Week 4: Oil Spill Animation

Attached is an animation of the movement patterns of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Event from April 29, 2010 to May 26, 2010. The avi file was produced using 6 layers (polyline and polygon, both) with the ArcMap Animation Tool. Reference was made to finder.geocommons.com to examine the growing ability for the general public to participate in geospatial database processes (i.e. map making, database management, and data evaluation/presentation).


Deepwater Horizon Oil Event Animation

Summary on the Role of GIS in disaster response (specifically the Deepwater Horizon Oil Event)

Geographic Information Systems may be employed to forecast and hindcast cause-effect relationships for circumstances related to human society and to those associated with the environment. GIS has become a critical tool in disaster characterization and assessment. In the first phase, GIS can be used to identify the extent and magnitude of impact including the range extent of impact of a natural disaster on a region but also the relativization of that impact. Once the spatial extent of impact has been determined, GIS can be used to make guiding decisions about the optimum approaches to implement an emergency response plan so that response personnel can optimally enter into the "event zone" to tend to victims and to respond to secondary damages (i.e. fires or gas leaks from an earthquake, or sewage or oil contamination from a flood, etc.). Finally, cost estimates of the disaster can be determined with GIS. This helps insurance adjusters make informed decisions about damage estimates and it helps local, state, and federal agencies make guiding decisions about the resources that will need to be allocated to the "event zone" to aid a speedy economic recovery.

Regarding the Deepwater Horizon Oil Event, GIS has aided investigators and responders to characterize the extent of the oil spill and it's transformation over time. This becomes particularly important when the continual discharge of oil complicates this dynamic catastrophic event. Further, GIS helps emergency response personnel identify sensitive coastal zones and specific habitat types that require heightened remedial action. Predictive modelling may then be used to forecast various scenarios that incorporate water circulation patterns in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and seasonal tidal and weather patterns that may exacerbate the impacts of the buld oil delivery to sensitive areas. Finally, GIS can be used to characterize the economic impact of the oil spill on the Gulf states ranging from the cost of recovery efforts to the cost of damage to property and, in the long-term, to the cost based on the loss of critical industries (tourism, fishing, shell-fishing, oil production, etc.).