A pilot geographic information system (GIS) graphical user
interface (GUI) was designed to facilitate habitat rehabilitation
and enhancement planning by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St.
Louis District. Undertaken in summer 1993, the project was
developed to provide sample analyses for the Calhoun Point
Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project on Pool 26 of the
Upper Mississippi River System. The main objective of the
project was to show how a GIS can assist in the design and
evaluation of a project. The interface allows users to become
familiar with the features of the area from a contemporary as
well as a historical perspective, conduct statistical summaries,
and develop and test varying modeling scenarios involving dike
placement and water level elevations. The interface was written
in Arc Macro Language and executed in the ARC/INFO version 6.1
(Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands, CA) vector
and raster environment on a UNIX workstation platform. The GUI
is menu-driven and designed around an expandable hierarchical
data structure. In operation, the user sets the analysis
environment by selecting, through a series of menus, the elements
needed for analysis, including the land cover layer, management
plan, and elevations. Graphic and numeric results are displayed
on the screen.
