Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Dayle Williamson at 9:30 am, Tuesday, August 4, 1998. The meeting was held in the Commission Conference Room on the fourth floor of the State Office Building, Lincoln, Nebraska. Williamson introduced himself and asked those present to introduce themselves.

Notice of the Meeting
A public notice of the meeting pursuant to section 84-1411 R.R.S. 1943 was published in the Lincoln Journal and Star on July 31, 1998.

Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Data Bank Technical Advisory Committee meeting held on September 11, 1997 were provided. Mahendra Bansal highlighted major agenda items discussed at that meeting which included Internet Access to NRC's data, development of DEMs and DOQs, digitizing county soil surveys, and connectivity to NRCs network. At that meeting, the Committee had expressed a need to correctly define the location of wells identified in the Groundwater Registered Wells Database (administered by the State Department of Water Resources), and to devise a proper well identification scheme for multi-agency use and applications. Dayle Williamson moved for the approval of minutes. There was a short discussion and the minutes were approved as distributed.

Information Material
The following informational material were handed out during the course of the meeting:

Agenda Items
Dayle Williamson went over each item on the agenda and asked for revisions or modifications to the agenda. There were no changes to the agenda.

Data Bank Accomplishments
Bansal provided an overview of the Data Bank activities. He said that for the past couple years, the Data Bank is engaged in varied and numerous high-tech data processing and information dissemination activities. These initiatives include web page development, data base creation, and various hydrologic studies. There are, however, three major accomplishments. In the order of importance, they are: Production of Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle (DOQ) maps, Development of Digital Elevation Models (DEM), and Digitization of county Soil Surveys. The DEM and DOQ databases are developed under a work-share agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey, while the SSURGO database is digitized cooperatively with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Conservation and Survey Division, UNL. Also, these databases are "priority data bases" as designated by the Nebraska GIS Steering Committee, because their use is multi- purpose for inter-governmental needs and applications. The NRC is the lead agency developing and coordinating these databases in Nebraska. - A Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle map is a digital image of an aerial photograph with image distortion removed, so that ground features are displayed in their true ground position. These DOQs are developed using 1993 National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP), have a 1-meter ground resolution, and meet the national standards for a 1:12,000 map product. At this time, the DOQ coverage for over 70 percent of the state is completed. - A Digital Elevation Model is developed from the USGS 7.5-minute topographic (contour) maps. It provides elevation data at 30-meter ground intervals, and meets the level-2 DEM national standards. The DEM coverage for over 80 percent of the state is now completed. - The soil surveys of 16 counties have been digitized, 3 counties are SSURGO certified, and additional 15 counties are expected to be completed during 1999. Nathan McCaleb indicated that Otoe county may be SSURGO certified by the end of this week and another 3 counties (Cass, Nemaha, and Richardson) should be certified soon. Bansal added that another accomplishment relates to interactive processing and dynamic display of GIS databases. The Data Bank has implemented a Map Object and Internet Map Server application to dynamically process GIS databases and publishes them on the World-Wide-Web. This application allows users to display, pan and zoom spatial coverages including DEMs, DOQs and SSURGO soils. This application will be further explained in the next computer demonstration.

Computer Demonstration
Steve Rathje provided a computer demonstration of dynamically accessing GIS and Tabular databases over the Internet. He described, how the newly created Interactive Map of Nebraska is used to select, query and display multiple layers of information on the Web. He demonstrated DEMs and DOQs on-line, and showed how to download coverages from the same site. Other illustrations included interface with well registration and climatic data bases, access to tabular data bases, and retrieve groundwater levels data and water level hydrographs.

Future Directions and Policy Recommendations
Bansal shared with the Committee the Data Bank's Vision, Mission and Objectives statements. After brief discussion, the statements were adopted as proposed. The staff then reviewed the short-term and long-term goals of the Data Bank. As part of the short-term goals, the development of statewide DEMs and DOQs is planned to be completed by June 1999. In order to share databases, the DEMs and compressed DOQs are currently available on-line, as each coverage is about 2-5 MB each, and the full version of DOQs, which is about 50 MB each, is available upon request. These DOQs could be downloaded and copied onto any magnetic media including CD-ROMs and tapes. Paul Yamamoto inquired if there was any cost to DOQ data. There is no cost to data downloaded from the Internet, however, there is a minimal processing fee, if information is to be downloaded on a magnetic media, or reorganized in users' format. The digitization of soil surveys, as per current schedule is targeted to be completed by year 2003. The SSURGO data is also available on-line at the NRC's website. Duane Eversoll inquired what could be done to ensure that people download most current data from the NRC's site. Nathan said that the SSURGO data could change weekly in some cases. Rathje mentioned that the Data Bank was developing a web application which would take the SSURGO data requests, check the NRCS remote site to verify if the dataset at NRC needs to be updated, update the data base if necessary, and retrieve the requested data for the user. The whole process would be automated to run during off-hours. The turn-around time for this will be approximately 2 days. Alternatively, Data Bank could update the database on a regular basis, and the information could be made available on-line for interactive processing, and thus, instantaneous turn-around time. Since the demand for this data base at this time is not overwhelming, the first option was favored by the Committee. Ken Huber talked about the year 2000 issue. He stated that for NRC, the issue poses minimal problem because of relatively "new" nature of equipment with the exception of the DEC workstations that too are to be phased out by year 2000. Bansal added that the software applications developed in-house by NRC are already Year-2000 compatible, as 2-digit year fields have all been expanded into 4-digit year fields. Also, the Data Bank staff is looking into Y2K compatibility of various system software provided by the vendors. Dayle Williamson inquired how other agencies like DEQ, HHS, and Roads, were addressing this issue. Roger Dufresne and Rob Gower discussed PC and network equipment upgrade plans. The existing five DEC workstation are proposed to be substituted by SUN workstations in the next biennial budget. The Data Bank's involvement with NRDs and other state agencies for connectivity with NRC's network was discussed. The NRC provides help in the development of web pages to agencies connected to its network. A few of these agencies share our ARC/INFO license for their GIS application needs Steve Rathje stated that the enhancements of Map Object and Internet Map Server applications are continuing. The objective is to simplify Interactive Map features and interface additional GIS coverages with tabular data bases. Bansal talked about Data Bank's involvement with Platte River Cooperative Hydrology Study and the South Platte River Feasibility Study. The Data Bank will assist the cooperators (Central Platte NRD and the Lower Platte South NRD) in the development and management of surface water and groundwater related GIS and tabular databases.

Acceleration of SSURGO Soils
As part of the long-term goals, the NRC plans to complete digitization of county soil surveys by year 2003. The plans call for digitization of 15 counties each year in cooperative efforts with CSD and NRCS. Nathan stated that there was a need expressed for dramatic acceleration of 12 counties in the Republican River basin and additional 12 counties in the Platte River Corridor. Therefore, instead of following the DOQ production plan in the form of Block areas A, B and C; the NRCS would target Platte River and Republican River counties as priority areas. The completion of SSURGO soils for those areas will be taken up first.

Data Base Updates
Bansal stated that the State Department of water Resources has expressed a desire to bring on-line the scanned well-log data. The Data Bank has extended its help in indexing those log sheets with the well registration database. Williamson reminded that a need was expressed at the previous Committee meeting to correctly define the location of wells, and to design a common well-identification scheme to identify those wells. It was proposed that a sub-committee be formed to look into this matter. Bansal briefed the Committee about the groundwater observation wells data. This data is acquired from the U.S. Geological Survey. It is available on-line and is updated annually. Currently, the observation records and the hydrographs of water level fluctuations are published over the World-Wide-Web. A discussion ensued, how could the GIS application be extended to include a plot of groundwater level changes in the form of contours for an observation well network. Bansal said that the NRC is looking into working out an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey in this matter. Duane Eversoll added that since this data is gathered by NRDs and CSD in cooperation with USGS, we should look into ways to improve access and updating of this data base. Duane proposed to form a sub-committee of NRC, CSD, DWR, USGS and NRD representatives to look into this matter further. It was mentioned that different people have different interpretations of "Test Holes" data. Therefore, the CSD and NRC should work together on this project.

Updating of DOQs
Currently, DOQs are developed from 1993 NAPP black and white aerial photography mapped to 1:12,000 scale. Since, land use and ground configuration change over the years, this necessitates updating of DOQs. The next NAPP flight is expected to be flown over Nebraska in spring 1999. The DOQs can be updated. Two options are available.

The second option requires an additional funding of $100,000 to the NAPP program to have the photography flown in color-infra-red. This funding commitment must be made to the USGS by the end of September 1998. Williamson said that the chances are minimal to find additional funds at this point in time. The updates probably would have to remain black and white this NAPP cycle. To undergo this project, the NRC will again try to work out a work-share agreement with USGS to update the DOQ product.

Enhancement of Map Object Application
Programming map object with Active X, Java and Visual Basic allows users to perform attribute and geographic queries, and create interactive maps on the World- Wide-Web. The Data Bank plans to further extend those queries to include address matching, extract coverages, and build custom applications. The Data Bank will also be integrating spatial information with tabular databases for interactive processing and publishing of both GIS and tabular data on the Web.

Data Bank Fee Schedule
Bansal discussed the proposed Data Bank Fee Schedule. Two rates are proposed for providing DOQ coverages on CD-ROM media.

The creation of a customized CD takes longer to extract, process and write data onto a magnetic media. The Committee members agreed to the proposal and recommended for adoption of fee schedule as proposed.

Suggestions and Recommendations
The floor was open for other ideas and suggestions. There being no other comments and suggestions, the meeting was adjourned at 12:00 noon.