tenure Transfer. Encumbrances (easement/right-of-way, withdrawal, claims, leases ) also have feature classes for proposed and include an attribute for proposal status. Plan or Project Boundary - Any area where a multi-year plan for specific action or set of actions will be analyzed and perhaps undertaken. Many overlapping polygons. Core attributes include plan name, date, stage, and identifier used as the link to treatments, surveys, structures and special management areas authorized by the plan.

Spatial Data Taxonomy Pam Keller Bureau of Land Management March 2011.

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