Yukon RRAmSAn information retrieval systemfor renewable resourceand management statistics

Y. Jim Lee. D. Hunt and T. G. Honer

More than 20% (>500 hal of cellcontains forested area .

••Forestry Ser"".ServICe on FQffllS

ABSTRACT

The Yukon Information Retrieval System,designed for use by various levels of decision-makersin the field of forestry and environmental manage­ment, allows fO( easy modification and addition ofresource data input. It is capable of interactivelyretrieving, displaying and tabulating available re­source data for a given location.

The resource data information inputs arebased on a "cell" (grid) orientated system. The

record for each "cell" contains data for a % Uni·versal Transverse Mercator (UTMj grid (2500 hal,expressed in percentage or some other units. Cur·rent forestry information is mainly based on a for·est resource study by C.H. Gairns, the only up·to­date information for the Yukon Territory. Otherdata files, such 35 wildlife, land use, weal her, hydro­logy, etc., can also be implemented.

The computer package has been writtenentirely in FORTRAN IV on the Pacific ForestResearch Centre (PFRC) PDP·, '/45 inhouse com·puter running under the RSX·' , D operating system.It can be accessed from remote computer terminalsand can also be adapted to a more elaborate andexpensive computer, if necessary.

With the facility for monitoring and updat·ing data on changing management activities, thissystem provides the PFRC and The Canadian For·estry Service with efficient and up·to-date resourceinformation for research and policy decision·making.

2

RESUME

Le Systi!me de recherche documentaire duYukon, destine aux cadres de divers niveaux enforesterie et en gestion de I'environnement permetde modifier au ajouter facilement des donneesd'entree sur les resources. II peut extraire, afficheret tabuler interactivement les donnees disponiblessur les ressources d'un lieu dit.

Les entrees de donnees d'information antpour fondement un sysu!me qui s'odente sur des"cellules" (une grille) de memoire. L'enregistrementdans chaque "cellule" contient des donnees classeesselon une grille au quadrillage Mercator transverseuniversel l"UTM") au quart (2500 hal et exprimeesen pourcentages au autres unites. Nos inforrnatioosactuelles sont fondees surtout sur une etude deressources forestieres par C.H. Gairns, et ce sontIes seules qui couvrent recemment Ie Yukon. Onpeut aussi mettre en oeuvre de la meme facon les•donnees sur la faune, les terres, la meteorologie,I'hydrologie, etc.

Le programme·produit par ordinateur futecrit entierement en FORTRAN IV avec I'ordinateurPDP·'1/45 au Centre de recherches forestieres duPacifique et il fonctionne selon Ie systl!me RSX·11D d'op€ration. On peut acceaer a un tel pro·gramme depuis des terminals d'ordinateur satelliteset on peut aussi l'adapter aun ordinateur plus elaboreet plus dispendieux, si necessaire.

INTRODUCTION

Resource managers reQUire basic information

and inventory data for environmental planning andmanagement. With increasing demands being made041 the Yukon Territory by resource users, it isdesirable that existing ecological information relat­ing to the renewable natural resources be organizedto permit immediate access and retrieval for planningpurposes.

A project was initiated in 1975 to reviewexisting information and, through the application ofLANDSAT imagery. to zone the Territory into broadecological regions suitable for resource planning andmanagement (Oswald and Senyk 19771. An integralpart of this project was the development of aninformation retrieval system for renewable resourceand management statistics (Yukon RAAMSJ.

Before detailed systems design work com·menced, several criteria were established to guide itsdevelopment. Since it would initially be used toassess the status of the forest resource for braodmanagement and research purposes, it had to berelatively simple, fast and inexpensive. Because itwould be used by management personnel having aminimum of experience with related computerequipment, it had to be elementary in design and

Grid

3

operation, and easy to up-date. In addition, it hadto operate on the in·house computer at PFRC inorder to minimize cost, and be capable of displaying

results in map form, and presenting tabular sum·maries in Canadian metric units.

The system was completed within an 8·month period and became operational in August1976. The basic design was later adopted by theForest Management Institute of Ottawa (Madill1976) for the development of the National ForestryStatistics Program information retrieval system.

THE CONCEPTS

Resource statistics must relate to a land orarea base. The number of cubic metres of timberon the land base and the extent of the timber'sdistribution over the land determine the long·termforest management strategy. Forest resource mapsshow the locations of merchantable timber standsand this mapped information may be presented forcomputer storage in cells or grids of fixed size, orin polygons of variable size. There are advantages toeach approach (Schwarzbart [1 !!. 1976; Piirvee1975; Harding 1974; Thornburn et al. 1973). Thegeneral characteristics of the two storage systemsare as follows:

Polygon

111 Maps and data inputs are based oncells of equal area. Therefore. areasummaries are precise.

111 Maps and data inputs arepoly(lOns. Area summariessums of individual polygons.

based onare the

(2) Computer inputs are hand codedor automatically generated with theaid of an optical scanner from gridforms overlaid on the base map.

(3) Updating of data is simple and easy,because of direct access to cells incomputer memory.

(4) Additional data files are easy to createand take up less memory space.

(2) Compuler inputs are generated bymanually digitizing the polygon boun­daries from the base map to obtainnumeric data; automatic scanners cur­rently available require considerablemanual preparation.

(3) Updating of data is difficult becausepolygon boundaries have to be rede·fined.

(4) Each additional data file requiresdigitizing polygon boundaries fromeach additional base map and takes upa great deal of memory space.

151

(Grid conl'd)

Software requirements are simple,strai!lht forward and easy to understand.

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{51 Softwarecomplex

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requirementsand difficult

are relativelyto implement.

(SI Operation of the system is simple andfast.

P) Use of the system is relati .... ely inexpen­sive.

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(6) Operation of the system is difficultand relatively slow, and requires a sub­stantial amount of training and techni·cal support.

(7) Use of the system is fairly expensive.

Figure 1. The 'h UTM grid cells, expressed as X, Y coordinates, coverthe Yukon Territory.

5

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Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the Yukon Information RetrievalSystem Data Storage.

In accordance with the established criteriafor development of the system, preference wasgiven to a data base using a grid "cell" as the basicunit of information. The data inputs are specific toeach cell of the grid. The record for each celt con­tains data for a grid of 2500 hectares ('I. UniversalTransverse Medicator· UTM), expressed in percen·tage or some other units Each of these cell unitsrepresents an exact area (2500 hal or a portion of italong the convergent line from the equator to thenorth pole. The cells cover the entire Yukon Terri·tory and form the basis for a retrieval synemdesignedto provide an overview of the Territory (Figure 11.

Territory. It can be viewed as a three·dimensionalarray of data points (FiQure 21, each designated byan X, Y coordinate, representing the northwestcorner of a Y. UTM grid. The Z coordinate representsthe facility for numerous "active data files" ofdiscrete information in the data bank, sudl as dataabout vegetative types, tenure of productive forestlaod, fire danger ratings, fire history, cutover areas,regeneration, land use activities, recreation, wild·life, weather, hvdrology, mineral deposits, etc. Theamount of active data-file information that can bestored for each cell on the X and Y coordinates isvirtually unlimited Data files can be eliminated orupdated at any time.

The data bank configuration can be expressedas a conceptual approach to storing and retrievinginformation about an area of interest within the

Current forestry information is mainly basedon a forest resource study (Gairns 1968), a biophys-

ieal study (Oswald and Senyk 19771. and informa­tion provided by the Yukon lands and Forest Service.The current forestry file is capable of producingtabular summaries of area and timber volume byecoregion or management unit for six land classes,including productive and nonproductive forest.Other data files are being developed.

THE SYSTEM

Yukon RRAMS is a highly interactive systemcapable of storing, retrieving, displaying and tabu­lating resource data. Although the current reportgenerating routines have fixed selection criteria,new criteria can be added with minor softwarechanges. Such a change may require tabulation ofonly those areas containing a fixed proportion ofa characteristic or a range of values, and it has beenfound thal this can be implemented within a day,The lineprinter mapping feature is currently capableof interactively producing distribution maps basedon user selection of the percenlage of any covertype in each cell. The system has been wrinen enlirelyin FORTRAN IV and is currently operating on a PDP11/45 minicompuler under the RSX·l1D operatingsystem. Total memory requirements withoul over­laying are less than 32 K words (16 bit words). It is adisk based syslem Ihal takes advantage of direct accessfiles and index files to provide the quick convena·tional response necessary for interactive use. In addi­tion to the main interactive system, there is a currentlyoffline graphics subsystem capable of generatingcolor maps on either film or television screens. Atpresent, the basic hardware requirements in additionto the minicomputer are a disk drive for storage offiles, a line printer for printing of reports, a terminaland a magnetic tape drive for storage of graphicsfites.

A general flow chart of the system is shownin Figure 3. The three basic file types essential tothe system are:

(1) Disk INDEX File: Contains a descriptionof each Active Data File, including a general filedescription, number of "fields" or observations per'cell', descriptions of these "fields", and designatedoptions for the systems mapping facility. This fileis made available to Ihe user when running the system.

(2) Active Data Files (AOF): Currently, onlythe forestry file is available and tabular outputs arespecific to it, but the basic relrievallogic and mappingoption are suitable for new files. Any number of

6

active data files can be generated and maintained bythe system.

(3) Geographic Desaiption File (GDF1: Whenretrieving information based on X and Y coordinates,this file minimizes the time required to access theactive data file. It is essentially an index for the ADF.

The system can easily be updated by imple­menting the following:

(1) Revise existing data,

(2) Add new active data files 10 the system.

(3) Add options and general purpose routinesto the modular structure of the system.

(4) Enlarge the system to cover small manage­ment areas where detailed data arerequired with a smaller cell unit,

SOME OPERATING EXAMPLES

When a user begins a session, he is informedwhich active data files are available and is provideda description of each. An outline of the managementboundaries of the Yukon Territory is available onthe line printer or the terminal to assist the user indefining the X, Y coordinates of a subarea fromwhich the user wishes to retrieve information, Theshape of the subarea is limited to that of a squareor rectangle. However. an irregular shape of subareacan be achieved by retrieving up to 20 subareas atanyone time. When the subareas are satisfaclorilydefined, outputs and options are listed and the usermay request the printing of various tables and mapsredefine subareas, return to the introductory stage

of the system, or end the session.

For example, a request was received fromoperating personnel of the Yukon lands and ForestService to determine limber areas and volumesfor four areas, as a preliminary overview prior toundertaking additional inventories. Locations of datawere specified as follows:

subarea 1 coordinates X .. 110 to 137, Y "" 196to 217subarea 2 coordinates X = 32 to 54, Y := 95 to 108subarea 3 coordinates X .. 33 to 42, Y = 168 to 185subarea 4 coordinates X .. 90 to 105, Y = 128 to 148

and Figure 4 shows the areas of interest located onIhe computer map. Table 1 shows the area in hectares

7

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Figure 3. General flowchart of the Yukon Information RetrievalSystem.

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IC',"Figure 4. Yukon outline, showing subareas that have been defined.

Each subarea was composed of the followingnumber of cells:

The total time required to input, compute and printthe results is about 6Y.t minutes. This included thetime required in retrieving the four subareas, print·ing the map of the Yukon showing the subareas,

and acres by vegetation type and manaqement unitfor subarea 1. Since the subarea of interest spansthe administrative districts of Teslin and WatsonLake, the areas within each are presented and thetotals for the subarea are also provided. Timbervolumes of softwoods and hardwoods in cubicmetres and cubic feet are also presented for subarea1 by vegetation type and administrative district(Table 2). Similar tables are printed for subareas2 to 4, but have been omitted from the presenta­tion. A total summary of all subareas is shown inTables 3 and 4.

subarea 1:subarea 2:subarea 3:subarea 4:

616 (28)( 22) cells322 (23)( 14) cells180 (10)( 18) cells336 (16 x 21) cells

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j -", '-0 , 5; .... , b-U f {-- F ... F ... F

, (011 .. 1'

2.~""

i!~lq ..

c'1 1 -

C' I I -

r ,1('11 (Itl f1IJOu llt'IIUtlUO ~ f.' f.> (II-' P P P P P lJUllrlOt'1 J111l1lU"'U UtlOt 'IHl P u(JP p ... P '" P'"Itll'"' (, f" tJl}ll11 j.> F-'''' III n liD uP lllHl P P P P P C)

I, t 1(.u rIIl(lt IflU n '" P P tl (Ill UP P l' U (1 P P ~ P U

III J lltl 01-' rl" (II-' fit, P ... nt'p", I-'U(J L'U'" P ... P II

II' 'lJ UP LJ {II Ii Ioj l.J'" F-' I-' F' t I" P P (llll' P P P I-' P LJ

\ III (j l ,{ 1111J II (J IHJ lJ tl ,1 P '" nP P F' P I-' P P

I 1I1111l1l(' (l(){J I) III 11 III n p P F' U '" H ......... fJ I-'l){ 1(1 f) U(l (J (1 0 I J(1 L'l J IJ I J'" P '" I-'U P 0 lJ P "" P PI 'ilr"lllr,IIIJI oI\( l(lIJP LJUIJ p~ I-' I II-' (llil-' 10'11\1

III 'niH" H II III LI f\, J r Il11Jl-''' 1-1> I-' p! HI ~ I-' (J (l

rliH 'ld'lIlll'POrtt ,n(jP PP ... P r'" P p~ I-'PrllJ

r Il'~'llll(lr IIlll'IOul' P P ..' Pp( ~'P pflP P PP{,l', lilt! I: l' "', JII, II H' 0 .... t' 1-''''' I-' ,I Ill-' F' P f' P"" I-' J­

')"'IIJlI(" Illd,JUI'lll. I-' Ill" I'Pf.'P P PI-' PI'Pll

Illt~ II ".Ill! lfltl\J II.' P.' PI-'''' t'P P I-' P... 1-'''' P'"

I ,'I' 1~IUIll" Illi JI III LII' P P l 1-''' P P P P P P ... P P

'J! 1(IOOl" 11llJlHltJtJ J' "''' I-' J- P I-' P P b'" P l.o P

I·. II' tIl-' r 'III 'IIIJ (In c "'" ... p ~ p p p '" p j;' p p ~ P

L' Pill 'Ilt' fI fJlh , e, .. M I, P I-' ~ .,y" PI-'''' P I-' P

til ")1.;1' .. u',;, ~ 11 Ul-' P P P P I-' P "' .. PI"

,Jljll ...... 'i 1"'., " U('lJP~I'''PP PI-'P ",pI-'

5 More than SO'\ 01 cell contains sawtlmbl!1

P More than 50% 01 cell contains pulp and young

growth.

H : More than 50% 01 cell contains hardwood.

B More than SO'll. of cell con!aInS bUfned'OIIe,

area

W More than 5Q'l, of cell conlalns water.

o More lhan 50% of cell contains barren 01 other

land area

Blank

•1 ,.

•,," •1,"

•I j"

Figure 5. Graphic map output of subarea No, 1.

the digital display map of each subarea showingthe major classification of each cell (Figure 5), andprinting the 10 summary tables. The majority oftime was actually consumed in keying in the foursubarea X, Y coordinates and the printing of theoutputs.

At the moment, the application of this

system is as follows:

(1) To provide annual up-to-date forestry statisticsfor the Yukon Territory for reporting by Sta·

tistics Canada (Lee 1977).

(2) To find out quickly where, what and how muchcurrent forestry resources exist in any localityat any time in the Yukon Territory, using thesubarea retrieving process.

(3) To assist in finding out how large an area isrequired to sustain a cenain forestry indus·

trial development or a sustained yield unit,using the subarea retrievinQ process.

(4) To retrieve information quickly through acomputer terminal for deciding whether a cer·tain forest fire in a certain locality is worthfighting, using the fire suppression priorityzone.

(5) To retrieve fire rating information quicklythrough a computer terminal.

GRAPHICS SUBSYSTEM

The graphics subsystem is capable of pro·ducing color images. In order to minimize the costsof producinQ such images, available facilities such aspen plotters and video outputs were evaluated.The facilities chosen related directly to LANDSAT

image analysis systems and their associated inputl

14

Green: More than 50% (> 1250 hal of cellcontains forested area.

Yellow: More than 1% (>25 hal of cellcontains water.

Red: Combination of above.

Figure 6. A graphic image of the Yukon Territory showing distributionof water and forest land.

15

ATTRIBUTE lEVEL

N,o,TION,o,LSTATISTICS

PROVINCI,o,L ,ST,o,TISTICS

UNIT ,STATISTICS

Hc III

... Cll"HE"EtoCE

PROVINC[

C.o.N,o,O,o,

~ROVINCEPROVINCEPROVINCE

R£FERUIC£ UNIT ITOWNS><I~. CEll, COMP~Rt"'ENT.EtC.'"RE"VOLUME

•

W,o,T[R ----------- Llo----..... E.. -.RE..... VOL.....E

•LAND ANDW,o,TER

I'fllVAT(-..YOU-IUE Itl

•I

OWNERSHIP

INVENTORYST,o,TUS

~'D

CAPABILITY

~'D

STATUS

PROOUCTIVITY

STOCKING

•

•

,

•

•

"

FEOER,o,L-.RE" ....E..VOWME ,.. VOLUME

• •

llNVENTOfIY ~VEJORYAIlE" ""E"... VOLUME.... ~._--- ..

NON·FOREST LAND~RESJ LAND~"E.. ""E.... VOLUME

~~~~~~:~~ILE:----------RETAINED....E.. -.RE.. ""E..... VOL.....E VOL.....E 191

• •UNI'flOOOCTIVE~ool,vE

""lEA -.RE~.. YOLUME-------... ..

NON·STOCKED~STOC~EOAIl£.o ....E..... VOLUME

•

~'D " CLEAR CUT CLEAR BURN CLEAR OTHERO)NOITION INFESTATION

"AE~ ~AE .. ..OlE" ..OlE"

• • •------ ------- -------~ARTIAL DISTURBANce NO OISTURB.o.NCe ~ARTIAl INFESTATION

AIlfA AIl(.O. ..OlE"~LUWEUJI ~lUME ~LU..E lUI

~ACMOOO------:FL----------:IKEDWO<MJ

DISTURBANCE

FORESTType

VOLUME

"

"

"

..IlE"VOLUME.Ul

•_..VOLUME

•CONIFEROUS~ DECIDUOUS

lIOLUME VOLUME • END OF FLOW

• III' ENH'v to LEVEL e.

Figure 7. Proposed Canadian Forest Resource Data System.

output mediums. That is, in order to create a colorimage, Yukon RRAMS mun output data in a Com·puter Compatible Tape format. This tape is thenprocessed on a separate LANDSAT analysis systemfor image generation or on a film strip recorder.Costs of this process can be as low as $3 per image,not including minicomputer time.

Figure 6 shows a sample output map usingthis subsystem. It is anticipated that this compa·tibility with LANDSAT techniques will lead to thegeneration and updating of additional active datafiles IADF'sl using LANDSAT data.

FUTURE WORK

Yukon RRAMS is the vehicle used to nore,retrieve and report on forest statistics for the YukonTerritory. The system organizes and contributesdata to the National Forestry Data Program andassists in fulfilling the Canadian Forestry Servicemandate in national forestry affairs.

At present, this system has demonstratedthat broad resource information for the entire YukonTerritory can be retrieved almost instantly. Themodular structure of the system makes it easy toadd or subtract routines without affecting the entireoperation. A subroutine will be added to the systemin 1979 to output Yukon forestry statistics con·forming with the proposed Canadian Forest ResourceData System (Figure 7). With facility for updatingdata on changing management activities, it is nolonger a difficult task to monitor annual cut andburned·over areas. volume growth and depletionof the forest in the Territory.

Future work on remote sensing, throughphoto interpretation of aerial photos and LANDSATimagery and multispectral analysis of LANDSATdigital tapes, is the maior technical approach (Lee1974, 1975, 1976) for gathering information onburned·over and cut-cver areas, and regeneration forupdatinq purposes. A forest fire history data file isbeinq set up to monitor yearly burned-over areasand volume summary since 1968 to provide his·torical fire records for the Yukon Territory. Aregeneration data file will also be set up to monitorregeneration conditions of areas burned or cutfor updating productive forest land.

16

REFERENCES

Gairns, C.H. 1968. Forest resourcil'S study. Vot. lit. Refer·

ences study on lorest resources. The Yukon econo­my, its potenlial for growth and continuity. Reportprepared for the DIP!. of Indian Afflirs ,nd Nor­

thern DlNelopmerlt by D.W. Carr and Associates,Ottawi. 62 p.

Hllfding. R.A. 1974. GA IDS works for DNA. Washington,Dept. of Naturel Resources. DNR Report No. 25.68p.

Lee, Y.J. 1914. Monitoring I'T'I8nagement opllflllionli. Cal'l/l'dian Surv.yor, 2812): 135-141.

Let, Y.J. 1975. Are clearcut areas estimated from LANDSATimage reliable? Proc. NASA Earth Rasourc&s SurveySymposium, Houston, TeJOl8li. Vol. I·A: 105.144.

Lett, Y.J. 1976. Computer-alisisled forest I.nd classifica­tion in British COlumbia and Ihe Yukon Territory:a case study. Proc. ACSM-ASP Convention. Seattle,Washinglon. Sept. 1976: 240-250.

Lee. Y.J. 1977. National lorestry stati$lics survey· 1977 forYukon Tarritory. Pacific Forest Research Centre.viclori., B.C. Unpublished R'Port. 32 p.

Medill, R.J. 1976. A system for producing nation.l forestrystlllines. Forest M.nagement InnitulI, Ottaw.,Unpublished Study Proposal. 18 p.

O,....ald, E.T. and J.P. Sanyk. 1976. ECOregions 01 YukonTerritory. Pacific Forest Research Centre, CFS,Environment Cal'l/lda, Victoria, B.C. 115 p.

Piirvee, R. 1975. Feasibility 01 CatWdll geographic infor.mallon $YSlem for the purpose of forlS! manage.ment. Forest Ma.-ment Institute, CFS, Environ­ment Canada. ProgrllS$ Report - Project No. 142.31 p.

Schwarzbart. G., E. Hirsch, T.P. lennon, J.R. Robertson,E.R. Rockey and E.S. V.lfer. 1976. Al'l/llysis ofComputer support $YSlems lor muhi·functionafplanning· Aeport Ill. U.S. Forest Servic., Berkeley,California. 66 p.

Thorrburn. G., K.M. Magar and G.S. Nagle. 1973. An infor·mation sySlem lor rUfal laoo'U511 planning. PacilicForest Research Centre, CFS, Environment Canada.BC-X-75.91 p.

Canadian Forestry ServicePacific Forest Research Centre506 West Burnside RoadVictoria, B.C. vaz 1M5

BC-X·185 November 1978

C Department 01 Supply .nd Services