Digital Mapping

DIGITALMAPPING MARY T. BURKE AND BRIAN J. MORGAN

Beyond Living Collection Curation

ince the establishment of the world’s first botanical gardens in the sixteenth century, maps have played an important role in the documentation of the living plant collections at these scientific institutions. Originally used as a tool for curators to track and manage their collections, botanical garden maps have evolved into a comprehensive tool for information management and decision-making that can be used at all levels of institutional operation. Today’s enterprise mapping systems can integrate information from plant records databases, asset management systems, image archives, and many other information sources to create a seamless environment for fund raising, planning, management, and education. The digital mapping systems employed by today's botanical gardens fall into two major categories: computer-aided drafting systems (CAD) and geographic information systems (GIS). CAD-based systems such as Autodesk’s AutoCAD software and BG-Map provide specialized graphics tools for the creation and manipulation of electronic drawings. These digital drawings can have multiple layers (e.g. roads, irrigation systems, plants) that can easily be displayed or hidden, as needed. Sometimes linked to external databases, like Access or BG-Base, CAD systems can produce accurate digital collection maps that are easier to edit and keep up to date than paper-based maps. GIS software such as ESRI’s ArcGIS and open source solutions (e.g. Quantum GIS) take the concept of the digital map a step further by integrating each graphically rich map layer with the information storage and querying capabilities of a database. Both approaches, when tied to rich data sets, result in “smart maps” that can contain a wealth of information about

(Left) At the UC Davis Arboretum, a team of undergraduate students are trained to use sub-foot accuracy GPS and laser range-finding equipment to map the collections.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF MIA INGOLIA, UC DAVIS ARBORETUM

(Right) Garden Mapping PHOTO COURTESY OF REBECCA SUCHER, MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN

plants and other site features. Unlike CAD, GIS maps can also be used to perform complex analyses such as determining the best location to site a new microclimatesensitive exhibit or the most efficient emergency evacuation plan. Finally, “internet mapping,” a relative newcomer to the digital-mapping scene, is emerging as a useful device, as illustrated by the new tool, PlantMapper. This technology uses the free online aerial photographs and maps supplied by Google Maps as a base map. Curators place digital points or tags, which can be labeled and linked to data sets on the maps to highlight the location of key specimens or site features. What this technology lacks in the accuracy of CAD and the information storage and analysis

capabilities of GIS, it makes up for in simplicity and cost-efficiency. At botanical gardens, digital mapping tools are mostly used to produce simple collection maps. These maps typically include only the locations of living plant specimens, along with major landscape features such as buildings and pathways. However, an enterprise mapping system is the future of digital mapping. It extends the value of maps across the organization, as multiple garden departments incorporate all records into one integrated system. For example, educators might map exhibits and tour routes, plus note educational information about specific plants and exhibits in the linked database. In the same system, facilities managers

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might map utilities, roadways, and critical infrastructure, and link work orders, purchase orders, and digital instruction manuals to mapped features (e.g. irrigation control boxes); curators can link PDFs of scientific papers or herbarium images to mapped specimens, and the base map itself might integrate complex site data, often available for free from national data sources, about soil, water, and topography. Some nonprofits even use GIS to analyze the demographics and addresses of their membership list and then design targeted fundraising drives to reach likely new supporters. The limits of the information an enterprise mapping system can contain are constrained only by the availability of existing data or the resources to capture and integrate any needed new data. Most botanical gardens do not have the funding, time, and trained staff to develop a full-fledged enterprise mapping system; however, there are a number of resources available to get started. Grants are a great way to fund the launch of your mapping project. Organizations like the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) fund mapping projects if you demonstrate the benefits of the end product to the larger community. If you

choose GIS as your mapping system, ESRI, the world leader in GIS software, has partnered with the American Public Gardens Association (APGA) to provide free software and training grants to public gardens that maintain APGA institutional memberships. If you have a committed staff person to serve as a leader, student internships and volunteers are a great way to cut the costs of mapping the garden and the collection; digital mapping skills are highly marketable skills, so recruitment is easy. Get to know the GIS professors at your local community college or university, and explore the idea of a formal internship program with them— you supply the realworld problem, and they and their students provide the solution. If you need additional training in digital mapping, the APGA periodically offers workshops at their annual conference that provide hands-on experience with various mapping systems and data-capture methods. The Alliance for Public Gardens GIS (APGG) is a nationwide group of zoo and botanical garden staff that is working together to develop the ArcGIS Botanical Garden & Zoological Park Data Model, a free and open source template for launching an enterprise mapping system. The APGG also hosts a Google Groups user community for

zoo and botanical garden staff to share information and questions about digital mapping with their peers. To learn more about each of these resources, refer to the web sites listed below.

Resources Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) http://www.imls.gov Alliance for Public Gardens GIS http://www.apgg.org Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com BG-Map http://www.bg-map.com Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) http://www.esri.com ESRI-APGA Software Donation Program To receive more information about this program, please send a blank e-mail to [email protected]. PlantMapper http://www.plantmapper.com/ Quantum GIS http://www.qgis.org

Mary Burke is the director of planning and collections at the UC Davis Arboretum. Brian Morgan is the GIS manager at the UC Davis Arboretum and a lead member of the Alliance for Public Gardens GIS (APGG).

Enterprise GIS. PHOTO COURTESY OF ESRI

UC Davis Arboretum Collection Maps

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PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN MORGAN, UC DAVIS ARBORETUM