The Professional History of Bill Enslin
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The Professional History of Bill Enslin
The Professional History of Bill Enslin
Bill’s Software Legacy | Bill’s Outreach Legacy: Board and Committee Activities
Michigan State University was among the first universities in the country to experiment with the use of remotely sensed imagery for dealing with issues of human use of land and its many related resources. Prof. Myles Boylan, School of Urban Planning & Landscape Architecture and Prof. Raleigh Barlowe, Dept. of Resources Development were awarded a major grant from the NASA in late 1971 for the exploration of the uses of remote sensing for land use policy formulation and programs implementing actions. Using the initial $100,000 NASA grant as a nucleus, an unofficial collaborative organization was established. Self-titled the “Remote Sensing Project,” the group consisted of faculty, staff and graduate students from nine departments or schools distributed across four colleges (Agriculture and Natural Resources, Engineering, Natural Science, and Social Science). The Project’s mission was to provide public and private agencies in Michigan with essential information derived from remotely sensed imagery that could assist in resolving issues and needs, and promote more effective management of economic and environmental resources.
Bill Enslin graduated with honors from the Wisconsin State University-Eau Claire with a B.S. in Geography (1966). He earned his Masters degree in Geography from Eastern Michigan University in 1968. During his brief military career, Bill was trained in image interpretation (Distinguished Graduate - Image Interpretation, U.S. Army Intelligence School) and served as an image interpreter in the Republic of Vietnam (1969 – 1970). He enrolled in the doctoral program in Geography at MSU in 1972 and worked as a Research Assistant for the Remote Sensing Project (RSP). Bill and his research colleagues pioneered the interpretation of high-altitude, color infrared (CIR) photography for resource assessment. In 1973, Bill conducted cutting-edge application research on the use of CIR imagery for analyzing the coastal wetlands at Point Mouillee in Monroe County, Michigan. Along with fellow graduate student Ben Richason, Bill directed the first, modern, large-area inventory of land use in Michigan using high-resolution CIR airphotos (the 1973 Upper Kalamazoo Watershed Land Cover Inventory).
Bill became the Director of the Remote Sensing Project in 1974. As a member of the Michigan Land Use Classification and Referencing Committee, Bill helped write the 1975 Michigan Land Cover/Use Classification System, - an approach to land cover/use mapping still in use today. Bill supervised the airphoto-based land use inventories for Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties in 1976 and for Genesee, Lapeer, and Shiawassee counties (Region V) the following year. The Region V land use inventory broke new ground by merging Landsat satellite imagery with aerial photography and maps to improve the accuracy of the land use inventory. Bill and co-author Richard Hill-Rowley published the unique “Guide to Aerial Imagery of Michigan” (Michigan Agricultural Experiment State, Research Report 340, 222p.) in 1977.
Bill and other Remote Sensing Project staff played pivotal roles assisting the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to develop the 1978 Michigan Resource Information System (MIRIS)—a digital, statewide land use/land cover (LULC) inventory based on the visual interpretation of CIR aerial photographs. RSP provided intensive training in the interpretation of land cover/use from 1:24,000-scale CIR aerial photography.
By early 1979, the scope and size of the Remote Sensing Project had grown to include nine faculty investigators and 22 technical staff members (four full-time research specialists – Bill Enslin, Steve Tilmann, Dennis Hudson and Dave Lusch – and 18 part-time research assistants) carrying on over $500,000 worth of grant and contract research each year. By the late 1970s, the Remote Sensing Project had developed and applied the first geographic information system in Michigan (and one of the earliest such systems in the country). The Resource Analysis Program used the MSU mainframe computer to map and analyze spatial data about soil, vegetation and topography to assist local, resource-management decision makers. In 1979, the newly-formed company, Earth Resources Data Analysis Systems (ERDAS), Inc. integrated a grid-based map analysis program with image processing software on one of the first microcomputers (Cromemco Z-80) to create the first, low-cost (c. $25,000), commercial image processing and raster GIS system. Under Bill’s pioneering leadership, the Remote Sensing Project purchased the second ERDAS 400 System that ERDAS built and began to revolutionize the way Michigan’s resources were visualized, analyzed and managed.
In the early 1980s, Bill began working with a Computer Science graduate student, Ardy Gostasby, on software solutions to the problem of automated registration of digital imagery. As a testament to their innovation, Ardy and Bill were presented with the William A. Fisher Award for the best contributed paper at the 17th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of the Environment (1983).
In 1983, the Center for Remote Sensing, with Bill as its Manager, was formally established by the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. The Center became the administrative responsibility of Dr. Jon Bartholic, the newly-appointed Assistant Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. In the fall of that year, Bill oversaw the relocation of the Center from the Urban Planning & Landscape Architecture building to Berkey Hall. Also relocated to Berkey Hall at this time was the teaching lab for the two remote sensing courses offered by the Department of Geography. The Center shared this instructional lab with Geography and began offering its own short courses and international training sessions there. The very first GIS workshops in Michigan were offered by the Center for Remote Sensing.
A notable milestone in Michigan geospatial activities occurred in 1985, when Bill released the first beta-version of his C-Map software, which is widely credited with stimulating the PC-based GIS revolution in Michigan. Over the next four years, with the financial support of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), Bill continually improved and expanded C-Map (version 1.03 was released in 1989). The final version of C-Map (3.0), the one-monitor version was released in May 1997. By the end of 1998, more than 500 copies of C-Map had been purchased by Federal, State and local users throughout Michigan. Amazingly, Bill was a self-taught GIS programmer who became proficient in Basic, C, dBase, FoxPro, and Visual Basic.
In 1987, Bill began working on groundwater database issues for the Michigan DNR. Along with Dave Lusch, they conducted the Systems Analysis and Design for the Development of the Michigan Statewide Groundwater Database (SGDB). This became the foundation of the very successful Wellogic groundwater database that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) subsequently developed years later.
Bill began teaching C-Map short courses along with co-instructors Brian Buckley and Dave Lusch in 1991. Over the next six years, they offered this four-day class thirteen times to more than 150 participants.
Bill was at the center of another milestone activity in 1992 when he and his partners at the Michigan Legislative Service Bureau, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Library of Michigan received a three-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation entitled: Improving Michigan’s Access to Geographic Information Networks – IMAGIN. Today, IMAGIN is the premier GIS networking organization in Michigan. Bill served as a member of the Board of Directors, as Vice President and President of IMAGIN. He was the first recipient of its Outstanding Individual Achievement Award (2000).
In the late 1980s, Dr. Kurt Pregitzer from the Forestry Department at MSU was developing a new research approach to the study of plant roots using subterranean, micro-videography. His problem was that there was no existing method to extract the required information from the digitized video images. At the time, Dave Lusch was working with colleagues at the MDNR on the use of CIR, airborne videography to map gypsy moth defoliation in Michigan. Bill was supporting this effort by developing digital image processing software to analyze the digitized video imagery. Working together over an 18 month period, Professor Pregitzer and Bill developed the MSU ROOTS program. According to Dr. Pregitzer, this software, “... opened a whole new branch of biology. There are now more than 25 different research groups using the method we developed around the world.”
Along with Dennis Hudson, Bill championed and directed the compilation of the state’s first Atlas of Digital Aerial Imagery, which was released in 1997. Consisting of 92 LandScan CDs holding 57,000 true-color images, the LandScan product presented high-resolution images scanned from original 35 mm slides. The original slides were taken from nearly 10,000 feet above the ground and were centered over a section of land (each photo covered about two square miles). Over the next two years, more than 400 CDs were purchased by more than 100 customers. In 2002, the LandScan product became a ComputerWorld Honors Laureate.
In 2001, Bill continued his pioneering development of easy-to-use GIS software for decision making with the release of his program, Michigan MapImage Viewer that provides users with the means to easily display and query both maps and imagery of Michigan. Using federal Source Water Assessment funding, the MDEQ supported the enhancement of the basic MapImage Viewer software to accommodate local environmental health data and unique MDEQ data sets such as water well records, sites of environmental contamination, and storage tank locations. Bill created several customized tools for viewing and querying source water assessment information and for analyzing the lithologic data from the Wellogic water well database.
In 2002, Bill’s Michigan MapImage Viewer software was also honored as a ComputerWorld Honors Laureate. Of greater satisfaction to Bill, late last year, his MapImage Viewer software was adopted as the desktop geospatial solution for MDEQ staff in their daily operations (about 1,500 MDEQ employees now have access to this innovative software).
Bill served as principal or co-principal investigator for numerous grants and contracts from federal (including NASA) and state agencies related to spatial software development, geographic information systems, remote sensing, land cover/use change, image registration, photo interpretation of land cover, and mapping wetlands. Over the past 20 years, these projects have amounted to more than $3 million of applied research.
Bill left this world quietly, at home on October 17, 2006. In typical Bill fashion, he had continued to develop his software even during his early home hospice care. His talent, dedication and vision remain an inspiration to all who worked with him.
Bill’s Software Legacy
Michigan MapImage Viewer 4.0 - query and display both maps and aerial imagery of the State of Michigan. Developed using Visual Basic and ESRI MapObjects ActiveX mapping component. First released in 2001.
MSU Roots Tracer Ver. 2.2 - digitization software for capturing and analyzing video images of tree roots. Developed using Visual Basic. First released in 2001.
LandScan CD Image Viewer - Digital Atlas of Aerial Imagery of Michigan, developed in Microsoft Visual Basic, released in November 1997
C-Map 3.0 GIS - a one-monitor version, written in Microsoft C, released in May 1997
GLOVE - General Land Office Vegetation Entry software written in FoxPro.
I.Points2 - Control Point Selection Module for image registration in GRASS GIS 1989-1991
C-Map 2.1 GIS – software version upgrade, released in December 1991.
MSU Roots - digitization software for capturing and analyzing video images of tree roots. Developed using the C language. First released in 1994.
C-Map 1.03 - mapping program, released in October 1989. Developed in C language.
CRIES Geographic Information System. MSU Department of Resource Development. Assisted in the development of the raster display module. 1987-1989
C-Map – MapDig software is rewritten in C and enhanced to create C-Map 1986 - 1988
MapDig – “In house” map digitizing software written in compiled BASIC. 1983-1985
Bill’s Outreach Legacy: Board and Committee Activities
Land Information Access Association (LIAA). On the Board of Directors and Past President for this non-profit corporation. Served as Treasurer (1996 – 2001) and President (2002 - 2003). 1996 - 2006.
IMAGIN, Inc. On the Board of Directors (1996 – 2002). Served as Vice President (1996-1997) and President (1998-2000).
DNR Real Estate Division Reengineering Committee. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Real Estate Division. 1997.
Drain Inventory Advisory Committee. Subcommittee to the Governor’s Drain Inventory Advisory Committee headed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. 1995.
Statewide Groundwater Database Advisory Committee, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Land and Water Management Division. January 1994 - December 1995.
Senator Ehlers GIS Legislative Advisory Committee. Appointed to the GIS Legislative Advisory Committee to Senator Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids). The committee helped draft a bill entitled “Geographic Information Systems Act”. A series of three bills were introduced: Senate Bill No. 948, No. 949, and No. 950. 1994.
Michigan Soil Encoding Committee, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, 1993.
Michigan Land Use Classification and Referencing Committee, Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Committee developed the Michigan Land Cover/Use Classification System. 1974 - 1975.