Abstract: Development of a Statewide, GIS-Based Inventory of Coal Resources for Illinois

Colin G. Treworgy, Cheri A. Chenoweth

A statewide, GIS-based (geographic information system) inventory of coal resources in Illinois has been developed to provide information on the quality, availability, and recoverability of the state's resources. The new database was assembled over a 9-month period from pre-existing digital data, newly digitized maps, and computer-contoured point-source data. The database contains resource information for 26 coal seams in 75 counties. The data include thickness, depth, mining status (minable, mined-out, inaccessible), sulfur content, heating value, and rank of the coal. Processing efficiency was enhanced by having individual staff members focus on specialized tasks (e.g. processing mine maps versus coal thickness maps). Detailed, on-line documentation was maintained to tra k and record the status of each component of information. Development of the GIS database revealed irregularities inherent in many paper-based resource inventories: some older base maps differed from newer ones digitized from more recent 7.5-minute quadrangles; depth and thickness contours on maps of adjoining areas commonly did not match and, in some cases, older boundaries of mined areas extended beyond more recent boundaries. Conversion of all the data to the new GIS resulted in some changes in volumetric values for coal seams in areas that had been neither re-mapped nor mined since the previous

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90950©1996 AAPG GCAGS 46th Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas