Lessons Learned: System Analysis and Decision Support For A Multi-Agency, Multi-Discipline Project

摘要

The Upper Rio Grande Basin Water Operations Review and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is a multi-agency effort that is using a Geographic Information System (GIS) base to evaluate operational changes to improve river system management. The Upper Rio Grande Water Operations Model (URGWOM-Planning version) represents the backdrop of an institutionally and physically complex river system. There are three joint-lead agencies, five cooperating agencies, and other participants involved in this formal EIS planning process. With a host of different scientific disciplines on ten technical teams, GIS was the choice of the Interdisciplinary Team to “somehow put it all together and make sense of it”, a Rosetta stone for the Tower of Babel. This paper documents hidden pitfalls, such as converting ArcInfo data to ArcView, trials, tribulations and most importantly, techniques for successfully using GIS for individual resource analysis and integrating these into a basis for making management decisions.