This paper will discuss the use of ESRI’s ArcGIS technology in the development of a forestry decision support system for the Michigan DNR. Specifically, this paper will address the potential for successfully applying emerging GIS technologies to facilitate tracking of forest and land management activities to support a variety of disciplines.

GIS software has traditionally been limited in its ability to facilitate tracking of activities on the landscape where frequent, multi-user updates or edits to spatial data occur, and an accessible historical record of landscape change is required. Previous attempts have focused on an area-event approach that utilized the static topology data model of ArcInfo 7.x. While effective, this approach lacks the dynamic topology available through the ArcSDE GeoDatabase.

To assist the Michigan DNR in addressing this issue, Space Imaging Solutions has developed a suite of tools for use within the ArcMap editing environment using an enterprise ArcSDE GeoDatabase. These tools facilitate user management of landscape activities and the maintenance of an historical record of such events. The paper will explore and compare previous methods of dealing with maintenance of, and updates to, spatial data where tracking of activities and an historical record of landscape evolution have been required. In addition, new methods for implementing such systems of data management and analysis will be discussed in light of recently developed GIS technologies. Critical systems design and implementation issues will also be discussed.