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Environmental Data Management and Analysis Network (EDMAN), 2000 - Present

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SPONSOR: EPA Region 5
VOLPE INTERNAL: Environmental Engineering Division, DTS-33

EDMAN is a total environmental package that incorporates analysis software and report tracking capabilities. The project uses the Environmental Quality Information Systems (EQuIS) software package from EarthSoft, Inc. EQuIS is an environmental data management system used to manage well and sample data collected from hazardous waste sites. Included in this package is an ArcView interface that allows the user to visualize the well and sample locations that have spatial coordinates associated with them.

While EQuIS' ArcView interface allows for the visualization of well and sample location data, it relies on the users' knowledge of ArcView to add base maps and other relevant spatial data located on various servers housed at Region 5 headquarters. The main purpose of the GIS portion of this project is to automate, via customized ArcView programming, the retrieval of warehoused spatial data relevant to the site being studied. In order to accomplish this, spatial lookup tables were created that pointed to all available data on the servers, including, but not limited to, DEMs, aerial orthophotos, DRGs, CAD drawings and various boundary maps. When the ArcView Interface is launched from EQuIS, EQuIS creates a view in ArcView and only loads the well and sample point data. Once loaded, the customization utilizes the lookup tables to retrieve all other available data. Since the amount of data can be quite large, the data is not loaded into the view but is made available through pulldown menus.

Other GIS tasks included:

• Assisted Region 5 in obtained applicable dems, orthophotos and drgs from various sources
• Automated the generation of TINs from DEMs by way of a user friendly interface
• Created a GIS administration package to facilitate the management of both the customized ArcView Interface and the housed spatial data

The map depicts the UTA Wellfield site in Zanesville, OH. The corresponding files have automatically been added to the custom ArcView interface in the menu items 'GIS Data' and 'Images'. This allows the user to easily display the desired GIS data with little knowledge of ArcView. (View larger image.)