Alabama Works to Support Deepwater Horizon Clean up with Federal Agencies, BP

Recently I sent a request to the state GIS coordinators in the Gulf Coast region who are supporting efforts to clean up the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This report comes via Mike Vanhook, the GIS coordinator for Alabama on progress sharing data among the various agencies involved:

The US government and affected states have done a fantastic job sharing data. It has been an absolutely incredible response and a real shot in the arm for GIS. Data is being generated by a number of sources, including all levels of government, academic institutions, and commercial remote sensing,  and is well-coordinated among responders. Most all of the data that is readily available is relative to the location of the oil spill, booms, or impact. Remote sensing datasets were the first resources that were highly available collecting imagery of the coast and oil spill. NOAA, for example, flew all of the coastline and made it available as public data only a day or two after collection and has continued to provide oil spill and coastal data sources. The data is then aggregated and distributed by the HDDS (USGS, Hazard Data Distribution System), HSIN (Homeland Security Information Network), or NGA.  Feature data has not been as common and has been distributed through a variety of methods and data types, also up through HDDS, HSIN, and NGA.

In Alabama we are working with The Response Group (TRG), who was contracted by BP to coordinate GIS/data services. We coordinated the development of a mobile boom application utility with ESRI and TRG that uses ArcGIS 10 technology to collect boom data via GPS and Marine Police. Alabama is hosting the application on an ArcGIS 10 Server instance. The data is collected by GPS on Panasonic Toughbooks with built in GPS receivers, and synchronized by cellular air card through the internet back to the database at TRG.  Alabama is consuming the data service as a ArcGIS Server Map Service into a viewer for State agencies.

It is important to understand that I am not directly involved with the State’s response. I am, however, providing geospatial services and support to the lead agencies, ADEM and AEMA, in their response.

In regards to your specific questions I have provided the following responses:

• Who is helping the State of Alabama in developing a geospatial data repository to help mitigate the oil spill?
• As mentioned above we are coordinating with BP and the UCP (Unified Command Post) to collect boom data, we also receive general updates on the plethora of data sources available from the response community. Alabama in general has taken responsibility for its response and is using the best available data and coordinating among agencies. I maintain a daily email updating state agencies on oil spill data and services that I am aware of through observation and involvement in the oil spill response.
• Are you (i.e. Alabama GIS) getting data from NGA? NOAA?
• Yes – everyone in the response community has access to NOAA data and other sources that are consumed by NGA.
• Are any of these data going to BP and is BP funneling any data back to state agencies?
• Yes – to my knowledge information is being passed back and forth between agencies trough distribution of services and shared content. In general the geospatial data and services have been open among the response community and some data has carried a FOUO designation. Where possible, it seems data that can be public and does not have licensing restrictions is public.

Specifically regarding NOAA they are generating a number of the feature data sources and remote sensing data, they are well connected to the response community and have aggregated the available data from the community into the Geospatial Platform viewer. Most of the data is generally available in the response community and similar such applications are now starting to be visualized, including BP’s own version, as the data and sources are maturing. At first there was a furious response to get any data possible on scene. Now there is some normalcy to spatial operations and reliable connections can be made to data sources and services generated from the application of data.

Michael A. Vanhook
GIS Coordinator
Information Services Division (ISD) - Geospatial Office
Alabama Department of Finance

Update: End of an Era: Goodbye Slashdot

Today ReadWriteWeb documents the irrelevance of Slashdot.

- ReadWriteWeb

—- original post 9/20/06——

When I first got into this geo writing biz (2000) I found a few websites I read regularly. Along the way someone I really respect told me I should read Slashdot - everyday. And, he was right; I needed to read Slashdot back then at least in part because no one else did! But that was before the rest of the world caught up with blogs and RSS feeds and frankly, good coverage of technology.

Now I find the things I read on Slashdot (at noon EST) I heard on NPR that morning while lying in bed! And, now I have so many other eyes looking at geospatial for me on Planet Geospatial and elsewhere. And I have even more eyes looking at technology. So, bye-bye Slashdot. I’ll probably keep a feed for you for a while, just in case…

Now, many have said that Digg is the new Slashdot. I never read it and based on Slashdot’s drop in my ratings, I probably never will, though I know it uses a different model.

So, as I say goodbye to Slashdot, is there anything I should be reading everyday?

Education Tidbits

If you’ve not seen it the Google Earth for Educators page has all sorts of resources, lesson plans, info about grants for using the tool in education. (I’m sure some of the ideas can be used with other tools as well.)

- via @manomarks

Northwestern Michigan College’s Water Studies Institute is mapping the bottom of Grand Traverse Bay in a month long project, the second phase of the Grand Traverse Bay Hydrographic Research Project. Student interns from NMC’s Freshwater Studies degree program and Great Lakes Maritime Academy as well as Michigan Sea Grant, are conducting advanced multibeam hydrographic surveys of both east and west arms of Grand Traverse Bay and northern Lake Michigan. All research is being conducted onboard the NMC research vessel Northwestern and continues through Aug. 12 and will produce the first new maps in 80 years. Among the finds in the first phase? A shipwreck.

- Local Edition

A team led by University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye tracked one plume during research voyages in May and June. And, they are heading back to find any others they might have missed. “The plumes are a mixture of seawater and methane gas, oil and other hydrocarbons that are spewing from the broken well a mile below the water’s surface off the coast of Louisiana.” Recent federal reports confirm plumes, which could be a threat to water life, just like the oil is. The tool of choice to find and map the plumes? Sound waves. “The presence of gas changes the speed that sound passes through the water,” Joye explained.

- Miami Herald

Microsoft’s Street Slide - Looking out the Car Window

Microsoft Research’s latest effort unveiled at this week’s Siggraph computer graphics conference is different than Google StreetView, where you are required to look at imagery taken from a spot. You can’t really “travel along” the route. But with Street Slide you can because the images are knit together (photosynth style, is how I’d describe it). Street names, numbers and building logos are pulled out below the imagery for help in navigation. No word on if this will ever come to Bing Maps, but it’s entertaining. Video after the jump.

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Does Your Town, or its Consultant Own Your Geodata?

That’s a question plaguing Rutland, Vermont as it switches mapping providers. The plan is to move from Russell Graphics, which has been serving the town for 24 years, to a new firm Information & Visualization Services. The sticking point? Does Rutland own the digital data created by hand by Russell Graphics such that it can use it for no fee? Dean Russell, owner of Russell Graphics says it owns the data, that in fact the town never contracted for the company to create it. Should the town choose not to buy Russell’s data, the costs for the new provider will rise, but only by a few thousand dollars.

This is a good reminder to include licensing of data in any contract with a consultant.

- Rutland Herald