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GIS Initiative in the California District Office

In the summer of 1998, the California District Office began to develop an extensive GIS (Geographic Information System) to maintain information on underground mining and known mine subsidence events in western Pennsylvania. All of the major work on the system was done by college interns under the direction of Edward J. Motycki and Mary A. Nagy and with training and consultation provided by Michael Klimkos, of the Bureau of Mining and Reclamation. James MacKay and Robert Lawhead, of the Bureau of District Mining Operations, provided much needed technical assistance in setting up the system.

Although there were many delays at the beginning of the project (computers that wouldn't work, software that needed to be downloaded from California, and a lightning strike to the office server), the interns were eventually able to begin the ominous task of overlaying the location of underground mining and subsidence claims on over 45 USGS 7.5' topographic quadrangle maps. They were also able to produce an overview map showing the mined regions of Allegheny County. It is the office's goal to someday have all of this information available on the internet and to produce overview maps of other counties where there has been extensive underground mining.

Click to view mined regions of Allegheny County