June 12, 2007

Quest for a Marine Data Model Realized in Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet

The Geodatabase Model Will Make Exchanging Data and Conducting Analysis Simpler for Oceanographers and Others Who Study the Marine World

Redlands, California—Working with marine research data in a geographic information system (GIS) will be easier thanks to a new geodatabase model published in Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet, now available from ESRI Press.

The new book maps out a standardized marine data model, aptly named Arc Marine, for ESRI's ArcGIS software. Lead author Dawn Wright sees the template as integral to helping oceanographers, fisheries managers, and others in the marine GIS community better manage, analyze, and exchange project data. Right now, different organizations use a variety of datasets from a wide array of sensors, instruments, and platforms, making data sharing and analysis somewhat difficult, she said. With a common data structure, researchers can share results without conversion and automatically integrate environmental datasets.

"When you have everything in a standard format, it's easier to analyze the data," said Wright, adding that the model charted in the book also will help in building common GIS tools for analysis and visualization. "It's a very generic model, and we hope people will customize it to their own needs."

A professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Wright began developing the marine data model in 2001 along with a team of researchers that included ESRI data model program manager Joe Breman, now with Akimeka Technologies, LLC. Their fellow researchers and co-authors were Michael Blongewicz from DHI Water & Environment and Professor Patrick N. Halpin of Duke University. The researchers received invaluable and insightful ideas and feedback from the GIS marine community as they perfected the data model.

Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet also presents 13 case studies that explain how marine scientists and researchers are using the data model in real-world applications. They've customized the geodatabase template for projects such as whale, turtle, and seal tracking and seafloor mapping, coral reef conservation, and investigations into coastal flooding and rising sea levels. The data model also supports fisheries management, shoreline change monitoring, and water temperature analysis.

Besides providing structure to storing and analyzing marine data, Arc Marine helps GIS users create maps and three-dimensional scenes of the marine environment in ways invaluable to decision making as they explore and study the planet's oceans and coastlines.

Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet (ISBN 978-1-58948-017-9, 216 pages, $47.95) is available at online retailers worldwide or can be purchased at www.esri.com/esripress or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, contact your local ESRI distributor. Visit www.esri.com/distributors for a current distributor list. Retailers can contact Ingram Publisher Services for distribution information about ESRI Press books.

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About ESRI Press
ESRI Press publishes books on GIS, cartography, and the application of spatial analysis to many areas of public and private endeavor including land-use planning, health care, education, business, government, science, and many others. The complete selection of GIS titles from ESRI Press can be found on the Web at www.esri.com/esripress.

Press Information:
Carla Wheeler, ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-2448
E-mail (press only): press@esri.com
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