Reclaiming Kaho’olawe
Geospatial Solutions features an article on the cleanup of the Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe - using an island-wide GIS implemented by Farallon to track the location, disposition, and handling of suspected unexploded ordnance (UXO) - from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War - recovered from the island.
According to the US Navy, this is the largest US military cleanup project ever - a massive $400 million undertaking - to clear UXO, debris, bomb fragments, and scrap metal.
The article describes how using GPS-enabled digital cameras, handheld GPS data-collection PDAs, and GPS-enabled metal detectors, survey crews mapped the location of every unfired cartridge, rocket warhead, practice bomb, and piece of World War II aircraft wreckage and scrap metal above and below the ground’s surface.
Because Kaho’olawe was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the cleanup required the preservation of thousands of archaeological or historically significant sites on the island, as well as the replanting of native vegetation to slow the erosion of the island’s topsoil. Mapping potentially dangerous ordnance paved the way for archaeologists, botanists, ordnance experts, and volunteers helping with a revegetation project on the island to stay safe as they worked. As archaeological relics and ordnance were found, they were carefully marked, photographed, positioned with GPS, and documented on paper forms for inclusion in the Kaho’olawe Island GIS.
The GIS was used to track every suspected UXO recovered from the island. It also became a valuable resource for tracking the locations of historically significant sites, natural resources, endangered species, and environmental hazards. The database held detailed information about the surrounding conditions of each piece of ordnance found - no matter how small - every historical artifact and site, every natural resource and species, GPS coordinates, area topography, photographs, and any other relevant information.
A Navy review team was then charged with choosing a course of action for the UXO and developing maps showing the most likely fragmentation distance of a UXO, whether it should be moved or detonated in place, and whether any archeological, environmental, or sensitive areas were located within that fragmentation pattern. Farallon developed a solution that allowed decision makers to create the required maps directly from the website, using the spatial database to automatically create geometries based on input coordinates and immediately print maps and reports.
Once Farallon’s Kaho’olawe GIS was online, this process, which had previously taken up to a week, was able to be done in seconds.
A PDF reprint of the article that appeared in GeoSpatial Solutions Magazine is available in the presentations section.