Vision

To map land use in accordance to the land management project:- To develop and produce a comprehensive coverage of land use maps for the Serra do Brigadeiro Development Territory; to identify existing land resources and land use patterns, and to identify those of high conservation priority.

To provide land use information to local authorities, including management committees of environmental protection areas, to aid them in decisions on land use; The map of mining claims below illustrates this

To provide tools for teaching geography in local schools (such as this one) ;

To use the GIS as a research tool for current and future projects, integrating all Iracambi work across the range of projects into the I-GIS. Allowing users with a low level of GIS technical experience to benefit from the tool.

Overview

Iracambi's Problem

Iracambi and Iracambi's volunteer and research projects gather vast amount of information. These data need proper storage, viewing opportunities and analytical options.

I-GIS Statement

Iracambi provides base-layer information that is the foundation for the I-GIS. The I-GIS serves both volunteer and research projects. The I-GIS team provides support to Iracambi's volunteer projects and research projects information needs. The I-GIS has a huge impact on these various projects (Refer to the User Assessments section for a complete breakdown). In order to meet these needs the I-GIS is designed to satisfy the current and future needs of the various projects. To be successful there is a strong infrastructure including the proper hardware, software and technical support.

I-GIS Position

To address the problem of continuing deforestation and land degradation, a systematic approach is needed that involves the participation of all the people concerned in the diagnosis of its causes and the development of appropriate technical measures to combat it. This has become even more necessary in recent years as the responsibility for environmental protection has been increasingly devolved to the local level, giving local people responsibility for the protection of their own land resources. To support this, the Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research Center is working with local government, communities and management committees to raise awareness of conservation issues, to show how environmental concepts relate to real-life situations, and what steps can be taken to reduce land degradation. We also help to provide the basic tool for these tasks, the Iracambi Geographic Information System.

Iracambi's Position

GIS was used at Iracambi to maintain landuse information. Since then, Iracambi has continued to provided base-layer data to the I-GIS. GIS use in different projects has expanded to all volunteer and research projects at Iracambi, making the I-GIS central to Iracambi's infrastructure. The future of the I-GIS infrastructure depends on the user requirements and capable administrators. Future expansions include a central SDE, possibly ArcIMS as well as a permanent GIS coordinator.

Ethics

The I-GIS team, to the best of its ability, provides accurate, thorough and complete data infrastructure support to the Iracambi user community. The I-GIS development team is responsible and sensitive towards all privacy issues surrounding data use, collection and analysis. Shortcuts and lack of skill are not excuses for this team or for Iracambi.

History

Mapping work at Iracambi began in 2000 when basic land use, trails and buildings on the farm were mapped. Data was collected using a Garmin Etrex GPS receiver, and these points were plotted using AutoCad, to produce a skeleton map of the area, at a scale of 1:5000. However, it became obvious that Iracambi needed a more powerful way of storing and retrieving this data, so the Iracambi Geographical Information System (I-GIS) was developed. In 2001, ArcView was installed at Iracambi, and work began on the Iracambi GIS. A map of Fazenda Iracambi was produced in September 2001. Several databases were created for the purpose of recording animal sightings and displaying the information on the GIS. However, the area identified by the land management project was not mapped. The Graminha valley area was mapped in 2002. Linked to existing and potential projects (under the Iracambi goals of land use, community, forestry and medicinal plants), the land use of seven farms was mapped, in accordance with the land management project. The map was created using data from the GPS, existing maps and satellite images (but many of the land use types in the Graminha valley are relatively small, and the satellite images were not clear enough to be able to identify features). Streams were digitised over the scanned map and then adjusted according to GPS points. The altitude theme was created from an earlier geo-referenced map.

Technology

Hardware:
	GIS 1 – P4, 768 RAM
	GIS 2 – Celeron, 768 RAM
	GIS 3 – Celeron, 768 RAM
	GIS 4 – Celeron, 768 RAM
	4 Garmin GPS 12 Personal Navigator
Software:
	ArcGIS – ArcInfo 9
	Erdas Imagine 8.5
	Photoshop 7
	Adobe 7
	Dreamweaver MX 2004
	DNR Garmin

Risks

The I-GIS infrastructure was designed with a risk management program. The centralized computing system in the classroom reduces the risk of data corruption between unconnected sites. The use of geodatabases reduces the risk of unintentional file corruption as well. Risk is further averted by implementing one database system instead of a multi-system which becomes extremely complex and difficult to support. The greatest risk of the I-GIS is the lack of a backup system. This is neglected due to lack of funding support.

However, the greatest source of risk to the I-GIS infrastructure are external factors. These potential damaging factors include the power supply, the weather and inexperienced GIS administrators.