The Use of GIS at the Line Creek Mine

• Main Authors: Beranek, David, Kovach, William
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9630

At the Line Creek Mine, the use of a Geographical Information System (GIS) started as a spin-off from a research program that was attempting to determine the net impact of the mine on wildlife habitat. The project involved manually overlaying the mine disturbance on top of the mine's 1:20,000 Wildlife Habitat Capability biophysical map. Upon doing this, it quickly became evident that we needed to step up from the use of overlays and planimeters to that of a GIS. In 1997, Line Creek started using the PAMAP Software of PCI Solutions. Initially we started with the importation of the Wildlife Habitat Capability biophysical map. However, we quickly expanded the database to include the Vegetation biophysical map; the Terrain Assessment biophysical map; original topography; present day topography; mine plans; bighorn sheep telemetry data; fish telemetry data; sampling data et cetera. With the extensive database, Line Creek now is in a very good position to begin assessing the impact of the mine on the environment from a number of different perspectives. This paper will summarize the trials and tribulations of working with GIS and put forward a few of the resulting products.