Before we talk the techy stuff...
Rarely is there a GIS task that can only be solved by one method, or THE METHOD. When multiple choices are presented, it's hard to judge, if not impossible, which choice is definitively better. Whatever works better for you, however, is the one that you feel more comfortable with. This is a same point I just can't stop making ever since the first time I taught a GIS lab as a graduate student many years ago. There are a lot of materials floating out there on how to conduct the spatial analysis for SWARS. The procedure provided here is just one of the many that should lead to the same conclusion. It is designed mostly based on an observation of the average GIS capacity available in the Pacific region today. Foolish would it be to claim the method here is any superior than others. Neither is it wise to strike down this document as being worthless. In the end, the goal is to complete the SWARS spatial analysis, one way or another but accurately as the driving issue dictates. And that, is all that matters.
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Aloha All; Ron from Hawaii sending my regards. I'm sorry that missed you guys for the end of the workshop. I got the flu on Wednesday and was sick for a week. But I am fine now and on vacation in New York (and working on SWARS at the same time).
ReplyDeleteYesterday I discovered these incredible resources created by the Northeastern Foresters Association (the equivalent of our WFLC, but for the northeastern states). They have compiled an impressive set of guidelines for producing SWARS.
Their main website is http://www.northeasternforests.org/FRPC/.
Two of the most valuable documents on that site are 1) a guide for producing your SWARS
http://www.northeasternforests.org/FRPC/files/1248201969NAASF_NA_Guide_State_Strategy_7_21_09.pdf
and 2) a checklist of important tasks that must be completed when producing your SWARS
http://www.northeasternforests.org/FRPC/files/1242272787DRAFTApproval_Checklist_4_State_Assess_Strategy_5-1-09.doc
Even though these documents are under the section called "Regional Documents" they are exactly what every one of us working on our SWARS needs to help us organize our projects.
I urge you to print out these two documents and read them very carefully before you go any further.
In particular, the first document gives three excellent examples of different ways of organizing your project; one example focusing on priority issues such as "agroforestry" (issue-driven, not spatial), and two examples focusing on specific places such as an important river (spatially driven). The examples of the analysis tables will be very useful to help to organize your issues. Our SWARS can be a combination of these two ways of organizing our thoughts; by issue and/or by place.
If you spend one hour reading and discussing these documents today, it may save you many hours in the months to come. I know that in Hawaii we have spent hours and hours discussing how to organize our project. In some ways, it feels like we have been lost in the forest, going in circles. This document is like being given a compass and a map; we can use it to find our way home before June 18, 2010.
I have just begun to go through all of the other documents on this website, and will report back on any of the other gems found there.
All the best, Ron Cannarella, Honolulu, Hawaii
Hey Ron, Thanks for pointing those out. These sites are also listed in our earlier posts as well as hardcopies in your notebooks from the workshops. I think I provided the notebood tabs for you when we were in Palau from my data stick but if not, let me know because there is some really useful information including the documents you have just read and some other documents that we created that boil alot of the information down into a few pages!!!
ReplyDeleteHope your vacation is great!
Thanks again for sharing your finds, Lisa