Week 4: Participation/Extra Credit

http://students.uwf.edu/lrc13/applications_GIS/week_4/part_lrc13.avi

The above link displays the shape of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from April 29th to May 26th. The layers were obtained from www.finder.geocommons.com, and the .avi file was created using ArcMap's Animation Toolbar. I had no problems with this exercise, just had to be sure to project everything in the same manner in ArcCatalog before adding the layers into ArcMap.

Now for the question as to the role of GIS in disaster responce as it relates to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Initially, GIS would be used to simply map where the disaster event occurred in space. More and more maps would be created as the days passed, thus displaying how the event progressed through time (see above link). More complex studies would be preformed using GIS to determine which areas were in more need of aid/protection, due to their physical make-up (swamps vs. sandy beach). GIS could also be used in a forecast manner to determine where best to spend time and resources (based on where the oil slick is, where to place booms). GIS would also be used to coordinate between the different agencies (state vs. Federal) by determining who is in charge of what. This could help to minimization bureaucratic red tape and obtain positive results in a more timely fashion.

So overall, GIS is a very powerful tool used in managing and create working maps/models from the many different data sources (using different scales/mapping methods/data formats) in a relatively simple way that almost anyone can utilize to make decisions to minimize the impact of the disaster.