Subject: FW: TOPAZ is a Software Gem

From: Lon J. Rombough <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 15:47:17 -0800

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From: "ARS News Service" <[email-masked]>
To: "ARS News List" <[email-masked]>
Subject: TOPAZ is a Software Gem
Date: Fri, Apr 2, 1999, 6:56 AM

STORY LEAD:
TOPAZ is a Software Gem

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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
April 2, 1999
Tara Weaver-Missick, (301) 504-1619, [email-masked]
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A computer program that helps researchers investigate soil erosion and water
runoff problems by giving a detailed analysis of land topography has been
developed by Agricultural Research Service scientists and cooperators in
Canada. ARS is USDA's chief research agency.

ARS scientist Jurgen Garbrecht and professor Lawrence Martz from the
University of Saskatchewan, Canada, developed the software program called
TOPAZ. The name is an abbreviation of "Topographic Parameterization," a
computer analysis tool that defines, quantifies and analyzes land surface
characteristics, watershed information and drainage features.

The collaboration between Garbrecht and Martz is part of an international
research effort to develop and implement digital landscape technology to
help address drainage- and runoff-related problems.

TOPAZ has already gone global. Researchers, engineers and educators in
Europe, the Middle East and North America are using it.

TOPAZ does not create graphic images on the computer monitor, but derives
important landscape data that can be displayed by a commercial Geographic
Information System (GIS) package. Garbrecht, a hydraulic engineer with ARS'
Grazinglands Research Laboratory in El Reno, Okla., says this allows the
user to select preferred or existing display software without being forced
to adopt or buy another package. TOPAZ provides data in a basic format that
is readable by most GIS systems.

New capabilities are being developed and incorporated into TOPAZ to further
broaden its application. Copies of TOPAZ are available on request from
Garbrecht.

An in-depth article on this research appears in the April issue of
Agricultural Research magazine. The story is also on the World Wide Web at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr99/topaz0499.htm

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Scientific contact: Jurgen D. Garbrecht, ARS Grazinglands Research
Laboratory, El Reno, Okla., phone (405) 262-4316, fax (405) 262-0133,
[email-masked]
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This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
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