Geo Week News

July 22, 2013

Energy Dept. replacing geospatial eco-mapping system

07.22.13doe

Web-based NextGen GIS to promote transparency, collaboration

The Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management (LM) is replacing its 12-year-old, web-based Geospatial Environmental Mapping System (GEMS) with a new geospatial platform that has better map functionality and collaboration capabilities to help manage environmental records from Cold War legacy sites.

The first version of NextGen GIS rolls out in January, taking over the more than 16 different applications supporting databases containing LM’s environmental and geospatial information, spanning nearly 40 years.

Web-based for both external and internal users, NextGen GIS will be more open and transparent, user-friendly and versatile for analysis of environmental data. It will also have expanded layers, support, upgrades, speed, ease of use, expandability and cross-agency commonality for map sharing, development, and collaboration.

The new system will integrate land use such as parcel ownership and mineral rights and institutional controls, including land restrictions and real and personal property, with its environmental data.

DOE regulators will use NextGen GIS to verify that LM sites are properly maintained (e.g., disposal cell integrity) and are in compliance with groundwater strategies.

GEMS was last upgraded in 2006 with a tutorial, graphical outputs that included time-series plots and spot plots, the ability to select multiple wells, and attachment of files such as well logs and photos.

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