FMG-StandWalk

An ArcGIS toolbox that creates Forest Management Geodatabase (FMG) Stand Walk Reports.

Project Status

Description

The FMG Stand Walk ArcGIS toolbox is a Python/R toolbox used to automate the production of the reports needed by foresters to conduct the "Stand Walk Recon" task. The purpose of a Stand Walk Recon is to assess the current condition of a given forest stand using the forest survey data recorded in the FMG, and from this information, to develop a "Stand Prescription" that will define its management in the coming years.

The "Stand Walk Recon" task is composed of two elements:

• Stand Summary - A sheet summarizing the FMG field survey data for a given stand. Foresters need to consult the summary statistics on this sheet to help record decisions on the next sheet.
• Stand Prescription - A sheet used by a forester to record their assessment of what management actions should be taken for a given stand.

Funding

Funding for the development and maintenance of the Forest Management Geodatabase (FMG) has been provided by USACE Rock Island District, Operations Division, Mississippi River Project, Natural Resources.

Latest Updates

Check out the NEWS for details on the latest updates.

Authors

• Michael Dougherty, Geographer, Rock Island District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Christopher Hawes, Geographer, Rock Island District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Ben Vandermyde, Forester, Rock Island District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Lauren McNeal, Forester, Rock Island District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Preview Reports

Use this link to preview the stand reports for the Mississippi River Pool 21 Pecan Grove test data: https://forestmanagementgeodatabase.github.io/FMG-StandWalk/index.html. You can reproduce these reports following the instructions in the Getting Started section below.

Design

This ArcGIS toolbox contains a set of R scripts that import a set of standard FMG geospatial datasets and produce a set of forest stand summary reports. These reports are built using R Markdown, that is introduced here and described in detail here. This approach makes available the advanced data science and reporting capabilities of R within USACE's enterprise GIS software, ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap.

Install

Use the following instructions to start running the reports. This toolbox requires the user to install R, RStudio, ArcGIS Pro, and optionally, ArcMap.

Install R

R is a statistical computing environment required to perform calculations and report generation (@R-base).

• Ensure that R is installed.
• R version 4.0 greater is recommended.
• Ensure that RTools is installed. You will need either RTools35 for R v3.6.x or RTools40 for R v4.x. RTools is required for compiling R packages from source. It is highly recommended, but not strictly required.
• Ensure that your RTools installation is on the system PATH (i.e., open a command prompt window, use the path command). If not, set your user environment PATH variable to the appropriate (depending on the R major version) RTools bin directory (e.g., C:\Rtools\bin, C:\rtools40\usr\bin).

Install RStudio

Rstudio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for R that streamlines development and troubleshooting.

• Ensure that Rstudio is installed.
• RStudio version 1.3 or greater is recommended.
• RStudio is recommended, but not strictly required.
• Update your currently installed R packages to the latest version. On the RStudio tools menu, select "Check for Package Updates...". Click the "Select All" button and click the "Install Updates" button.
• If asked to compile packages from source, select "Yes" if you installed RTools.

Install ArcGIS Pro

ESRI ArcGIS Pro is the GIS application where the FMG analysis will be performed and where the toolbox will be accessed.

• Ensure that ArcGIS Pro is installed.
• ArcGIS Pro version 2.6+ is recommended.

Install arcgisbinding

The ESRI arcgisbinding R package allows ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap to read and write to R sessions. Installing it through ArcGIS Pro also enables it for use in ArcMap as well. See the NEWS for more details on version compatibility for each release.

Install the latest arcgisbinding version

• In ArcGIS Pro, on the top menu, click "Project", and click "Options" on the left menu.
• In the "Options" dialog box, click "Geoprocessing" on the left menu.
• On the "Geoprocessing" page, scroll down to the "R-ArcGIS Support" section.
• In the "R-ArcGIS Support" section, verify the installed R version for ArcGIS to use.
• Select an R version in the 4.x series.
• From the "Installed 'arcgisbinding' package version:" dropdown menu, choose the "Check package for updates" option.

Download the toolbox

The code in the FMG-StandWalk repository contains all of the files needed to use this ArcGIS toolbox.

• In the "Releases" section above on the right side of the page, click the green "latest" link.
• On the latest release page, use the "Source code (zip)" link to download a ZIP archive of the toolbox.
• Unzip the archive to your project folder.
• In ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro, navigate to the folder where you just unzipped the archive and you are ready to use the StandWalk ArcGIS toolbox.

Getting Started

Open either ESRI ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap. Navigate to the folder where you unzipped the FMG-StandWalk zip file and open the StandWalk.tbx ArcGIS toolbox.

Running the Stand Walk Reports

Follow the standard FMG instructions for collecting FMG field data, QA/QC the data, and summarize the data. These steps must be completed first to prepare the data to produce the Stand Walk reports.

• Open the Stand Walk Summary tool.
• Add the "stand" polygon feature class (either FMG Site or Stand level polygons) used to summarize plot data to the tool.
• Add the FMG plot point feature classes to the tool.
• Add the FMG summary tables to the tool.
• Run the tool. The reports will be written to the parent folder of the geodatabase used for the input FMG data.

Test Data

The functionality of this toolbox can be tested using the data provided in the FMG_StandWalk/test folder. In the test folder you will find a series of projects where the FMG forestry surveys have been conducted. These geodatabases contain the QA'd data necessary to produce a Stand Walk Summary report.