This paper reviews the implementation plan that brought the diverse ministry programs of Fisheries, Wildlife, Water Management and Environmental Protection along with eight Regional centres together. Many organizations have implemented GIS, some more successfully than others. A candid review of the processes that contributed to B.C. Environments implementation is presented. An implementation plan started 5 years ago and continues to drive the implementation today. By documenting the experience of a large organization presently involved in Corporate GIS implementation it is possible to see how your organization may benefit. The challenge was to bring the Victoria programs and Regional operation centres together to cooperate and contribute positively to the process. Discussion focuses on: the selection of one GIS, the education of management and staff, the management of expectations, the creation of a functional implementation infrastructure and how we maintain executive support.
The United States Department of the Interior manages Cumberland Island National Seashore through the National Biological Survey and the National Park Service. The Island is located off the southern coast of Georgia just north of the St. Mary's River which serves as the State boundary line between the State of Florida and the State of Georgia. The United States Department of Defense located the King's Bay Naval Base in St. Mary's Georgia. The major focus of this Naval base is the launching and maintenance of nuclear submarines. The submarines would be traveling through the St. Mary's River in order to access the Atlantic Ocean. The Cumberland Island National Seashore is located at the mouth of the St. Mary's River. In order to allow the submarines to pass through the St. Mary's River, the channel is deepened by periodic dredgings. Dr. Stephen Cofer-Shabica, currently of the National Biological Survey, was assigned the task of monitoring the potential environmental impacts of dredging the St. Mary's channel on the Cumberland Island National Seashore ecosystem. Several monitoring and weather stations were established on the Island to monitor sedimentation rates and to determine the cause of a change in sedimentation rates, i.e. a major weather event such as a hurricane, tropical storm, etc. The locations of the stations were recorded utilizing GPS technology and the locations were integrated in the GIS along with readings which were taken on a periodic basis initially by the Army Corps of Engineers and later Earthwatch volunteers. Historic sedimentation data was provided by the Army Corps of Engineers in the Intergraph MGE format which were then converted into an ArcInfo format to allow an historic baseline of sedimentation rates on the Island. The evolution of the major players in this project was about as interesting as the project itself. The analyst who was to perform the GIS analysis and data conversion disappeared shortly before the software and hardware arrived, the National Park Service split into the National Park Service and the National Biological Survey, and my own employment situation changed three times throughout the life of this project. Ultimately my involvement in the project consisted of installation of the SUN SPARCstation 10 hardware and configuration of all peripherals, installation of the software which included ArcInfo, ArcCAD, ArcView, and ERDAS, training of National Biological Survey personnel in the use of ArcCAD software and analysis functions in ArcInfo, demonstration of the GPS equipment functionality to the Earthwatch volunteers, conversion of data from other sources to a format consistent with ArcInfo and finally installation of the data on the SPARCstation 10. Incidentally, the SPARCstation 10 has moved at least four times throughout the life of this project which exceeds the moves of any other entity involved. In this paper, I intend to present the various technologies utilized to complete the study, examine responsibilities and roles of the various agencies involved and their relationships, illustrate the integration of hardware and software platforms involved and present the findings of the study i.e. any adverse environmental impacts resulting from the dredging. I know that there has been a great deal of difficulty in completing this project under circumstances that seemed impossible at times including the untimely death of a key player and I personally feel that this project deserves to end on a positive note that gives each of the players a moment to bask in the glory of a successfully completed project. I also believe that the only opportunity for this to occur is for the project to be presented in a forum such as the Esri User Group Conference.