I would first like to say that my heart goes out to the families of the victims in this most unfortunate accident. Although no words can bring them back, I am sorry for the loss of your loved ones. And, I would also like to say that I believe this accident was caused by British Petroleum's greed and negligence, and their unscrupulous actions are unforgivable.
This week our class studied various areas along the north Florida Gulf coast as they are being impacted by oil from the Deep Horizon Oil Rig Explosion which occurred April 20, 2010. Estimates of 20,000 to 40,000 barrels of oil have been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico each day since the explosion.
I chose quadrant 5255,also known as Navarre, FLA.(1987), in Santa Rosa County as my study area. I live in Navarre, just by the Santa Rosa Sound. I go jogging on Navarre Beach at least 2 to 3 days each week. It is heartbreaking to be going through this environmental disaster. It is unbelievable, almost surreal, the helpless feeling of not being able to stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf. I grew up in this area and have a deep love and sense of belonging to the natural surroundings. I spent a good part of my younger life sailing and water skiing on the pristine local bayous and bays, sometimes camping on the shore of some secluded bayou with friends. In fact, that is why I am studying environmental science. I noticed in recent years that the local waterways are not clean and clear as they once were, having become polluted by human activities. I hope someday to do my part in cleaning up and monitoring our natural environment.
My Map Summary:
This particular map is not done well, at all. The graphics are too light and confusing. I believe some color was lost when I uploaded it. When I created it with ArcGIS, it was not this light in color. Also, it is obvious that the symbols used for the beach, airport, and boat ramp all run together, and it is hard to tell them apart because they are all in black and white. I would have preferred using the colored symbols for each. I did not use the individual animal symbols because I symbolized the whole area in which the various animals were found. I Also, with the many tasks we were to preform, time just was not on my side this week. Here is a list of some of the tasks I performed:
1. I downloaded all data from R drive and other source. I always have a hard time figuring out which files to download from LABINS.
2. I chose Quad 5255- Navarre, FLA as my study area.
3. I changed projection on all layers to NAD 1983 HARN State Plane Florida North FIPS 0903 Feet ; yet some were not done in Arc catalog—BIG MISTAKE ON MY PART!
4. I added data to ESI Project Map from R drive. The Projections of layers DID NOT line up.
5. I tried to reproject the layers in Arc catalog.
6. My index area would not project with my other layers.
7. I deleted the index area from Arc catalog and reloaded it from R drive and reprojected it in Arc catalog.
8. FINALLY!! Success! All layers projected together except the raster Map.What can I do next time to get my raster map to line up with my other map layers? Does it have to do with georeferencing?
9. However, the scale was a big problem for me as you will see on my map.
10. I tried to do all I could on the Environmental Map List, but I ran out of time.
In my research for creating this map I found out that our local, public beaches are legally protected by the Federal government. I also found out that in and around the local waters the invertebrates are the most endangered of all animals from the oil. The most "at risk" areas here are the ESI 3A: Fine to Medium grained sand. However, I don't believe I calculated correctly the total shoreline that is most susceptible to the oil. The figure I came up with was 8764 feet. I believe it is much higher than that.
What a long week it has been!
Next is Part 1 of this week's lab. I know it should be first. But I am afraid to move the maps around, for fear they might get lost! I am still unsure about using this blog!
Week 4 Part 1: Catastrophic Oil Rig Accident in the Gulf of Mexico, Fish Closure Boundary in Google Maps:
Creating this map was part 1 of this week's GIS Applications lab concerning the disastrous, devastating, and unforgiveable, catastrophic oil spew in the Gulf of Mexico. As you can see I had trouble tracing the boundary between the Federal Waters and the land in Louisiana.
My Task Summary for Part 1:
1. Recorded fish boundary closure points to excel. - I understood that.
2. Converted latitude and longitude of each point into decimal degrees. That was time consuming, because I had to take time to figure out exactly what was needed, and I had to look up in the Microsoft manual about performing calculations in excel, which I haven't done in a while.
3. Imported xy cooridinates into ArcGIS; it was a little confusing, but I figured it out.
4. Creating the shape file for the fish boundary was where I misunderstood the directions. I added a polygon shape layer to the map. It was a stand alone layer and I was not sure what to do with it. I could not remember the various the editing procedures, such as: Which box do I check for making the coordinates part of the polygon? Everytime I tried to select the area by using the arrow and drawing a box, the box would disappear when I let up on the mouse. So I went digging through last semester's ESRI Modules about Creating and Editing Data with Map Topology. I read over that. Lynn gave me some of her thoughts about this procedure. She also tried to trace the boundary between Fed/State Waters and the fishing boundary, but could not. She just redrew the whole polygon with the editing pencil. Well, by this time I had tried to tracing technique so many times, my map looked as it does here. I had to accept it because the clock was ticking, and I had to move on to Part 2 of the lab.
I don't think there was enough explaining in the directions about the purpose of the shape file, and how it related to the xy coordinates, and I still don't understand about merging the Fed/State waters File. There were several fields in that file. Were we supposed to merge all of those? And why? These are some of the questions that, as a map making novice, I had. I could not compute the area calculations of the fish boundary because my attribute table for that layer (polygon shape) was empty. There weren't any numbers to calculate in the attribute table. So that tells me that the fish boundary polygon and the xy coordinates should have been merged somehow. but they where. How else could I have gotten my polygon shape? I need to understand more about that in order to get numbers in the attribute table so that the area can be calculated.
Participation Activity:
Gulf Oil Animation:
Here is a link to a map animation I created of the area in the Gulf of Mexico into which the oil is spreading from April 29,2010 to May 26, 2010. The instructions for creating this animation were clear, and I followed them without any problems. However, in the weeks following this project I deleted some files from my
H drive to allow for more space. Well, of course, not thinking about the connection between this animation and the files on my H drive, I deleted those files. So I redid the animation, and it is not quite right, although it still runs. Take a look.
ftp://pnv1@ftp.students.uwf.edu/web/Oil_Animation/Gulf%20Oil%20Spill%20Animation.avi
The Role of a GIS Disaster Response and How it Relates to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill:
The best response to any disaster is to prepare before the disaster occurs. Preparation for GIS includes gathering data and information, assimilating it in an organized and understandable fashion, and communicating that information to the decision makers.GIS can be a valuable tool used in all of the aspects of preparation, assimilation, and communication before, during, and after a time of disaster.
All state, county, and city governments in the United States should have access to a geodatabase containing maps with spatial and nonspatial data of their communities’ infrastructure, demographic, and environmental information. Federal agencies should have access to these maps as well. In this Deep Horizon oil spill, as in other disasters, maps of infrastructure such as government buildings, roads, bridges, hospitals, water storage facilities, water and sewer lines, power plants, electrical lines, airports, buildings, marinas, ports, and equipment should be in place. Other images and maps of importance, especially in this disaster, should include satellite images, aerial photographic images and specific environmental maps such as local wild life habitats, topography, forests, lakes and all the waterways, including river systems with tributaries, bayous, bays, inlets, marshlands, and the marine environment, especially the passes from the Gulf of Mexico into these areas. If these maps existed before this particular disaster occurred, then, the response may have been different and could have possibly been made more timely and efficiently, especially to the environmentally sensitive areas.
After a disaster occurs, and if it is ongoing, as is the case in the Gulf of Mexico’s unprecedented oil spewing disaster, GIS can be of great service in providing informative maps that communicate analysis for a long list of concerns. Here are some maps that would play a key role in disaster response:
1. A map of the socioeconomic status of each community which would provide demographic data about the people living in the community. This would help the governments social service people help the individuals in each community that are in immediate need of financial assistance, and provide healthcare advice concerning the toxic oil and dispersant aerosols. Long term help may be needed as well. Individual county maps would probably work best here, with layers containing the many and diverse business enterprises along the Gulf Coast, various foreign speaking communities (the fishing and oyster industry has immigrant employees), age groups, household income of families, and how they earn their livings.
2. Satellite image maps, aerial photographic images with the underlying geo-referenced raster maps of the Gulf and coastal areas could focus on the size and directions in which the surface oil is moving. These would provide very important information for all local governments of each community on the Gulf Coast, so that they could, in turn, assemble people to prepare their coastal shorelines, for the imminent arrival of the oil. From these images maps can be created to contain polygon layers of estuaries and marshlands, bird sanctuaries, and oyster farming areas. For example, one map layer could include the various migratory spieces of birds, as well as the local species that would be affected by the oil spill.
3. A very significant map would be of the Mississippi River and its delta system. A suggestion has been made that the Army Corps of Engineers could “sustain discharge” on the main tributary, which would allow the bulk of the river to flow into the Gulf from the Atchafalaya tributary, which is on the west side of the spill. The force of water flow from this procedure might push the oil away from the affected Louisiana coastline long enough to allow for more time to drill the relief well.
4. Base maps can be created with layers to input and compute point data that is gathered, such as measurements of air quality at various locations, water quality data. Map layers for polygon shapes could be created to incorporate inland bodies of water which have already been violated by the oil; where oil has breached booms and infiltrated marshlands and estuaries, or has come ashore along the Gulf coast beaches.
5. Maps based on financial attributes of the disaster would be important for decision makers, as well as to inform the general public. One such map could be created for ongoing expenditures in communities along the gulf coast concerning anything that local governments spend which involves preparation for approaching oil or doing any extra oil cleanup activities. Another informative map to create for local communities would include all of the businesses that may be affected by the oil disaster, their location and the type of businesses they run. Perhaps last year’s earnings could be compared to this year’s on a month by month basis. Another layer on this map could contain each county’s revenues on a month by month basis, as well.
There are so many ways in which GIS can be used as a viable tool in disaster response. I have listed just a few. In my mind, it would be best to gather data and create many databases ahead of time in all areas of the United States in preparation for a disastrous event that everyone fears, no one expects, but in reality, could ultimately happen.
