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Track: Defense and Intelligence
Lynn Phillips
United States Marine Corps
PSC Box 20004
Geographic Information Systems Office
Camp Lejeune, NC 28542-0004
Telephone: 910-451-5876
Fax: 910-451-5836
Successfully Integrating Geographic Information Across a Military Installation for Interdepartmental Data Sharing and MultiUser Access
Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina has a Geographic Information System (GIS) which serves the installation and has become a strategic component of the Command's information infrastructure. Called the Integrated Geographic Information Repository (IGIR), it is designed to integrate geographic information about Camp Lejeune into one shared resource for interoperability, data sharing, and multi-user access. Managed by the GIS Office, Assistant Chief of Staff, Environmental Management, the IGIR actively supports the Command as an aid in critical decision making by supplying geographic information to the desktop of approximately 600 personnel located in various Base organizations for use in natural and cultural resource management, environmental planning and compliance, military training, facilities management, disaster preparedness and recovery, and emergency response. The IGIR system operates in a distributed computing environment comprised of Sun workstations and microcomputers which communicate
over the Base wide area network infrastructure running Banyan VINES. Using ArcView GIS software as the interface tool. Base personnel access and link Autocad files, dBase compatible database files, image files, and 160 GIS data layers maintained in the Tri-=Services Spatial Data Standards format on Unix workstations running ArcInfo software. The IGIR Data Catalog, published twice a year by the GIS Office, provides IGIR users and data requesters with all of the metadata or source information for each data layer. The Forestry Fire Fuels Modeling program, developed by Pacific Meridian for wildland fire management at Camp Lejeune, has received national attention and the the DUSD (ES) Environmental Security Recognition Award. Along with assisting IGIR users with their own mapping initiatives, the GIS Office completes more than 300 mapping projects and 100 requests for data per year. During 1996 the IGIR proved invaluable to the Command when the need arose to site a mechanized assault course to provide a
specific type of experience to troops stations at amp Lejeune. Using the IGIR the planning team was able to evaluate and select the route and facilitate a preliminary NEPA review within a few weeks instead of the typical schedule measured in months when the data is manually compiled and analyzed. Training was snot delayed or prevented. The IGIR was similarly used to assess environmental impacts of projects to install a natural gas pipeline, implement fiber optics cable for Base wide communications, and expand existing tank trails and free play areas. Once again, the IGIR afforded Base personnel from multiple organizations with the impressive capability to successfully answer questions related to geographic inventory, analysis and modeling. At Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, we can effectively share common ground with the use of the IGIR. Through interdepartmental participation, the IGIR is a Command resource of information which directly contributes to improving operational readiness, quality of life,
and modernization of Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
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