1. Overcoming Challenges of
Doing GIS and Remote Sensing
on Guam
Ken Cochrane – Guam’olulu GIS Specialist
Tanya Johnson – Honolulu Office Director
Michelle Christy – Guam Office Director
Hawaii Pacific GIS Conference 2012
March 6

2. SWCA Environmental Consultants
 Employee-owned firm of scientists, planners and
technical specialists
 Comprehensive environmental planning, regulatory
compliance, natural and cultural resource
management and GIS services.
 Between our Honolulu and Guam offices we provide
all of these services

3. Where is
Guam
Japan
China
CNMI
Philippines Guam
Indonesia

4. Overcoming Challenges –
Data Collection
 Topography and environment
 Karst cliffs
 Rangefinder
 Land access
 DoD land
 CORS availability
 Power outages/typhoons
 Growing demand for higher accuracy data

5. GPS/Rangefinder – Vegetation Mapping

6. Overcoming Challenges –
Data Processing
 Data mobility over different software versions
 Data availability
 Less data creators
 Hawaii.gov
 Thanks to those who do make quality data
available: Gov Guam, NOAA, USDA, &
collaborators. DoD for contract specific data
 Unique availability

7. Remote Sensing – Seagrass Mapping
TM (30x30) IKONOS (4x4) Quickbird (2x2)
Next
Generation
Due to confidentiality agreement raw imagery not displayed

8. Remote Sensing – Seagrass Mapping

9. Remote Sensing – Seagrass Mapping
Enhalus acoroides
Halodule uninervis

10. Visitor Use and COTS Study
Field Photo Geo-referenced Satellite Image
*

11. LIDAR – Guiding Manta Tow Data
Collection

12. In Summary
 Creative approaches to data collection
 Make most of data when data is available
 Value added
 Respect data confidentiality

13. Thank You.
 Ken Cochrane – GIS Specialist
kcochrane@swca.com
 Tanya Johnson – Honolulu Office Director
tjohnson@swca.com
 Michelle Christy – Senior Scientist & Guam Office
Manager mchristy@swca.com
 John Ford – Senior Biologist & Program Director
jford@swca.com