Interagency Roads Baseline Dataset

Issue Statement

Intergovernmental Resource Information Coordinating Council (IRICC)*, and by extension, the Regional Ecosystem Office (REO), has committed to the cooperative development of a transportation dataset encompassing Washington, Oregon, and northern California. That resource will then support many levels of operations, research, and analysis throughout the region. In order to meet the broad requirement for a single transportation dataset, our immediate goal is to collaterally compile a comprehensive coverage for all of Oregon and Washington of the best available transportation data for all ownerships, thereby reducing redundant data collection efforts and bridging to a future shared road data clearinghouse. For this immediate objective, ”transportation” is defined as roads information.

Background

There are a variety of transportation datasets in various stages of development in the Pacific Northwest. These datasets cover a mixture of scales geographic areas, and are described by various data dictionaries. They were developed in response to definite sets of agency- or project-specific information requirements. Since these requirements are also varied, the resulting datasets are less-than-optimally coordinated, and in many cases are only accidentally shared across agency and/or spatial boundaries. To the best of our knowledge, none of these datasets comprehensively includes all roads over all areas in Oregon, Washington and northern California.

Many agencies (e.g., EPA, NMFS, USGS) and interagency projects (e.g., Invasive Plants EIS, NFP Monitoring, salmon recovery) require a transportation dataset that covers the entire spatial extent of Oregon and Washington. The information requirements for this dataset are actually quite simple: the spatial location of all roads. The attributes or descriptive values of these roads could be very limited, basically road name/number and an indication of surface type (paved, gravel, primitive).

All of the datasets existing or being developed contain this information. The constraint is that each is limited to a geographic area, contains varying attribution, is outdated, or does not include all roads for the state.

The IRICC Transportation team has developed and agreed on a core set of attributes and protocols. These standards provide a linkage to various existing datasets, and will facilitate the development of an interagency dataset

The States of Oregon and Washington are each developing Transportation Framework projects. The broad goal for these projects may be described as developing an extremely comprehensive statewide coverage, meeting the transportation information needs of each state agency, covering emergency services, DOT, and natural resources planning. The development timeframes for these projects are several years out.

Currently there are several state and federal projects that are now compiling roads information in Oregon and/or Washington. These are listed, and a brief summary for each is included, below.

Project Outline

While a comprehensive transportation dataset has been outlined as a critical need by many federal and state agencies, no single entity has the resources or funding with which to compile that dataset from the varied sources. Estimates for this type of work have exceeded $1 million per state.

The objective for this workshop is to establish and agree to a strategy for compiling this dataset utilizing the existing resources that are currently allocated to the projects outlined below. This strategy would allow us to determine what pieces of the composite have been completed, what pieces could be covered by existing workloads, and what pieces will need additional funding or resources in order to complete.

This relatively simple dataset would then serve as the baseline for the individual state Framework projects, as well as a shared data layer for federal projects that require a transportation layer (for either visualization or simple analysis). Each state would then utilize this dataset as a baseline for their more comprehensive systems.

The first step in this process is to determine all agencies or interagency projects that are currently working on transportation datasets. A detailed summary would be compiled in order to show how each project would contribute to the whole.

The next step in the process is to develop a detailed strategy, work plan and timeline for completing the broader project. The resources available from each of the data development efforts would then be factored into the compilation effort. Effectively, and given specific areas of responsibility, time-sensitivity, and commitment, this would help determine how each partner would contribute (for example, GIS Specialist or funding) to this project.

The final major step is identifying what areas or components cannot be completed with the given resources. A briefing and proposal would then be drafted for agency executives in order to encourage agreement concerning the additional resources, funding or personnel, needed in order to complete the project. This may range from filling in data gaps to compiling the resulting work of a contributing partner.

Of course, there are technical issues and details that would need to be identified and resolved in order for this effort to succeed. Your participation in this workshop is just the first of many steps along the pathway to a shared transportation dataset that is relatively inter-operable among federal, state and local road authorities and road data users. Maintenance or update issues related to the linework and associated attribution, ownership, scale and snap tolerances, and many other issues will need to be resolved. We will need to work through these issues in order to complete a seamless product.

This business model of coordinated dataset development has been successfully used in developing the watersheds for all of Oregon, Washington and California. A very similar set of circumstances existed among the federal and state agencies, in that many dissimilar or incomplete datasets had been developed. By working together and combining resources we were able to complete a product that all partners are using and maintaining, with little impact on the resources on any single agency. This proposal strives to use this same model for success. For more information on the watershed project please visit the Hydro Framework Clearinghouse at http://hydro.reo.gov, or the hydro Steward web map at http://ims.reo.gov/website/hydrostewards.

Given limited resources and unlimited demands, though, it is clear that we need to collaborate and cooperate more fully than ever to be successful across the many levels of government. Thank you for your participation in this effort.

For more information on REO and IRICC please refer to www.reo.gov and www.iricc.org

Known Transportation Information Projects in the PNW

State/IRICC Transportation Framework. The participating partners in the IRICC transportation effort have agreed upon a basic set of core attributes (see “http://www.reo.gov/gis/projects/Roads/Structure_Core_Data.htm” and “http://www.reo.gov/gis/projects/Roads/Core_Data.htm”). Oregon has drafted and is testing a more extensive set of attributes as well as a data model residing in an SQLServer database at ODOT. They have funded several pilot projects with counties and Portland METRO on data development and coordination. Washington has developed a strategy plan and is going through a requirements analysis now. Both state efforts are long-term projects with the development of statewide coverages not expected until 2005.
US Forest Service – Developed an extensive nationwide application to track all transportation information. All forests in the PNW have their data stored in this system. All forest data is routed, and may be accessed from a single point.
BLM – Application to maintain road data is in development. Older FoxPro database has been converted to Oracle, and migration of District attributes, and GIS data to this system is ongoing. Originally developed in 1998, the road data are currently frozen until this conversion has been accomplished. Completion of the conversion is expected in a couple of months. The updates to this database [e1] will then begin.
NWFP Monitoring [e2] – For the area of the NW Forest Plan, specialists plan to compile all roads information. Sources include DRG, CFF, Forest Service, and BLM data. Available attributes will be placed on arcs, and linework from various sources consolidated. Early phases of the project will focus on 250 watersheds for this year’s review, with no edge matching or routing of linework.

5. Invasive Plants EIS team – have similar basic transportation data requirements, but on a scope of Oregon and Washington. In preliminary meeting they are willing to contribute resources to pull these types of data together, but specifics were not addressed.

6. NMFS (Richard Kang) – I believe their data acquisition goals are similar to the Monitoring project, but cover the Columbia Basin [e3] . Rich, can you provide a brief description and update?

7. Federal Highways Admin [e4] . – Established a grant to develop a routed coverage of ‘forest highways’ (primary Forest Service roads and county roads). Source includes county coverages, CFF’s and FS roads. Oregon will be done within weeks; Washington and Idaho will be done next FY. This does not include roads that are not intended for routine public use (closed roads, jeep trails, etc), or BLM roads. This work is being carried out on the Siuslaw NF, with Diane Rainsford as lead. She will be researching this GPS and attribute information for including with her routed coverage (some of the county roads info had problems). She has already tested the attachment of the attribute data.

ODOT has been updating the BLM GTRN dataset with their highway information. In addition, the Federal State Highways Commission has GPS’d ‘forest highways’ county roads in Oregon. Washington is scheduled next. Existing is an extensive database of roads information, dams, structures, surface, etc. in a database based on road and milepost.