Sudden Oak Death is a new and virulent disease affecting
hardwood forests in coastal California. The pathogen, Phytophthora
ramorum, has reached epidemic levels in several California forests,
killing thousands of trees. Maintenance of accurate
and precise spatial measurement of disease presence in the state
is imperative for regulation. The Kelly lab maintains all statewide
spatial data describing the confirmed locations of P. ramorum in
a GIS format. Our SOD mapping websites maintain static SOD maps (state, county, and local area vicinity), as well as an array of interactive webGIS sites, collectively called "OakMapper". Karin Tuxen and Brent Pedersen are involved in this effort.
Technology. We use ESRI software to produce our static maps, and developed the earliest version of the OakMapper with ArcIMS. We are currently migrating this to ArcServer. We also maintain a suite of OakMapper sites that use Open-source and free software like Google Maps and Google Earth. Brent Pedersen is currently developing more functionality using OpenLayers tools.
Users. The OakMapper and our other web-based SOD mapping tools have been adopted by many in the general public, governmental agencies, and academic arena, for keeping up-to-date on SOD distribution in California. Preliminary results show that the majority of OakMapper users access the OakMapper monthly or yearly, and are members of the community or general public.
Links:
Monitoring Sudden Oak Death
OakMapper (enter
information about trees, and view distribution maps)
California
Oak Mortality Task Force (COMTF)
2003 Geospatial Solutions article featuring OakMapper
