AZSITE Consortium Minutes Quarterly Meeting Thursday, August 1, 2005 Harold Colton Research Center Pearson Hall, Museum of Northern Arizona A) The meeting was called to order at 1:30 pm, with words of welcome from Dr. Robert Breunig, Director of MNA. B) Introduction of members and guests: The following were present: 1) Michael Barton, ASU 2) David Wilcox, MNA, presiding 3) Carol Griffith, SHPO 4) Beth Grindell, ASM, recording 5) Rick Karl, ASM 6) Lindsay Hunt, MNA 7) Miles Gilbert, NRCS 8) Neil Weintraub, Kaibab NF 9) John Hanson, Kaibab NF 10) Liz Lane, EnviroSystems 11) Dan Newsome, EnviroSystems 12) Tim Wilcox, Navajo Nation Archaeology 13) Michael A. Tsosie, Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Division 14) Alissa Bentz, ACS 15) Bill Ross, Greystone Environmental 16) Christina Piastrini, NAU Anthropology 17) Tom Tyndall, Arizona State Parks C) Old Business 1) Review of minutes: The minutes of the May 5, 2005, were accepted as amended. 2) Grants and funding: Grindell reported that a proposal for Round 13 Transportation Enhancement funding was submitted for AZSITE improvements and will be reviewed by the Transportation Enhancement Review Committee in early October. The proposal will be submitted for state funding, although ADOT asked that the Pima Association of Governments review committee vet the proposal. That took place in July and that committee gave the proposal its full support. 3) Standing committees a) Management Committee 1. Executive Order: Griffith reviewed what the Consortium has done to obtain an Executive Order (EO) that would make AZSITE the official cultural resources inventory in Arizona. SHPO has drafted an order, which is now under legal review and will be sent to the Governor’s office the end of August. 2. Expansion of the Consortium: Wilcox explained that one item of the EO was to expand the Consortium to include an advisory group comprised of a federal representative, a tribal representative, a representative from the CRM community, and a representative of the executive branch appointed by the governor. As members of the board all would be involved in management meetings as well as in public meetings and would be involved in directing the future of the Consortium of the database. b) Database Committee 1. Server architecture: Rick Karl reviewed the history of AZSITE’s computer architecture from the original server at ASM to the current configuration (see attached). Soon users will be going to a new server at ASM (Rhyolite) to view the database at http://www.azsite.arizona.edu. Spatial data and attribute data will be completely synchronized. ASM’s backlog has been entered through 2003. Within a year we expect to be only six months behind. 2. New data entry module: This module produces ASM project registration form, BLM site assessment form, site card, and project form. Karl demonstrated the new forms and explained differences. The new forms should be on line in 30-40 days. 3. GIS source will require GIS quality and source. 4. Land Ownership is new to Projects Form, and multiple ownerships can be listed 5. TRS: Baselines have been named and Salt Gila is named as the default. List as many sections as necessary. 6. Project report is linked from bibliographic record to project record. 7. Other ID: enter any other number by which the project may be known. 8. BLM case number has been added, as well as a dropdown field office list, crew size, inventory level, sampling size. 9. There is more location information. 10. There is an ASM project registration form print button. It is no longer necessary to send in paper copy of the project registration form. 11. The digitizing function is still there although all users seem to be digitizing off maps or using GPS data. 12. New Site Card: certain fields are now required and mandatory or you can’t continue. Chcck boxes have been added for site location (is site location known and plotable?) and to indicate whether the site has been excavated or destroyed, or if the record is an update. National Register information will be adjusted slightly. Attribute information will no longer accept “other” as a feature unless you also add comments to explain what “other” is. Count must be completed. “P” for “present” is acceptable. Fields have been added for Utility and Paleontological. “Room count” will be required if feature listed is “room block.” When diagnostic artifacts are entered in a site record, a list will be built automatically that will be available to use in entering the next site in the project. Under cultural affiliation, “other” must be explained. Under Research page, if collections are made and checked, name of repository must be provided. The reference on the site card is tied to the bibliographic database and does not need to be reentered, but will be available in the pull-down list. Land status entries are now higher-level names. And Owner names are field office names. Under certain circumstances heads up digitizing is disabled and UTMs must be manually entered. Site coordinates are to be entered for printing only. Actual UTMs are taken from GIS maps. Quad names have been added so that they will print. GPS accuracy is based on FGDC standards that BLM is using. There is a print function now for the architectural form, too, as well as the archaeological site data. Some modifications will also be made to the architectural fields. There is also a BLM site assessment print button. Complete instructions on downloading and using the new form will be provided when it is ready. You cannot use the new version on projects started with the old version. You must complete all started projects before downloading and using the new data entry module. Barton suggests publishing a “stop point” after which no datasets will be accepted in the old format. Barton noted that it is best that data be submitted via the on-line system, not just via e-mail attachment, to insure proper handling, and creation of a tracking record. In response to to a question, Karl noted that data may be recorded in any coordinate system as long as we know what it is so that it can be converted to NAD 27 (or NAD 83 next year). c) Tribal Committee: Tim Wilcox is attending at request of Ron Maldonado at Navajo Nation to look at AZSITE as they considering using AZSITE as a template for setting up to handle Navajo Nation data. They are especially interested in GIS for the paper maps which are disintegrating. He asked about standards for datums. Karl noted that currently AZSITE uses NAD 27 (zone 12) but at first of year will switch to NAD 83. Wilcox noted that AZSITE has just under 3000 records from Navajo lands that we can turn over to them. Barton noted that we will provide the AZSITE GIS and attribute databases at no charge. They can put these on local computers and use locally without any need to put on the web or retrieve it through web applications. Wilcox noted that they might want to get an AZSITE user account to use AZSITE to look at non-tribal areas. Karl said he could put the Navajo Nation data AZSITE currently holds on a disk with the AZSITE software and send it to them, after receiving written permission of the tribal chair to release the site data to Ron Maldonado. 4) Status of the GIS lab at ASU: Barton reported that the GIS lab has been incorporated into the Institute for Social Service Research, and will focus on research applications, as well as service applications like the AZSITE Map Server. D) New Business – Neil Weintraub made a presentation on Infra, the Forest Service Heritage Information Management System to deal with cultural assets, permits, and other agency business. Infra is an Oracle-based relational database adopted by the USFS as a real property management tool. It is fully integrated with GIS and the goal is to enter data once for use by many. Weintraub is one of 12 on an inter-forest, inter-state committee to monitor use and needed changes to system. Now interested in being able to move information back and forth to various partners, including AZSITE. The USFS is populating Infra from existing standalone FS databases, hardcopy records and SHPO databases. There is also a handheld application for use in field work to get data directly to database. NM ARMS will be migrating data into Infra. Approximately 150,000 sites in the database are estimated to be half of all known sites across 16 states with USFS lands. Infra is designed to take FS and SHPO seamlessly through the Section 106 process, as well as producing state forms. The desktop application is in MS ACCESS and Weintraub demonstrated this. The handheld application was developed in a Dell Axim, although an IPACS will be used now. Weintraub demonstrated the handheld for the meeting. Much of the data recorded in the database or on the handheld match the location, feature, artifact forms in AZSITE. Once in Infra, data can be shared electronically with SHPO and other partners. They do not currently have access to Infra from the Arizona FS offices as it is being centralized in Kansas City. Hansen noted that Region 3 has been very slow to get Infra operational and he asked that archaeologists who like the Infra system and its compatibility with AZSITE and other systems should encourage FS participation. Issues to be dealt with include: 1) Providing a parallel AZSITE data entry module for handhelds so that the information collected by Infra can populate AZSITE as well as Infra, and 2) Dealing with the backlog of legacy data. Karl and USFS IT specialist, Jeff Overturf, are collaborating to cross-map the data from the two databases. Wilcox suggests talking to Dave Stephen about what he has done in developing a handheld application for AZSITE. The Consortium voted to purchase a mobile computer (handheld) for Karl to use in developing the final AZSITE mobile application. E) Public Comment – In response to a question, canal data will be available soon as a visible layer. No further public comment was offered. F) Next meeting will be Wednesday, October 26, 2005, Arizona State Parks Conference Room. (NB: Date was subsequently changed to Wednesday, November 9, 2005, same location.) G) The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 pm. AZSITE: Arizona’s Cultural Resource Inventory http://www.azsite.arizona.edu http://azmap.asu.edu Attributes Search Spatial Search