Feature "The big difference between this event and others I have been involved in was the scale of the event and the ability to provide real time situational awareness bidirectionally." photo courtesy of nOAA Even before the oil spill, all five species of Gulf Coast sea turtles were listed as threatened or endangered. commercial seafood and tourism. The Gulf supplies the nation with crab, shrimp, oysters, and crawfish, while the tourist and recreation industry employs hundreds of thousands of area residents. Urgent Response Required To minimize these adverse effects, rapid response to the oil spill was essential. A unified command was established to manage response operations and link responding organizations. Fifteen federal agencies, including NOAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Homeland Security were involved in response along with numerous state and local agencies from the five states bordering the Gulf. Thousands of vessels and tens of thousands of personnel have been involved in the Gulf response and mitigation efforts. Esri's disaster response team was providing assistance—software, technical support, GIS data, and personnel—to local, www.esri.com state, and federal government agencies as well as private-sector organizations. (For more information on other aspects of Esri's involvement, see "GIS Used to Respond to Oil Spill Disaster: Esri Provides Software, Services, and Around-the-Clock Support" in the July 2010 issue of ArcWatch [www.esri.com/arcwatch]). Esri also created an interactive social media map application that not only showed the current location of the oil spill but also let visitors add links to online photos, Web sites, and YouTube videos related to the spill. Mobile GIS Added to Response Efforts While BP was convinced that a mobile solution could help coordinate these efforts, it was not confident that communications could be adequately handled over a five-state area. Esri wildland fire specialist Tom Patterson, a member of Esri's response team who has been using mobile GIS for emergency response since 2000, was sent to support mapping of the oil slick's impact on the environment and coordinate mitigation efforts using mobile GIS. Although cellular connectivity was now available in much of the deployment area, Patterson knew wireless communication would be essential to effectively carry out both missions. He also knew that Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network Service (BGAN) had been used in Haiti disaster relief efforts. He took a BGAN terminal supplied by Inmarsat service provider Remote Satellite Systems. The terminal accessed the BGAN mobile service, which provides simultaneous voice and broadband data capabilities. Esri staff, called in to support the federal incident command post at Houma, Louisiana, created a focused ArcGIS Mobile application for mapping oil barricades. After an initial proof-of-concept phase, BP purchased 300 Trimble handheld devices for use in spill response. Patterson conducted brief training sessions for the Louisiana National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife response teams that would be using the mobile units and ArcGIS Mobile application. Field teams used BGAN to synchronize data with Esri's servers in Redlands, California. Protecting Vulnerable Shoreline After it was clear the oil spill could not initially be stopped, Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal called out the Louisiana National Guard to protect sensitive species habitat. When dealing with the oil from spills, responding agencies have three strategies: contain it using barriers; disperse it with the help of chemical products; and remove it from the water through burning, filtering, and/or collecting oil. The Louisiana National Guard was tasked with placing booms that would contain, deflect, and hold back the growing oil slick. Continued on page 32 ArcUser Fall 2010 31