Exercise 1

1. Map is attached in different page (combined with Kira Koboski)

2. .shp (mostly for vector data) and .geotiff (for raster).
3. The challenge that we faced at first time was finding the raster data. Almost every website
that we entered showed shape file (vector data). When we went further to USGS website,
we found that all geotiff files type were raster.
4. http://www.naturalearthdata.com/
Exercise 2

Applications and Implementation of GIS - In Maps, Photos, locations, and Contamination-

Remediation

This project was written by Graham Markowitz, Cliff Nelson, and Alan Peterson to give awareness
of exposed materials from thousands of abandoned mine sites in The Western United States are
susceptible to contaminate surface and ground water supply. The exposed materials include heavy
metals (pyrite) and other waste material such as quartz, iron hydroxide, and clay. Furthermore,
acid mine drainage is known to be the low pH water caused by contacting with heavy metals. GIS
are now being used to predict the influence movement of contamination and the resulting
ecological effects as part of geological-environmental impact analysis. To support this project,
they used GIS layers of active and abandoned mines map (including mine openings and waste
piles), bureau land management map, mine remediation-reclamation map, hydrology map, and
mine commodities map.
The analysis for this project was started by defining the location of contaminated area. GIS started
to filter the contaminated area from the worst to less in terms of heavy metals content. Once a
location had been chosen, the new information could be integrated into the GIS database. To create
good GIS database, additional data such as field sampling, laboratory testing, and aerial
photography were imbedded. Hydrology map was used to model surface flow and simulate flood
near the active or abandoned mines. Combining with satellite imagery would help GIS locating
mine contamination. As described above, pyrite is associated with mining of heavy metals
including gold and copper. GIS analysis was done simultaneously with NASA’s Airborne
Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) to identify mine waste near Leadville, CO. The
oxidized pyrites sparked spectroscopic and a unique geochemical setting captured by AVRIS.

For a long time, mining wastes and tailings were not controlled in the United States. They were
just simply dumped into the area that are considered less economic (dumping area). The
consequences are there will be no control to what come out from it. The leached heavy minerals
due to rain and weathering will create time bomb for surface and groundwater supply. In some
cases, a low pH water precipitating to inhibit plant and animal life in and around the stream that
eventually create ecological disaster. From this project, GIS has helped the responsible parties to
maintain the post mining activities such as controlling pH and water quality. Furthermore, it has
helped to mitigate the prospective areas where in matters of time, the land will produce acid mine
drainage. Also, the real data can be easily acquired through these GIS systems and become
accessible for federal and state agencies by overlaying onto map so the system will create route
and historical location. Subsequently, they can make prioritize and systematically eliminate the
dangers.

The utilization of GIS is getting significant nowadays. For this project, it can be used not only to
map the existing contaminated areas, but also to predict future areas that have possibility to be
contaminated. GIS also can be applied in continuous monitoring of remediated areas and helped
to provide viable solutions for areas that are contaminated or are in danger. Furthermore, GIS helps
the responsible parties to do maintenance of unforeseen complications.
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