A GIS Tool for Interpretation of Pest Monitoring Data in a Museum Environment

Bryant, James M. Riverside Municipal Museum, 3580 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA 92501

Kang, Jinho; University of Redlands MS GIS Program, 1200 E. Colton Avenue, P.O. Box 3080, Redlands, CA 92373-0999

Integrated pest management (IPM) programs rely upon detailed monitoring of pest species activities in order to obtain data describing the occurrences these species in the work, storage and public spaces of a facility. Analysis of this data should help determine the best corrective actions to be taken.  Unfortunately, not only is monitoring data capture typically a time-consuming process, but delays in the analysis of this data and difficulties inherent in making clear, succinct presentations of these analyses ultimately slows down and/or interferes with the transfer of information to decision-makers.

Consequently, a thorough monitoring effort is often bypassed, forcing collections or facilities managers to turn to pesticides and other expediencies - rather than IPM - to control indoor pests.

Since 1999, the Riverside Municipal Museum has utilized IPM procedures in the assessment and control of pest species occurrences in its early 20th century-vintage facility. Recently, the Museum has been working with graduate students from the University of Redlands to explore ways in which Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology can help automate important interpretive and analytical functions of museums.

For this particular project, student Jinho Kang has created a spatial analysis tool that utilizes the type of pest monitoring data the Municipal Museum has collected over the past six years, and allows for easy incorporation of new pest monitoring data. This GIS approach is intended to help generate reports on past and present pest occurrences, and anticipate future problems.

Initial steps in the project involved creating digital maps of each floor of the Museum building and plotting the monitoring data to display the frequency of specific pests (based on trap records) in certain locations (work spaces, storage areas, exhibition halls). Temporal analysis methods were then incorporated to allow determination of a specific category of pest's frequency of occurrence, by month or season. Extensions of the project included inserting utility locations, or structural issues, to allow mapping of hypothetical routes for pest movement.