Daniel Van Slyke Jr.

Using ArcView, G.P.S., and Yes,

Even Traditional Methods to Map NAS Cecil Field

Abstract: Mapping and inventorying a military base of approximately 26 square miles, in this case slated for closure, can be a daunting task. Placing the information gathered into a form that will be easy to use in the daily maintenance and marketing of the closing base is of utmost importance.

A group of companies is developing an easy to use, PC ArcView based, set of applications that will enable the Cecil Field Development Commission, along with several City agencies, to market and maintain the existing and future facilities of this base.

The group has gathered boundary information using standard surveying techniques. G.P.S. was used for the majority of all other field locating. This provided +/- 3cm accuracy for the point locations. There was also mapping derived from aerial survey work providing a +/- 2ft accuracy . The location information has been combined, in the GIS, with data gathered from existing Navy drawings, property records, legal documents, and almost countless other sources, to provide a tool useful to those assigned the task of facilities maintenance and utilization. More importantly, the ArcView based GIS will also serve as a tool in marketing the closed base and it's unique facilities to future users. At this time, April 1997, the Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) is taking public ownership of approximately 85% of the land area and most of the existing facilities. Much of the undeveloped land is currently being used for tree farming and will continue to be used as such in the foreseeable future. A Forestry Management Plan, derived from an existing plan and paper drawings, was put into the ArcView based GIS. Both true color and color infrared aerial photography may be used to help delineate tree stands and compartments. The GIS was also used to provide a preliminary wetland delineation. If the procedure is accepted, the City of Jacksonville will save thousands of dollars in associated manual delineation and permitting fees.

Many software products, from AutoCAD to WordPerfect, were used in the gathering and processing the information used in this project. The final GIS will use PC ArcView as it's primary interface. The interface is being highly customized, using Avenue, to suit the needs of the final users.

Brief History of the Project

Naval Air Station (NAS) Cecil Field was identified for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) and approved for closure in July 1993. On July 19, 1993, Ed Austin, then Mayor of Jacksonville, FL , created the Mayor's Base Conversion and Redevelopment Commission by Executive Order 93-167. This organization's name was later changed to the Cecil Field Development Commission (CFDC). The organization's function was to coordinate the conversion process and develop a number of options for the reuse and economic development of Cecil Field.

The CFDC commissioned a NAS Cecil Field Base Reuse Plan with a grant from the U.S. DOD Office of Economic Adjustment and 25% matching funds from the City Of Jacksonville. The purpose of this Base Reuse Plan was to provide a description of the planning process; community involvement; summary of on-base and off-base physical, demographic, environmental, and economic conditions; and discussion of the reuse alternatives, among other details.

The need for current mapping of the base, including both environmental factors and facilities information was identified early in the planning process. Although many of the other Plans, Statements, and Investigations underway at the base would produce mapping products to support their individual efforts, there was no acceptable base mapping to be used by all parties involved. Much of the existing mapping was in paper form and of differing scales and accuracy. A current Boundary Survey would also be needed for future development efforts and to provide a foundation for transferring the base real property to the chosen public entities.

To address this need the City of Jacksonville's CFDC began working on a Request for Proposals (RFP) to inventory and map the existing facilities of Cecil Field.. At first the proposed mapping effort was limited in scope to a CAD based survey and map. Foresight by Development Commission and City staff turned this into a GIS based project. Because the City of Jacksonville was implementing a city wide GIS using Esri (Redlands, CA) products such as ArcInfo and ArcView, it was decided that this project also be based on that product line and all information gathered or developed as part of this project was to be delivered in an ArcInfo format.

After proposals were submitted and a lead consultant, Robert Bates and Associates, Inc.,(RBA) (Jacksonville, Fl) chosen, a contract was signed on May 1, 1996 between RBA and The City of Jacksonville. Work on the project commenced immediately thereafter.

Brief History of Naval Air Station (NAS) Cecil Field

In 1941, prior to the United States actually entering World War II, it was appearing to some that US involvement was inevitable. Flight training for US forces was stepped up. At that time flight training was taking place at NAS Jacksonville, on the banks of the St. Johns River. The increase in training activity soon put a strain on the existing facilities. In June of 1941, the Navy purchased approximately 2600 acres in western Duval County. Flight operations began soon thereafter and the base was commissioned in February 1943 as a U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS). NAAS Cecil Field expanded from a circular grass field to include four 5000 foot runways. After World War II the base was reduced to caretaker status until November of 1948. It was then selected to be the home for two carrier air groups. Carrier Air Group 17 arrived in January of 1949 with the east coast's only jet squadron. NAAS Cecil Field was then one of four bases selected to become a master jet base. In the early fifties, more land was acquired and all four runways were improved and expanded to 8000 feet in length. In June of 1952 the base was redesignated NAS Cecil Field. Through the years more land has been added and one of the runways was lengthened to 12,500 feet in length.

At the beginning of this project, NAS Cecil Field was one of only two master jet bases on the east coast of the United States. It was home port for 17 squadrons of carrier aircraft. 11 F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter squadrons and 6 S-3 Viking sea control, anti-submarine warfare, and electronic warfare squadrons provide the mix of aircraft.

Brief Description of the Site and Facilities

NAS Cecil Field is approximately 17,600 acres in size. The majority of that is in Duval County while approximately 600 acres are located in Clay County. The portion north of Normandy Boulevard is known as the Yellow Water Area, and the portion south of Normandy, is referred to as the Main Base area. The main base area contains approximately 9,500 acres of land and contains over 200 buildings, for a total of over 2.8 million square feet under roof. Buildings found on the base include aircraft hangers, offices, classrooms, warehouses, maintenance facilities, barracks/dormitories, single-family houses and an assortment of smaller buildings and enclosures.

The existing utilities and infrastructure to be mapped include:

> 168,000 linear feet of potable water line

> 150,000 linear feet of sanitary sewer

> 150,000 linear feet of storm drain pipe

> 270,000 linear feet of drainage ditches

> 575,000 linear feet of electrical distribution line

> 22,000 linear feet of natural gas line

> 50,000 linear feet of steam and steam condensate lines

> 13,000 linear feet of compressed air lines

> 88,000 linear feet of street light electrical supply line

> 65 miles of communication lines

> 44 miles of telephone line

>550,000 square yards of ramp space

Two sets of parallel runways, three 8,000 feet in length, one 12,500 feet in length with associated runway lighting. Each set of runways has a full-length inboard taxiway with associated taxiway lighting.

G.P.S.

The G.P.S. subcontractor for this project was GeoBase Control Inc. (GeoBase) (Melbourne, Fl). They were selected for their demonstrated ability to gather location and facility information using G.P.S. technology. GeoBase employed real time kinematic G.P.S. procedures to deliver a locational accuracy of +/- 3cm on all point locations.

This accuracy was specified for several reasons. The project was being managed, on the city side, by the Engineering Division of the City of Jacksonville's Public Works Department. They wanted to investigate the costs and feasibility of using high accuracy G.P.S. in locating existing utilities and features as opposed to more conventional means. This project was intended to provide pilot work for a larger effort to map the City of Jacksonville's water and wastewater facilities. Another reason of the +/- 3cm accuracy specification was to attempt to encourage the local surveying community to investigate and consider the use of G.P.S.. A Florida State Statute was in place at the time of the award of the contract, that all but mandated the use of conventional surveying to do the legal boundary survey.

Aerial Imagery

Aerial Cartographics of America (ACA) (Orlando, FL) was contracted to provide Color Infrared (CIR) aerial photography as part of this project. They were also providing True Color aerial photography as part of a related contract. This photography was provided at a scale of 1:12000. Both sets of photographs were digitally scanned to provide electronic imagery with a one foot pixel resolution. The imagery was clipped so as to roughly correspond to the land sections found in the area of the base. These are approximately one square mile in size. The digital files were provided in a rectified and registered .tiff format that was usable by ArcInfo and ArcView.

Building, pavement, and assorted other features of the main base area were digitized using photogrammetric methods to provide a +/- 2ft accuracy. ACA was also contracted to provide this mapping for most of the main base area using photogrammetric techniques while Vernon F. Meyer and Assoc. (VFM) (Gainesville, FL) mapped the Yellow Water Area using "heads up" digitizing from aerial photography flown by ACA. GeoBase used G.P.S. to provide spot verifications of items such as building corners and pavement edges thus enabling staff to further tie down the features digitized by both ACA and VFM.

Data Path

An attempt was made to keep manual data transcription to a minimum. Initially, as utility and facility point locations were taken using the G.P.S. equipment, that information was stored in the G.P.S. unit data loggers. This information was then e-mailed on a daily basis the RBA office where it was then lightly formatted using EXCEL. These text files were then brought into ArcView where they were transformed into point files using the X and Y coordinates gathered with the G.P.S.. Once the points were mapped they were divided into the appropriate utility groups and assigned to personnel for the gathering of field data. Each utility was assigned to an individual staff member. That staff member was to complete all field gathering and verification of data. They were also responsible for any data gathering involving paper mapping or building blueprints. As each individual worked the utility from beginning to end, it provided a continuity for that utility of facility.

After the initial mapping of the point locations using ArcView, paper and digital maps were produced to help guide the staff in collection and verification of field data. Newton MessagePad 130's were used to gather field data. Forms were easily developed, using FieldWorker, to assist in the quick and efficient gathering and basic formatting of the data. This data was then transferred electronically to the workstations running ArcView. Again, this provided for an automated solution to information handling. This reduced, if not eliminated, human transcription errors. The data was again taken into EXCEL for preliminary formatting and then transferred into a .DBF table for use by ArcView. These tables were then joined or linked to the facility shape files.

A goal in producing this GIS was to represent the various utilities in a way understandable by a user not necessarily familiar with the intricacies of each utility. The G.P.S. data being collected was mostly point oriented. Most of the utilities are linear features. Many of these features are underground or not otherwise visually identifiable. Therefor the staff had to use existing paper system maps, where available, as guides in the location of pipes, wires and other features. An example of this process could be found with the Sanitary Sewer System.

Manhole locations were produced using G.P.S.. These locations were then mapped in ArcView and data forms were produced using GeoFirma, in conjunction with ArcView, on laptop computers. These computers were then taken into the field and each manhole was opened and visually inspected. Staff then entered their observations into the laptops. This data included items such as number and direction of pipes connected to the manhole, elevations and inverts, general condition, and construction information.

This field information was later compared to any existing paper mapping of that system and linear features were entered from manhole to manhole. This "connect the dots" approach worked well for many of the utilities being mapped. This produced mapping that showed the assumed general location of these linear features. As no smoke or dye testing was done to verify this routing, educated assumptions had to be made as to the placement and connection of many features.

As originally proposed, the mapping deliverables were to be produced in an ArcInfo export file (.e00) format. At the time of the initial project design ArcView 2 did not have the capabilities, nor was there a smooth transition available between ArcView and ArcInfo. Much of the lack of capabilities may have been perceived, but none the less it was decided to deliver all mapping and map related data to the City as ArcInfo Export files.

As the project progressed and the power and capabilities of ArcView have increased, a decision was made to deliver the project in ArcView shape files wherever feasible. The end users will be using customized ArcView 3.0 for Windows to access and update the data. In some cases such as creating node attribute tables, workstation ArcInfo was used to build the proper topology and associated tables. Otherwise this project could have been produced with ArcView and Esri's Data Acquisition Kit (DAK). The DAK product is basically PC ARC/INFO's ArcEdit module and as such is single precision solution. This was not deemed to be a limitation however. The minuscule movement of features as they were translated from high precision AutoCAD drawings to single precision PC ARC/INFO coverages is not a factor in the final accuracy of the product. The coordinates found in the attribute data of the features is the overriding. Another limitation of DAK is it's inability to use imagery as a background layer. This would have been very helpful.

Software Utilized

Esri (Redlands, CA) ArcInfo, ArcView, Avenue, and DAK

http://www.Esri.com

Microsoft (Redmond, WA) Office, Professional Edition

http://www.microsoft.com

FieldWorker Products (Toronto, ON) FieldWorker

http://www.fieldworker.com

All Points Software (Rochester, NY) GeoFirma, FieldPack Designer, FieldPack Mobile

http://ww3.allpointssoftware.com

Trimble Navigation Limited (Sunnyvale, CA) Assorted G.P.S. Software

http://www.trimble.com

AutoDesk, Inc. (San Rafael, CA) AutoCAD

http://www.autodesk.com

Hardware Utilized

Tri-Star Computer (Tempe, AZ) Starstation Pentium Pros running Windows NT 4.0

http://www.tri-cad.com

Apple Computer, Inc. (Cupertino, CA) MessagePad 130's "Newton" running NewtonOS 2.0

http://www.newton.apple.com

Trimble Navigation Limited (Sunnyvale, CA) Assorted G.P.S Equipment

http://www.trimble.com

Sharp Corporation (Mahwah, NJ in USA) PC-9030 Laptop Computers running Windows95

http://www.sharp-usa.com

Hitachi Home Electronics (America) (Norcross,GA) VM-H100LA Hi-8 Video Camcorder

http://www.hitachi.com

Play Incorporated (Rancho Cordova, CA) Snappy Video Snapshot

http://www.play.com

NOTICE...NOTICE...NOTICE...

***At the paper deadline time of April 1997, this project was approximately 80% complete. It is expected to be finished in the July/August 1997 time frame. For a completed version of this paper including conclusions and graphics, please contact the author.***