Patrick M. Kowta

ArcView Implementation for Environmental Site Assessment & Monitoring

Esri's ArcView brings powerful spatial data visualization and query tools to the desktops of environmental engineers and project managers. Merely supplying them with additional software tools, however, is not enough to ensure the successful implementation of ArcView. It is critical to evaluate the Users' needs and provide applications specifically suited to them. This evaluation must consider not only the capabilities of the application, but, more importantly, the manner in which the capabilities are provided via the User Interface.

This paper will trace the implementation of ArcView at the Presidio of San Francisco to support base closure activities initiated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Specifically, this paper will detail the development of an application used for the analysis of Quarterly Groundwater Monitoring data. The creation of this application required a lengthy process of evaluating Users' needs and expectations, application design, prototyping and testing. User feedback during this process shifted the focus away from the application itself and towards the User Interface. Extensive customization of the ArcView "out of the box" User Interface had to be done in order for the User to feel comfortable and in control. This paper will conclude with a discussion of the results of this design philosophy change and further application development.


  

Introduction



Preliminary Implementation



Evaluation



Application and Interface Prototyping



Implementation



Conclusions



Acknowledgements



I would like to thank the following people for their assistance with this

paper:



Roger Henderson

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Sacramento District

Sacramento, CA



Brad Call

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Sacramento District

Sacramento, CA



Melih Ozbilgin

Montgomery Watson Americas, Inc.

Walnut Creek, CA




Patrick M. Kowta Senior GIS Analyst GeoSystems International, Inc. 479 Cascadita Terrace Milpitas, CA 95035 (408) 956-1395 pkowta@nbn.com