Originally designed as a planning tool, the GIS Psomas is building, based on ESRI's ArcInfo and ArcView GIS software, has grown into the overall data repository for the El Toro Master Development program. This provides a concrete basis for analyzing the net change in potential noise impacts. Using support data from noise consultants, Psomas translated noise information into engineering-compatible data and ensured the data was accurately lined up with the existing runways. Daniel McCroskey, Psomas project manager for the El Toro GIS, notes that the true bearing of a runway must be correct to less than a degree. According to McCroskey, it has been a challenge working with the large number of consultants on the base reuse plan, from marketing analysts, engineers, and planners to golf course designers and landscape architects.
All data is calculated through the highest degree of surveying and engineering design methods.
The consultant with the toughest requirements is our benchmark, so everyone else benefits. One reward that McCroskey points to is being able to use cutting-edge software that did not even exist a little over a year ago. ESRI's ArcView 3D Analyst extension to ArcView GIS allows three-dimensional modeling to exist inside a GIS mapping environment. This software is really exciting. We can model the terrain by overlaying aerial photography over wire-frame digital elevation models to show topography in three dimensions.