Billie R. Dugger
The United States Department of the Interior manages the Cumberland Island National Seashore through 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 line between the State of Florida and the State of Georgia. The United States Department of Defense located the Kings Bay Naval Base north of St. Marys, GA in Kings Bay, GA. The major focus of this naval base is the maintenance and operation of TRIDENT nuclear submarines. The submarines must travel through the St. Marys 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 permit the passage of the submarines through the River, the channel must be deepened by periodic dredgings. Dr. Stephen Cofer-Shabica has been assigned the task of monitoring the effects of the dredging on the surrounding barrier islands. Monitoring stations and weather stations were established on Cumberland Island by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the purpose of monitoring sedimentation rates and to also take into account environmental factors which may contribute to the sedimentation rates. The locations of the stations were recorded utilizing Global Positioning System technology and these locations were integrated into the Geographic Information System development for the study. Periodic readings were taken by National Park Service personnel and Earthwatch volunteers. Historic data was provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Intergraph MGE format which were then converted to ArcInfo compatible format for comparison with data currently being collected. The evolution of the major players in this project was about as interesting as the study itself. I changed employment three times during the course of this project. The National Park Service reorganized and the SPARCstation 10 moved approximately four times during the course of the study giving it the highest incidence of movement of any entity involved. Ultimately, my involvement in this project included installation of hardware and software, configuration of peripherals, provision of Esri certified training, and conversion of all digital data to be utilized in the analysis. In this paper, I intend to present the various technologies utilized to complete the study, examine the responsibilities of the various groups involved, and to illustrate the integration of hardware and software platforms.
Cumberland Island National Seashore is the southernmost of Georgia's barrier islands located just to the north of Amelia Island, Florida. The St. Marys River separates the two islands and serves as the state boundary between Florida and Georgia. The inlet was stabilized and jetties were constructed at the entrance in the 1880s. The United States Department of Defense located the home port for the TRIDENT submarines at the King's Bay Naval Base in Kings Bay Georgia in the early 1980s. This shifted the major focus of the Naval base from the POSEIDEN submarines to the operation and maintenance of the TRIDENT nuclear submarines. The submarines would continue to travel through the Cumberland Sound and the St. Mary's River in order to access the Atlantic Ocean. In order to allow the TRIDENT submarines to pass through the St. Mary's River, the channel required initial deepening and then periodic maintenance dredging. (See Figure 1[cuis1.jpg]) During the Environmental Impact Assessment, the State of Florida expressed concern regarding impacts of the dredging of the channel on Amelia Island to the south. In 1986, the United States Navy signed a Memoranda of Understanding with the State of Florida agreeing that if a study concluded "...based upon actual data...., that significant additional erosion of the southern end of Amelia Island is being directly caused by the dredging of the St. Marys Channel for Navy purposes", the Navy would agree to place that portion of beach quality sand resulting from the routine maintenance of the channel on the beaches of central and southern Amelia Island. The Army Corps of Engineers monitored the sedimentation rates on Cumberland Island National Seashore for three years presenting their conclusions to a technical advisory committee. The conclusions of the Kings Bay Coastal and Estuarine Physical Monitoring and Evaluation Program: Coastal Studies, US Army Corps of Engineers, Waterway Experiment Station Technical Report CERC-94-9written by Nicholas C. Kraus, Laurel T. Gorman, and Joan Pope and printed in August of 1994 state that "... No adverse impact on the beaches of Cumberland Island and Amelia Island by U.S. Navy navigation channel modification and maintenance at St. Marys entrance could be detected in any of the analyses...".* The technical advisory committee determined that a longer period of monitoring was required and decided to continue the monitoring effort under the direction of Stephen Cofer-Shabica, PhD. through the National Biological Survey. Dr. Cofer-Shabica initially hired an analyst to assist with the data compilation and they decided to utilize GIS and GPS technology to assemble and analyze the data. Several monitoring and weather stations were established on the Island by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during their monitoring effort and these stations would continue to be used for the additional monitoring. All work would be performed at the National Park Service office on Cumberland Island. Earthwatch volunteers would collect the data from the monitoring stations and the locations of the stations would be recorded utilizing GPS technology and integrated in the GIS along with readings which were taken on a periodic basis by Earthwatch volunteers. This data would later be compared with Historic sedimentation data collected by the Army Corps of Engineers.
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, This is how I became involved with the project. The scientist who was coordinating the GPS efforts suggested that I take over the responsibilities of the analyst who deserted and I was in a position to take advantage of this opportunity. I arrived on Cumberland Island for the first time in December of 1993. The only means of transport to the Island is by boat. The boat ride was chilly, to say the least, and it rained the entire time I was there. I had to carry all of my supplies for the trip and the main means of travel is by foot. There are no quicky marts on the Island. I was surprised to find two SUN Microsystems Sparcstation 10s still packed in boxes and I began installation of the operating system immediately. My experience with the operation of Global Positioning receivers was helpful in assisting with a demonstration to the volunteers of how to operate the equipment and how the data collection would be structured. On this first visit, I spent my days in the office installing peripherals and software while the rest of the crew went out into the field to collect the data. I lived in the scientist dormitories with the Earthwatch volunteers and we would reconvene in the evenings over dinner to discuss the days work. I believe the volunteers experienced the most adventurous aspect of the project based on their stories. Incidentally, we took turns preparing meals for the group. My tasks included installation of SUNOS 4.1.1 on the Sparcstation 10 along with ArcInfo 6.1.1 and ERDAS. I also installed AutoCAD, ArcCAD and Arcview on a personal computer.
I returned to Cumberland Island in March of 1994. The weather was definitely an improvement over the first trip. Blue skies, sunshine and high temperatures reaching into the 80s. The Cumberland Queen was filled to capacity with Pilgrims (slang for visitors to the Island) most every day and they could be seen traversing the Island on foot in search of the beautiful beaches. Earthwatch Volunteers were again present providing the indispensable service of data collection from the monitoring stations. I worked in the office installing data provided from various sources including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the University of Virginia and providing Esri certified training for Dr. Cofer-Shabica so that he would be capable of performing the analysis and comparing the results with the historic data provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was about this time that the National Park Service reorganized into the National Park Service and the National Biological Survey, The future of the monitoring project was uncertain. I completed the training and installation and returned to Orlando to continue operating my GIS consulting firm. I began a subconsultant relationship with Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan, Inc. shortly following this trip and eventually they offered to purchase my company and bring me on as the Program Manager of Geographic Information Systems. While considering this offer, I received a purchase order from the U. S. Navy to continue and complete the Kings Bay Environmental Monitoring Project. During the acquisition, it was decided that Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan, Inc. would be a subconsultant to my company so that I could complete the project and continue with the acquisition. The project was completed on the Kings Bay Naval Base. My role now involved conversion of all of the historic data to a format compatible with ArcInfo. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers provided their data in a format created by MGE Intergraph product. I contacted Intergraph and they exploded the .MPD file into its components of .DGNs and data files so that they could be translated into coverages. Upon receipt of this data, I again went on-site for work on this project. The environment of the Navy Base was vastly different from that of the Island. For one, I did not have to leave my vehicle to get there, however, I had to be cleared by security in order to enter the Base. Once there, I wrote .AMLS which converted the .DGN files to ArcInfo coverages and sorted through the coverages to determine their implications to the project. Mostly historic coastline profiles. I also instructed Dr. Cofer-Shabica on the use of the Image integration tools of ArcInfo for utilization of the ERDAS data provided by the University of Virginia. This data was comprised of vegetative cover, cultural and historic resources and soils data for Cumberland Island. (See Figure 2 [cuis2.jpg]) I ultimately provided Dr. Cofer-Shabica with a CD-ROM of all of the converted data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the University of Virginia.
I spoke with Dr. Cofer-Shabica recently to obtain the results of his analysis of the data and the conclusions of his study. It would seem that there has been a slight modification of the sedimentation as a result of the dredging of the channel. This has been found to occur at the point at which the historic channel diverges from the channel dredged for the TRIDENT. The findings of this study will be presented in a report which will be a synthesis of all of the studies performed as a result of the Memoranda of Agreement between the U.S. Navy and the State of Florida to the U. S. Navy later this year.
Acknowledge: Stephen Cofer-Shabica, PhD. - This whole project was his idea. W. Cleve Booker- Recommended that I get involved.
Reference:* Nicholas C. Kraus, Laurel T. Gorman, Joan Pope - Kings Bay Coastal and Estuarine Physical Monitoring and Evaluation Program: Coastal Studies Volume I: Main Text and Appendix A - US Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station Technical Report CERC-94-9 August 1994.
Author Info: Billie R. Dugger, Program Manager, Geographic Information Systems, Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan, Inc.1560 Orange Avenue, Suite 700 Winter Park, FL 32789,voice (407)647-7275, fax(407)647-0624,e-mail 11302@PBSJ.COM