Ministry of Environment Soils

User Manuals for the British Columbia Soil Information System (BCSIS)

Overview

BCSIS is a computer based soil information system incorporating site, morphological, and laboratory data. The main objectives of the system are: to increase accessibility and reliability of soils information; to increase accuracy, volume, speed of response, and sophistication of interpretations; to increase speed of legend development; to increase ability to integrate soils data with other resource data. The system includes a number of easy to use functions related to data control, data management, and report generation. For data analysis, BCSIS is designed to be used in conjunction with the commercially available Statistical Analysis System (SAS). BCSIS resides on the Victoria mainframe computer but is accessible as well in other cities through the DATAPAC and SNA communications networks.

An extension of BCSIS is the Soil Laboratory System (SLS). SLS is an interactive, PDP 11/24 based minicomputer system designed to capture physical and chemical soils data determined in the soils laboratory in Kelowna. The main objectives of the system are: to increase the volume of samples which the lab can process, by eliminating or reducing the need to maintain lab notebooks and paper administrative records; to allow quick and accurate entry of the data into BCSIS files, by providing for the transference of final results to the mainframe in Victoria over the DATAPAC network. Raw data are entered into a number of video terminals located in the lab. Virtually all calculated results are performed automatically by the computer, provided that the raw data required by the calculations have already been entered. Reports on the laboratory analyses are printed and sent to the soil scientist requesting the analyses. The data may also be accessed and manipulated through BCSIS and SAS.

This document is one of a series describing BCSIS. These documents are written primarily for the professional soil scientist or ecologist, as opposed to the computer specialist. The titles within the series are as follows:

• BCSIS Volume 1 - User Manual for the British Columbia Soil Information System

• BCSIS Volume 2 - Data Entry Procedures for Ecosystem Description Forms

• BCSIS Volume 3 - Data Entry Procedures for Soil Laboratory Forms

• BCSIS Volume 4 - British Columbia Soil Information System Validation Procedures

• BCSIS Volume 5 - Manipulation of Soils Data Using the British Columbia Soil Information System

Acknowledgements

The production of BCSIS and SLS has been a cooperative effort involving a large number of people in the B.C. Ministry of Environment, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the B.C. Systems Corporation, and Agriculture Canada. For their help and support in matters of policy and administration, I would like to thank Art Benson (MOE), Norm Sprout (MOE), Vince Osborne (MOE), Hong Chuah (MOE), Bob Louie (MOE), Ted Baker (MOF), Don Lousier (MOF), Del Meidinger (MOF), Ron Bertrand (MAF), Terry Lord (AC), Mike Rose (MOE), Don Mason (BCSC), and Lorne Dunne (BCSC). Information pertinent to the required capabilities of the system has been gleaned in part by numerous conversations with these people, as well as with Herb Luttmerding (MOE), Evert Kenk (MOE), Barry Wagner (MOE), John Jungen (MOE), Terje Vold (MOE), Jim van Barneveld (MOE), Harry Quesnel (MOE), Dick Annas (formerly MOF), Fred Nuszdorfer (MOF), Keith Valentine (AC), Dave Moon (AC), and Alec MacKeague (AC). Detailed specifications were also provided by John Wiens (MOE), Narender Nagpal (MOE), Ron Kowall (MOE), Larry Lacelle (MOE), Andrew Harcombe (MOE), Bob Maxwell (MOE), Phil Epp (MOE), Bruce Petch (MOE), Udo Wittneben (MOE), Val Hignett (MOE), Mike Fenger (MOE), Gerry Still (MOF), Alec Greene (AC), Laurens van Vliet (AC), Ken Gyorfi (MOE), Coleen Metz (MOE), Barb Dermedy (MOE), Margaret Bryan (MOE), and Corley Henry (MOE). Martin Brown (BCSC) was head of the system's project team In charge of the development of BCSIS. Darlene Belford (MOE) acted as a technical troubleshooter during the implementation phase of BCSIS. Gordon MacKenzie (BCSC) and Will Yeo (BCSC) headed the system's project team in charge of the development of SLS. Without such widespread interest and support the production of these systems would not have been realistic to pursue.

Mark Sondheim