Natural Hazards: Participation Activity Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

In summarizing the role of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in confronting a catastrophe one has to understand what is GIS. Briefly, GIS is a set of massive warehouses of data owned by many different agencies, yet accessible to all in a common data format. As shown by the current Deepwater Horizon oil spill, some of the data is accurate and concise while other sources of data are inaccurate as we found out in our mapping exercises. Never the less GIS has again proven to be a highly effective set of tools in assisting the responders to the current catastrophe by allowing quick dissemination of critical information concerning the incident site and potenial damage to be caused by the discharge of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. As with catastrophes’ of the past there are lessons to be learned, data refinement and this in turn will enable the GIS community to develop better planning and response tools.

To point out some specific instances of how GIS has aided the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill I will start with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife data and U.S. Park Service. Their inventory of data has allowed the quick identification of potential sites (26) to be effect and what was the type and diversity of species that will or might be impacted. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) along with the Coast Guard have mapped the entire underwater area and have studied the currents in the affected area and are able to develop data models that have allowed the placement or potential placement of booms and skimmers to mitigate the damage being caused by the oil discharge. GIS has also aided the Environmental Protection Agency, which is the co lead agency along with the Coast Guard, to gather and allocate resources in the areas with the greatest impact or potential impact. Also this has allowed the timely placement of monitoring stations for air and water quality. Also there are several university scientific teams monitoring the deep water impact and movement of the discharged oil.

In closing, while GIS is thought by some just to be a group of electronic cartographers, it has grown in its evolution from static maps on the wall to real time instant data with a very high degree of accuracy of location and spatial information that is required for a timely and effective response to a catastrophe

Oil Spill PROJ 2-3 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Potential Protection Plan

This is the data that was furnished by the State of Florida, Division of Emergency Management. If I had time I would have questioned the placement and proposed placement sites.I also included the NOAA Response Agency to this coverage.

I also chose this one for the .kml posting requirement.

Oil Spill PROJ 2-2 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Potential Impact

This map is the ESIL Birds coverage - very congested and concentrated area. Normally the color and Hatch Pattern is that of "diagonal hatch" but I deviated to allow all to be marked.

Oil Spill PROJ 2-1 Deepwater Horizon's Oil Spill Potential Impact

This is the seconded environmental impact study preformed. I chose Tile 51,Goose Island, Florida which is located in Franklin County and for tourist's it is referred to as St George Island. For the first assignment I took into the account the landmass exposure in this tile and based my footage impact on the following ESIL's 10A & 10A+ (Salt and Brackish water marshes), 4 (Coarse grained Sand Beaches), and 7 (Exposed Tidal Flats). I also noted the only Social Economic impact which is located on the south eastern shore area on the island. I have edited the graph and now it is readable.

Hurricanes - PROJ 1 Katrina

Well this was fun and as far as the deliverables go I did not encounter any problem other than my own stupid mistakes in data entry and forgetting to post it to the blog.

Earthquakes Test Page

The expansion of necessary skills in using ArcGIS is increasing and becoming more second hand and as usual I forgot something on the presentation and these are to sent to the drop box. - I'll be back.

Final Project posting

To one and all, thanks for everything - it was just yesterday that we set up the blogs - it has been frustrating, yet rewarding when the challenges were defeated. With the exception of PP all in all it's been fun and rewarding.

First site is the old fashion manual slide show: http://students.uwf.edu/wsp3/wsp3fp1.pptx 

The second should be the automatic show: http://students.uwf.edu/wsp3/wsp3fp2.ppsx

For boring reading: http://students.uwf.edu/wsp3/wsp3sssum.docx