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Project Details

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Project Information Sheet

iLITH Database

Funding Source:	Indiana Department of Environmental Management and Indiana Geological Survey
Status:	ongoing — Definition of status type
Project Director:	Jennifer Olejnik

Issue

A standard means of graphically illustrating masses of data for use in glacial-terrain characterization and mapping was needed. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) water-well database, one of the state's primary subsurface databases, although available digitally, lacked verified locations and standardized lithologic descriptions. To fill this need, iLITH and ArcView GIS plotting tools which tie into the GIS environment were created.

Objective

The objective of this project is to overhaul the IDNR water-well database, redefining it for use in plotting and visualization of subsurface data with accurate locations and standardized lithologic descriptions, and to create integrated plotting tools for use with the database and ArcView GIS 3.3 software.

Approach

The database was designed in Microsoft Access for ease of use, with predefined queries and reports in place for the corrected data. The UTM coordinates were checked for accuracy and records with unresolved locations were removed. Lithologic descriptions were edited, standardized, and simplified. Well-head elevations for each entry were compared to their digital elevation model elevation. A method for adding new locations and lithologic data to the database was created. The plotting tools were created using ArcView GIS Avenue programming language to be used as extensions in ESRI ArcView software.

Products

The database, report, and ArcView plotting tools are available in the publication, Glacial Terrain Explorer, by S.E. Brown, N.K. Bleuer, M. O'Neal, J. Olejnik, and R. Rupp, Indiana Geological Survey Open-File Study 00-08, on CD-ROM.

Benefits

iLITH allows Indiana Geological Survey personnel, as well as outside agencies and individuals, access to the corrected locations and simplified lithologic descriptions of the IDNR subsurface water-well database. Employing software that enjoys widespread use allows the data and plotting tools to be more accessible to the public and private sector.

Locations Affected:

state

Indiana House Districts Affected:

all

Indiana Senate Districts Affected:

all

Indiana Congressional Districts Affected:

Information Updated February 1, 2007

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