Hardware/Software | Description | Cost | Funding | Organized/Maintained | Metadata
Hardware/Software
The MassACORN website currently runs on a HP Proliant Windows 2003 Server using Microsoft's Internet Information Server 6.x (specifications below). Because of
University of Massachusetts' computer security requirements, we installed Computer Associates Arcserve 9 firewall software. The server has the API version of PHP and the MySQL database server installed. We administer the MySQL databases using PHP MyAdmin. PHP and MySQL provide the backend for the phpBB message board and the online survey. MapServer powers the map serving application. We use Dreamweaver to edit and maintain the website, and the HP Proliant server gets backed up nightly.
Description of the ACORN Web
The ACORN web currently occupies about 200MB of disk space, but the 1-meter resolution orthophoto data that MapServer uses to render maps of the 40-mile by 48-mile MassACORN study area take up an additional 12 GB of disk storage. The web uses a CSS style sheet for consistent formatting of pages and a simple javascript to generate navigation bars.
What does it cost to build an ACORN website?
Although ACORN currently runs on a Windows platform, it could just as easily run on the Open Source (OS) Apache (http://www.apache.org/) server using the Linux operating system. The OS Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL,MapServer and phpBB software are available at no cost and can be easily downloaded from the Internet. A competent technician could install and configure the necessary software in a day or two.
The most technically challenging part of duplicating the ACORNwebsite involves processing the geographic data for MapServer. It took about 140 hours to process the data and get the MapServer application functioning. Assuming the geographic data are readily available, building the MapServer application for an area the size of the MassACORN study area would probably cost $5,000 to $7,000 if outsourced. Alexander Stepanov, part of the MassACORNteam, did the MapServer development.
Developing the content for an ACORN website and constructingthe web's pages can take considerable time, but once the site is running anyonewith basic web skills can update and maintain the site. Jennifer Fish developed most of the content with input from Dave Kittredge and Paul Catanzaro. Charlie Schweik and Alexander Stepanov provided technical assistance.
Purchasing a suitable server could cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on how much traffic is expected. The current ACORN server would cost at the low end of this range. High bandwidth Internet service (T1 1.5MB) costs about $500 per month. Hosting MassACORN on a dedicated server at an Internet Service provider (http://www.crystaltech.com/dedicated.htm) can be done for as little as $80 per month.
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Funding
ACORN is supported by the National Research Initiative of theUSDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant number 2006-55101-16564.
Organized/Maintained
ACORN is currently maintained by the ACORN team in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
ACORN is organized by David Kittredge, Charlie Schweik, Jennifer Fish, Paul Catanzaro, and Alexander Stepanov of the Department of Natural Resources Conservation at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst; Tom Stevens and Mike LeVert of the Department of Resource Economics at the
University of Massachusetts - Amherst; in cooperation with The State of Massachusetts' Department of Conservation and Recreation's Bureau of Forestry, with spatial data generously provided by MassGIS and The Nature Conservancy and wildlife photographs provided by Bill Byrne and Lori Cookman of MassWildlife.
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MapServer Metadata
Information about the data used in MapServer:
Majority of the data currently used in ACORN MA MapServer were obtained from the MassGIS. MassGIS and the State of
Massachusetts make no representations of any kind, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use, nor are any such warranties to be implied with respect to the data. It is possible to draw maps with the ACORN MA MapServer that juxtapose very accurate data and less accurate data. Please examine the table below before drawing conclusions about the accuracy of any map you create! Also please refer to metadata provided by MassGIS.
Information about Layers : |
|
Background |
MassGIS Layer
(for information about Accuracy and Resolution see MassGIS) |
Source |
Source Date |
Comments |
|
Aerial Photograph |
1:5,000 Black and White Digital Orthophoto Images |
Aerial Ortho-photography |
1992 through 1999 |
Most of the ACORN area photographed in the spring of 1997or 1998 |
|
Topos 1:25K |
USGS Topographic Quadrangle Images |
Scanned USGS topographic maps 7.5 minute series |
|
ACORN area
Deerfield Watershed 1990
Westfield Watershed late 1970's, 1987 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Layers |
MassGIS Layer |
Source |
Source Date |
Comments |
|
Rivers/Lakes |
Hydrography1:25,000 Hydrography1:100,000 |
USGS Digital Line Graphs |
Updated 2003 |
|
|
Town Boundaries |
Community Boundaries |
USGS |
Updated 2002 |
|
|
Elevation |
Elevation Contours 1:5,000 |
DTM data points collected during production of black and white ortho images |
2003 |
|
|
Roads |
1:5,000 Road and Rail Centerlines |
Half-meter photography part of black and white ortho images project |
2002 |
|
|
Land Use |
Land Use |
1:25,000 Aerial Photographs |
January 2002
|
MassGIS data includes both 27 and 37 land use categories. For use in this application similar categories were combined for a total of eight land use categories |
|
Wetlands |
DEP Wetlands 1:12,000 |
DEP color infrared photography |
April 2007 |
Photography taken 1990-93, 1999, 2000. Questions should be directed to DEP Wetlands Conservancy Program at 617-292-590 |
|
Conserved Lands |
Protected and Recreational Open Space |
Various, including: Assessors records and state agencies |
January 2009 |
For use in this application similar Open Space types (OS_type) were combined |
|
NOTE:
CONSERVED LAND DOES NOT IMPLY PUBLIC ACCESS, SEEK APPROPRIATE PERMISSIONS. |
|
Forest Stewardship |
Forest Stewardship Program Properties
|
Digitized stewardship plans on file with DCR |
January 2008 |
|
|
Large
Forest Blocks |
|
This layer is provided by the Nature Conservancy |
1992 TIGER roads |
Click here for further description of this layer |
|
Interior
Forest Habitats |
|
This layer was created by the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game - Division of Fisheries and Wildlife |
1999 Land use and 2001 TIGER roads |
Click here for further description of this layer |
|
Certified Vernal Pools |
NHESP Certified Vernal Pools |
Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program maintains this data. |
September 2008 |
"NHESP 2003
Massachusetts Certified Vernal Pools" |
|
Priority Habitats of Rare Species |
NHESP Priority Habitats of Rare Species |
Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program maintains this data. |
September 2008
|
"NHESP 2005 Priority Habitats for State-Protected Rare Species" |
|
Estimated Habitats or Rare Wildlife |
NHESP Estimated Habitats or Rare Wildlife |
Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program maintains this data. |
September 2008
|
"NHESP 2005 Estimated Habitats for Rare Wildlife: For Use with the
Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act Regulations (310 CMR 10)." |
The Nature Conservancy Layer
Large Forest Blocks
Large forest blocks are areas bounded by features from the 1:100k US Census Bureau's TIGER line dataset, such as roads, railroads, major utility lines, and major shorelines. The bounding block feature types were chosen due to their ecological impact on biodiversity in terms of fragmentation, dispersion, edge-effects, and invasion of alien species.
Large forest blocks represent areas whose size and natural condition allow for the maintenance of ecological processes, viable occurrences of matrix forest communities, embedded large and small patch communities, and embedded species populations. The goal within large, or matrix, forest blocks was to identify viable examples of the dominant forest types that, if protected as forest cores within the blocks and allowed to regain their natural condition, would serve as critical source areas for all species requiring interior forest conditions or associated with the dominant forest types.
Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game - Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Layer
Interior Forest Habitat
The interior forest habitat dataset was created by the Division of Fisheriesand Wildlife of the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game.
Interior forest habitat represents patches of unfragmented forest within forested areas of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. These polygons were taken directly from 1999 land use data, and buffered away from roads and develop-related land uses; the result is the interior patches.
The dataset was developed to facilitate the selection of forest reserves in Massachusetts as part of Green Certification by the Forest Stewardship Council on lands owned by
Massachusetts state agencies. Users should bear in mind that these data represent land use current as of 1999.
Fragmenting buffer widths were based partially on done by The Nature Conservancy, Boston Office according to work by:
Forman, R.T.T., and R.D. Deblinger. 2000. The Ecological Road-Effect Zoneof a
Massachusetts (U.S.A.)
Suburban Highway. ConservationBiology 14:36-46.
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