Tree inventory system

This doc very much under construction; in fact not even really a doc yet. More of a stream of consciousness.

Brian Wilson 12:48, 23 February 2006 (PST)

Overview

Ultimate goal: Create a complete tree inventory system for the City of Corvallis.

notes on tree inventory systems

Reality: Break the project down into several manageable and useful subprojects.

Field requirements

Data collection by interns/contractors. Needs to be fast and simple.

Access to all data in field for work crews and arborist.

Management requirements

Basically this is an asset management system integrated with GIS. It has to be able to do the usual GIS stuff plus tracking plus reporting.

Although this is possibly the most important component I am relegating it to the back burner for now.

Implementation

Integrate open source and proprietary components.

Data collection field component based on a customized ArcPad on a PDA.

Advanced version either a portable ArcMap or ArcPad on a laptop.

Optional Bluetooth GPS

Server component

This is my proposal...

Mapserver based application Database lives in a PostgreSQL / PostGIS system

we also have ArcIMS available, but I'd rather try the opensource version since (1) I am an OSS advoate and (2)ArcIMS breaks too often for my taste and (3) I want to be able to give away the finished system and basing the server component on free stuff brings down the final price by 50%.

Side effect of this is that

more

Populate database This is an ongoing task but the goal is to have enough usable data in the system to prove that it works. (Also to test out and prove that the field collection systems work!)