NOAA has launched a GIS-based tool, the Environmental Response Management Application, known as ERMA, an online mapping tool for organizing data and information for planning and environmental emergencies, such as oil spills and hurricanes.
ERMA allows pollution responders to see real-time information, including weather information and ship locations and enables users to display years of data, revealing broader trends.
For instance, ERMA enables you to see where sea turtles were spotted during aerial surveys or captured by researchers across the Gulf of Mexico between May and September 2010. At the same time, you can view data showing the probability that certain areas of the ocean surface were oiled (and for how long), all displayed on a single, interactive map.
Perhaps you want to focus on where Atlantic bluefin tuna were traveling around the Gulf and where that overlaps with the oil spill’s footprint. Or compare coastal habitat restoration projects with the degree of oil different sections of shoreline experienced. ERMA gives you that access.
You can use ERMA Deepwater Gulf Response to find these data in a number of ways (including search) and choose which GIS “layers” of data to turn on and off in the map. To see the most recently added data, click on the “Recent Data” tab in the upper left of the map interface, or find data by browsing through the “Layers” tab on the right. Or look for data in special “bookmark views” on the lower right of the “Layers” tab to find data for a specific topic of interest.
Now, what if you not only want to see a map of the data, what if you also want to explore any trends in the data at a deeper level? Or download photos, videos or scientific analyses of the data?
DIVER tool serves as a central repository for environmental impact data from the oil spill and was designed to help researchers share and find scientific information ranging from photos and field notes to sample data and analyses.
Learn more by clicking at NOAA’s website
