Development of a Forest Geographic Information System in Chile

Abstract

The project "Design and Development of a Monitoring System of the State and Conservation of the Natural Vegetation's Formations" was developed under a contract and with specifications of the Chilean Forest Service (CONAF) and the National Environmental Commission (CONAMA). It was conducted by two Colleges of Forestry at the Austral de Chile and Concepción universities and it used and organized the graphic and alphanumeric databases provided by a nationwide Cartographic Land Use project executed from 1994 to 1996. A multidisciplinary team developed a relational database model to organize the alphanumeric and graphic data (in digital form) produced for this national project in 1998 and 1999. Along with this a second effort was oriented towards developing a computer system that would allow any user to retrieve information from the database in an easy and friendly environment. This system called the "Institutional Geographic Information Systems", is already in place and used in all the regional and provincial offices of the Forest Service. It was developed with an interface in Delphi 3.0 and Arc View 3.0a as a tool for drawing and examining maps.