GIS Internship - Article Review

Review of Mapping Benthic Habitats; the Marine GIS Challenge by Joe Breman

ArcUser Online, Spring 2005

http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring05articles/mapping-benthic.html 

In Mapping Benthic Habitats; the Marine GIS Challenge, the author offers an outline of the challenges of both modeling the ocean floor and then making important conservation decisions with that model.  I chose this topic as it covers several areas of interest to me personally.  I am a recent UWF Maritime Studies graduate, so I have a strong interest in the ocean and all things maritime.  I am also a current UWF GIS Certificate student and this topic covers the use of various GIS tool in the process of mapping the ocean floor.   Finally, I am an avid SCUBA diver and have a strong interest in conservation of ocean resources and wildlife and the end result of this study is a better understanding of the areas we need to conserve.

The article primarily discusses two types of GIS tools.  The author notes that there is an extensive database of benthic sensor data.  We have been taking sonar readings and scans of many parts of the US coast for decades and this provides a rich set of data to be utilized.  Most of the data is simple x, y, and z point data and is easily converted to surfaces using tools readily available in ArcMap such as  the Inverse Distance Weighting, Spline or Terrain Dataset tools.  Once the surface is created, 3D Analyst can be used to visualize the ocean floor and assign a “bottom type” to each cell in the model.  These types are then used in mapping out habitat regions that need to be conserved for different species.  Making this process all the more complicated is that some species spend different portions of their lives (i.e., juvenile and adult) in differing habitat types.

Overall the report was informative, albeit rather brief.  I am especially interested in 3D modeling and wish that we had an entire separate class on it as part of the GIS Certificate.  I would like to continue on in my own studies and expand my skill set using 3D modeling.  I am also glad to see GIS tools being used effectively for conservation and, hopefully, improving or minimizing our human impact on some of these areas that are often “out of sight, out of mind” for most of the general public.