ASSESSMENT AND RESTORATION OF COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS USING REMOTE SENSING AND VISUALIZATION TOOLS FOR THE GULF OF MEXICO AND BEYOND

ASSESSMENT AND RESTORATION OF COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS USING REMOTE SENSING AND VISUALIZATION TOOLS FOR THE GULF OF MEXICO AND BEYOND Remote Sensing as a Tool for Ecosystem Restoration George Graettinger Office of Response & Restoration RAE October 23, 2012 Tampa, FL

CONTINUUM OF RESPONSE FRAMEWORK FOR THE OFFICE OF RESPONSE & RESTORATION Response (24 hours) Recovery or Restoration (Years/Decades) Response Assessment Restoration

REMOTE SENSING UTILIZATION IN OR&R Response and remediation serves as primary restoration Damage Assessment and Restoration projects for OR&R case work Oyster, Fish, Bird, Shoreline and SAV DWH NRDA Shoreline assessment, characterization, remediation, and restoration Restoration project assessment, shoreline position and vulnerabilities for sea-level rise

OR&R VISUALIZATION TOOLS Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA ) gomex.erma.noaa.gov Desktop/Online PhotoLogger Paired desktop and online geo-tagged photo management DIVER Explorer Query Tool Chemistry, Tissue, Effects database www.projectdiver.org

WHAT IS ERMA? ERMA is an online mapping tool for visualizing environmental information relevant to oil spills, natural disasters, and the release of hazardous materials

Web-based mapping tool WHAT IS ERMA? Provides centralized access to information Increases communication, coordination, and efficiency Prepare for, respond to, assess impacts from hazardous incidents or conditions Analyze and visualize environmental information relevant to all hazards

HOW ERMA CAN HELP YOU? Data Collection, Visualization, and Sharing Cross Jurisdictional boundaries (Multi Agency, Multi State) Natural Resource Information Sensitive habitats Species distribution and life history Threatened & Endangered Species identification Resource at Risk reporting Restoration planning Critical Infrastructure Railroad Lines Water intake locations Critical facilities and hazards information Aid in the development of Response Plans Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps Area Contingency Planning (ACP) Geographic Response Plans (GRP)

WHERE IS ERMA?

Base Mapping STANDARD ERMA DATA SETS Google aerial, terrain, roads Nautical charts Incident Information Trajectories Real time resource tracking Shoreline oiling Sampling data Weather & Sensors Hurricane/Storms Remote-sensing imagery Local habitat and species Infrastructure Roads/railroads Critical facilities Resources at Risk NOAA ESI data layers Federal & local critical resources and habitats Seafood safety Documents & Photo Links ESI and GRP.pdfs Attached to layers Field photos

REMOTE SENSING DATA FOR RESPONSE Multi-Agency Airborne Platform NASA AVIRIS Hyperspectral Ocean Imaging MSS/Thermal Canadian/Icelandic Coast Guard SLAR Coastal Shoreline Aerial Photography RGB, NIR Ad-hoc Geo-tagged Photography Satellite Platform GOES MODIS/MERIS SAR LANDSAT SPOT

GOES IMAGERY APRIL 21 ST, 2010

MODIS GULFWIDE MONITORING

REMOTE SENSING DATA: MODIS/MERIS Advantages Daily coverage Freely distributed Visible, middle IR, thermal IR data Precedent for use in oil detection Drawbacks Clouds, sun glint, and wind limitations Coarse resolution

NASA AVIRIS AVIRIS Hyperspectral 220+ band data 3m 20m data resolution Collected in NASA ER-2 and NOAA King Air USGS published method for surface oil thickness and volume estimates

REMOTE SENSING DATA: AVIRIS Advantages Hyperspectral (collects 228 different wavelengths) Fine resolution Peer-reviewed method for estimating oil extent, thickness Drawbacks Highly susceptible to environmental conditions Lack of Gulf-wide coverage Massive data storage requirements

NOAA NESDIS SAR data application Used as default oil footprint for operations and observational data capture Marine Pollution Surveillance Report Moved from Experimental to Operational during Deepwater Horizon oil spill Provides near-real time support for response operations Daily composite products

REMOTE SENSING DATA: SAR (RADAR) Advantages Daily coverage on multiple satellites Penetrates through clouds Precedent for use detecting oil on water Drawbacks Hard to differentiate sheen from thick oil

SAR data used RADARSAT 1 & 2 ENVISAT SPOT LANDSAT NOAA NESDIS MODIS/MERIS (occasional use) Other sensors Multiple sensors used to create daily composite footprints

NESDIS POLLUTION REPORT (SPOT 5)

NESDIS POLLUTION REPORT (RADARSAT-1)

NESDIS POLLUTION REPORT (ENVISAT)

POTENTIAL OILING SAR DATA

POTENTIAL OILING FOOTPRINT

NOAA NESDIS SAR data production enhancements Texture Classifying Neural Network Analysis (TCNNA) Move from manual digitized areas to supervised classification Standard, repeatable process Eliminate variability Automate development

COMPOSITE SAR INDEX

CANADIAN/ICELANDIC COAST GUARD SLAR SLAR data collected from Canadian and Icelandic DASH 8 Similar in coverage and content to SAR Limited coverage relative to SAR products Used by Operations to target Actionable oil

OCEAN IMAGING MSS 4 BAND Ocean Imaging Deepwater Coverage 2 Flights/day MC252 Source Shoreline

OCEAN IMAGING MSS 4 BAND Ocean Imaging Deepwater Products MC252 source imaging Multiple thickness categories

OCEAN IMAGING MSS 4 BAND Ocean Imaging Deepwater Products Quick turn around < 45 minutes post wheels down Identify high risk, high priority targets Thick, actionable oil

REMOTE SENSING DATA: OCEAN IMAGING DATA Advantages Visible plus thermal data Data processed daily for source and limited for shoreline Used in multiple spill response efforts Disadvantages Limited spatial and temporal coverage Proprietary application and methods

NOAA NGS NOAA Image Collection King Air Twin Otter Equipment Applanix Digital Sensor System (DSS) 439 medium format airborne mapping system 4-band ortho-imager (RGB & NIR sensors) Resolution 0.35m resolution RGB/NIR ortho-photography High impact area shoreline coverage Shoreline and source missions

NOAA NGS & BP IMAGERY Shoreline collections for Pre-impact NOAA NGS May/June 2010 Multi season post-impact NOAA NGS October 2010 Combined RGB/NIR data - total of 13,439 photos Combined RGB/NIR data - total of 5,032 mosaic tiles BP/Trustee Collections (Aerometric) April 2011, 2012 October 2010, 2011, 2012

NOAA NGS & BP SHORELINE COVERAGE

NGS IMAGERY FOR DWH

NGS IMAGERY CRITICAL RESPONSE USE Marsh/Wetland vegetation monitoring Boom placement and displacement SAV monitoring, assessment, restoration Displaced boom SAV emergency restoration Prop scaring

IMAGERY FOR NRDA CASE SUPPORT

DWH AERIAL OBSERVATIONAL OVERFLIGHTS NOAA King Air and Twin Otter USCG Fixed wing and Helicopter platforms NOAA Trained observers Consistent oiling observation reporting GPS and Geo-tagged photography

OVERFLIGHT OBSERVATIONS AND PHOTOS

NOAA TRAJECTORY FORECAST MODEL OR&R generates oil forecasts 24, 48, 72 hour Trajectories NESDIS SAR Potential Oiling Footprints Oiling overflight observation reports and geotagged photos Environmental conditions (Wind, currents, wave height) Other environmental observation data

NOAA TRAJECTORY FORECAST MODEL OR&R Trajectories 3 forecasts created twice daily Characterize open water oiling condition Predict shoreline oiling Identified uncertainty Model oil coverage and age

TRAJECTORIES AND ERMA

FIELD PERSONNEL TRACKING

REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLES Sub-surface observations & monitoring Well head, blow-out preventer and riser pipe monitoring Sub-surface dispersant application

DATA STORAGE AND ACCESS USGS EROS Data Center HDDS Public Government Commercial data for disaster response Multiple platform data

NRDA TECHNICAL WORK GROUP SUPPORT Shoreline TWG Shoreline Exposure Modeling Coastal Wetland Vegetation Habitat Classification, Mudflat, Land/Water interface SAV TWG Shoreline Imagery Collection Detailed collection criteria for SAV identification (Water clarity, sun angle/glint) Emergency restoration of SAV response injury Supervised Classification of SAV Fish TWG Oysters health and production monitoring Sargassum communities identification and quantification Nearshore sediments and water sampling Telemetry TWG Tagged species tracking

SAV EMERGENCY RESTORATION Prop scars and blow-out Identification Monitoring Restoration

MARINE MAMMAL SIGHTINGS

MARSH VEGETATION MONITORING

DISASTER RESPONSE DATA INTEGRATION

RESOURCES AT RISK

REMOTE SENSING & THE OR&R MISSION Support the inventory of resources Response prioritization based on potential risk from oiling or chemical release Damage assessment from initial insult and injuries from response activities Evaluation of restoration potential

ERMA TOOLS & REMOTE SENSING DATA Lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon expanding how OR&R utilizes remote sensing data Satellite and airborne remote sensing offering additional service for identifying and monitoring impacted resources Web-based mapping tools and visualization increase the access and usability of remote sensing data to traditional case work Remote sensing data provides excellent tools for effective assessment and improved success in restoration

Thank-you! Please visit our Public ERMA Gulf Response site. gomex.erma.noaa.gov/erma.html george.graettinger@noaa.gov