GIS Data in Iowa — Big (12) Data
By Casey J. McLaughlin
We are well past the “Bowl Season” and March Madness is right around the corner; it is past time we look at some great data sources from the Hawkeye State (sorry Cyclones, that’s what Wikipedia calls it!). In the past, I would start looking for specific data using a general search engine but today, Iowa.gov is a great entry point for all Iowa data. I will highlight a few that I have found the most useful.
The Iowa Geographic Map Server housed at Iowa State (Go Cyclones!) serves a fantastic range of aerial imagery products including images from the today to the 1930’s! The images can be viewed online through their web viewer, downloaded, or consumed directly. The variety of imagery available is amazing (I might have said that already) but I’m excited that it is available to use directly or downloadable giving users to choose what they need. I have not had occasion to use the Iowa Historic Vegetation map but how great is having data from 1832-1859 available??
The Natural resources Geographic Information is brought to you by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and housed at the University of Iowa (home of the Hawkeyes whom, I must note, reside in the Big 10 conference but they currently have 12 members). The NRGIS is organized with counties in mind as data can be searched and retrieved not only by general theme, but also by county. If I need GIS data for a county, this is where I start, especially since they’ve already clipped all of the data. I am intrigued by historical imagery and have really enjoyed using the Andreas 1875 historical atlas data. You can also view the maps courtesy of the David Rumsey Collection.
Map of Humboldt County, State of Iowa. (Published by the Andreas Atlas Co., Lakeside Building, Chicago, Ills. Engraved & printed by Chas. Shober & Co., Props. of Chicago Lithographing Co.) 1875. Hosted by the David Rumsey Collection
Iowa has strongly supported the public distribution of their data and they have lot of great data out there, what are your favorite Iowa GIS data sets? Are there other sources you’d recommend?
Casey McLaughlin is a first generation Geospatial Enthusiast who has worked with EPA since 2003 as a contractor and now as the Regional GIS Lead. He currently holds the rank of #1 GISer in EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Whistling Pigs…
By Jeffery Robichaud
A Whistling Pig checking out a map courtesy of the TN Aquarium
Groundhog Day was just over a week ago. Apparently one of the more colorful names for these little guys is the Whistling Pig. I showed my kids the movie for the first time on TV…I think we picked it up where Bill Murray is letting Punxsutawney Phil drive. Just like Phil Connors who spends over 33 years revisiting the same day, I thought I would revisit my Groundhog Day Post of last year.
Punxsutawney Phil be Darned…We’ve Started Spring Cleaning
My kids are hooked on Storage Wars (they love Barry and despise Dave) and my wife and I enjoy Hoarders, probably since it makes us feel like better housekeepers than we really are. At EPA in Kansas City, we are preparing for a transition from one building to another and many of us are beginning to grapple with our pack-rat tendencies and being forced to open long forgotten storage cabinets. Such an endeavor should be easy; and the most important part of it is. Records are saved, stored, and managed in accordance with requisite policies and procedures. Unfortunately scientists tend to amass collections of journal articles, data sets, guidance documents, and even specimens that, while not records, represent a life-time of learning and serve as a record of an individual’s career spent protecting human health and the environment.
Which gets me to the hackneyed phrase, one person’s junk is another’s treasure. Case in point; a colleague of mine uses a discolored booklet which is older than I as a prop for employee training. I grabbed it from him one day and realized the title was, “Everyone can’t live upstream: a contemporary history of water quality problems on the Missouri River, Sioux City, Iowa to Hermann, Missouri.” It just so happened we were working on a Missouri River project, and boom there it was, information not present in EPA’s databases or easily accessible at the time in any library. We were able to use this secondary information to fill in historical gaps for our project. Secondary data analysis, using information collected by someone else for another purpose, can be a fantastic way to provide additional context and relevance to a project as well as save costs assuming the information meets your data quality requirements.
As we all continue our march from the paper age to the electronic, consider making your old information and data available through sites like Data.gov, Socrata, or any number of other open data websites. Although this may be sacrilegious to say, all science doesn’t necessarily make its way into published journals. I’ll be giving this a shot as I clean my cabinets. Who knows, something old and dusty may still be valuable to another person in the future for an entirely new reason. Now if I can just convince my wife that this is the case for my Star Wars lunchboxes.
Well we are all moved in at our new locations, but the point remains the same. We need to keep our eye on data management and continue to find ways to make it accessible to others.
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. One of his life regrets is never driving over to Punxsutawney while attending school in Philadelphia. He also just learned that Bill Murray was bitten three times during the filming of Groundhog Day.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
PAHs in Urban Streams of Kansas City
By Laura Webb
The Water Monitoring Team at EPA Region 7 has been collecting samples in the urban streams of Kansas City since 2006 as shown in the map below. During our non-field sampling season (when the water is generally frozen or near enough to freezing that we don’t want to wade in), we spend a lot of our time evaluating data and trying to figure out what it all means.
Locations of KCWaters urban stream sampling
One particular contaminant of interest of mine has been PAHs (not to be confused with PAW-PAWs which we also find in streams from time to time). Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic molecules found in oil and other fossil fuels which are released when fuels are burned. In my previous job as a bench chemist, I once analyzed samples collected on a filter from a charcoal production facility. The black, sooty residue was comprised of many, many PAH molecules. So, when charcoal is used to grill meat, the smoky flavor and blacked exterior of the meat contains, you guessed it, PAHs. Hopefully not a large concentration, though, because oh how I do love grilled steak! PAHs are found in auto exhaust, tire particles, gas residue, and coal-tar based sealant, such as is
used on parking lots and road surfaces. In large enough doses, PAHs are toxic to aquatic species that live in streams. Studies have also shown that higher PAH concentration in urban areas can contribute to human health problems, including asthma, anxiety, and lower IQ scores.
In looking at our data, several things are clear. First, that there is not a clear single source of these compounds to our urban waterways in Kansas City. The ratio of PAH compounds to each other and the total can act as a type of chemical fingerprint of the source. Unfortunately for the urban environment, these prints are smeared and difficult to match up to their source.
Compounds can enter the stream water in many ways. For example, there are permitted discharges, storm water runoff, deposition from the air, and even illegal dumping. Some compounds stay dissolved in the water, some combine to form new compounds, some react with sunlight to decompose into other compounds and some, like PAHs, tend to attach to particulates in the water and “sink” down into the sediment (PAHs and many other organic chemicals don’t really like water; they prefer the rich gooey sediments that deposit as water flows around obstacles in the stream). The sediment is a sink, or trap, for these water-phobic compounds. When we collect samples, we obtain a single grab of water at a particular location at a particular time. While it is a single point in time, the flowing water changes every moment, so samples just a few minutes apart could represent completely different pictures of the stream. Sediment samples, on the other hand, are collected throughout the length of the stream site and really represent a depositional history of what was once in the water as it passed a particular spot. That is what causes the smeared chemical fingerprint, and what causes me headaches when trying to figure out where the PAHs in stream sediment come from.
A prime suspect of urban PAH contamination is coal-tar sealant, and it appears to be a heavy contributor in stream sediments especially those related to large areas of impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots, roof tops, surfaces that water cannot penetrate but runs off of). As a matter of fact, the total concentration of PAHs in sediment is closely correlated with both the percentage of impervious surfaces and the percentage of development in the watershed. The fingerprint ratios of sealant versus many urban sediments, especially those with the highest levels of PAHs, match fairly well, although still keeping in mind that sediment is a collection of many sources.
Along with these sealed surfaces are mobile sources in the form of gasoline and diesel burning vehicles. The pollutants deposit from the exhaust, either in the water itself, on the sediment, or surrounding land and are then washed into the streams during runoff events. Some of the sediment fingerprints have traits from petroleum sources but because the sediment is a sink, there is no clear pattern match for this source (but I know it contributes). Along with vehicle exhaust, there is also power plant exhaust, perhaps smoke from nearby restaurants that grill their meat, fireplaces (although we do collect samples in the summer, the deposits occur all year long), waste water treatment discharge, and other industrial processes.There are plenty of sources, and when concentrated together in the urban core, they combine to increase the PAH concentrations in sediment to levels that may be problematic for aquatic life. So that’s a look at one class of compounds we find in the urban environment. For a more complete look, check out our website at www.kcwaters.org.
Laura Webb is a chemist with EPA Region 7’s Water Monitoring Team. She spent her first 16 years with EPA in the regional laboratory, analyzing samples for everything from metals to dioxins. Her current assignment involves ambient water sampling, laboratory analysis, operating the mobile bacteria laboratory, and participating in emergency responses as part of the Response Support Corp.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
The Judas Fish
By Jeffery Robichaud
Invasive Species are a big problem in the United States and throughout much of the world. Here in the Midwest, we have our fair share including the zebra mussel, the bush honeysuckle, and the autumn olive. However none gets more attention than our pal the Asian Carp, perhaps because of their flying feats. Several years ago, I wrote for Greenversations about these problematic Pisces.
They continue to be a nagging invasive in our rivers, as well as in those of our sister Region (5) to the east. Staff routinely spot them when we are out on the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers conducting sampling activities (check out the video below). It almost seems comical, but we have had to amend our Health and Safety plans to add the threat of fish strikes as a potential hazard. Here are our folks on a slooooooowww day.
Our scientists have had lots of discussions on how one might safely and effectively reduce their populations, but apparently scientists in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, have come up with a novel solution: introduction of a Judas Fish. From an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which describes the work of Peter Sorensen, director of the new Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center at the University of Minnesota:
They are called “Judas” animals because, as the biblical reference implies, they betray. Sorensen said the lessons learned elsewhere using “Judas” animals to locate and kill unwanted species could be used here to fight Asian Carp.
Radio-collared Judas pigs, sheep and goats have been released into the wild, then tracked until they lead officials to difficult-to-find herds of the same unwanted species.
This week, he will use Judas fish implanted with tracking devices to locate the common carp in Staring Lake in Eden Prairie. Though carp are dispersed in lakes during the summer, they congregate in the winter, and the Judas fish reveal to researchers exactly where they are.
A commercial fisherman then will net the mass of unwanted carp, estimated at about 26,000 fish, which root up vegetation, causing lakes to go turbid. Water quality and fish habitat usually improve after carp are removed.
Sorensen started using the method in 2008 as part of his carp research.
“It’s been very successful,” he said. “Carp are really social animals – one will always lead you to another.”
Sorensen said officials could apply the same method to seek out and destroy Asian carp.
I’m not sure how well this will work in our Big Rivers where we see large populations, but if Carp are indeed a schooling fish this might be one of the most efficient approaches to controlling the species. I checked online and could not find any efforts underway to map populations on Region 7 Big Rivers, an activity which might help in maximizing the efficiency of Judas Fish introduction. If you have seen any hot spots, on the Missouri River, let us know with a comment below. Perhaps if enough interest is expressed, we can start a twitter hash tag campaign to collect lat/longs of Carp hotspots on the river, eventually building a crowd-sourced map. I smell another blog post…or maybe it is just the fish.
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. Jeff has never incurred the wrath of a flying fish. Perhaps his aversion to meals of aquatic animals is sensed by these cantakerous critters who thus leave him alone
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
30mph/365 – Living in the Windy State
By Cynthia Cassel
I was born in the great state of Kansas and I will most likely die here too. While there are some good things to say about Kansas, what I say next may be shocking to you. I love and hate this place simultaneously.
Whether you are cold-natured or one of those folks who walk around in shorts and flip-flops all winter long, there is no getting around the single most uncomfortable and annoying aspect of this state; the never-ending, never even waning…wind. You can bundle against the cold, you can strip like Gypsy Rose Lee when it’s summertime but you can never ever, ever get relief from this gawd-awful wind.
Chicago is nicknamed ‘The Windy City’ but that’s really a misnomer. Chicago got that bad rep due to an editorial in the New York Sun in the 1800’s referencing the hyper-loquacious nature of Chicago politicians. Since the nickname could be applied to every U.S. city, this must be the windiest planet in the galaxy–but I digress.
In a recent Kansas City Star article about the Flat Ridge Wind Farm being built in southern Kansas, John Graham, CEO of BP Wind Energy said, “Kansas is blessed with very strong winds.” I don’t think the words blessed and strong winds belong in the same understatement, but that’s just my opinion.
Flat Ridge Wind Project, Barber County, KS
What occurred to me this afternoon, as I desperately tried to keep my feet connected to the ground, was the possibility of another Great Dust Bowl era. As I write this, the wind is blowing a steady 26.4 mph from the West Southwest. We’ve had a couple of years of miserably dry summers and relatively dry winters. While farming practices have changed and improved since 1930, we still have daily gusts that could scour the paint off your car. What will happen to the land? According to an article in the K-State Research and Extension News written by Kathleen Ward (Windy? Kansas? Well, Yes. And No 1/30/06), that during the Dust Bowl, “Experts estimate western Kansas also lost twice the dirt moved in digging the Panama Canal.”
The other downside is that I keep getting accused of having bad posture. It’s not bad posture that makes me walk like Grouch Marx. I’m a small-ish person – it’s the only way I can keep from being blown over backward.
But back to the wind farms. Whether you are a proponent of wind energy (in other words, you’ve got a big gob of land you’d like to lease for a tidy profit), or a proponent of a form of energy that doesn’t thwack pretty songbirds into a stupor, you’ve got to admit Kansas will suffice as a good source of wind. Less dependence on middle eastern oil is the upside and the 274 wind turbines at Flat Ridge-2 can supply 1,600 homes with electricity. Another plus is that projects like Flat Ridge and Flat Ridge-2 bring dollars into the state. And even a curmudgeon like me has to admit that hundreds of snow white turbines all spinning at once looks like a lovely in-place ballet.
Another bit from the K-State Extension news article about wind:
A Lakin Eagle newspaper writer joked that a 2-gallon funnel could gather enough Kansas “zephyrs” to drill a 180-feet hole in solid sandstone – easily producing a well with “condensed air.”
Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Find a way to make those turbines catch that wind, channel it into a great big funnel and use it for yet another positive purpose. It wouldn’t be able to blow all of our lovely Kansas soil from here to New York and I could finally walk like a normal human being.
Cynthia Cassel is a SEE Grantee where, for 3-1/2 years, she has worked with the Wetland and Streams team in the Water branch. Cynthia received her BS from Park University and lives in Overland Park where she regularly carries a bag of rocks so as to remain safely earthbound.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
A Practical Way of Thinking about Sustainability
By Neftali (Nef) Hernandez
The term sustainability is commonly used in the environmental field. In general, it is defined as the capacity to utilize resources and goods in perpetuity without adverse impacts to our environment, economy, or social settings. However in practice, sustainability has hundreds of definitions rendering it rather ambiguous. I want to examine one practical way of looking at sustainability … through the lens of Asset Management.
Can you think of a common factor that allowed ancient civilizations and today’s largest cities to be built and grow? If I were to pick just one, I would have to say it is WATER. Civilization depends on fresh water. This is why London is located on the Thames, Rome on the Tiber, New York on the Hudson and Kansas City on the Missouri. This is the case for nearly all established cities, from ancient civilizations like the Maya to today’s largest metropolitan areas. In addition to an abundant water source, these cities relied on sophisticated networks of aqueducts to deliver water to their people. We depend on this asset, high quality water, and will for as long as I can imagine.
But if civilization depends on these networks, how do we ensure that they are sustainable for years to come? One way could be through establishment and implementation of an Asset Management Plan. If you are in the financial industry or transportation sector, you might be familiar with Asset Management, but I will illustrate using a simple example most of us can relate to, the exterior of a home.
In this case, assume I want to sustain the outside of my house, which is my asset. To keep the value of my asset, I have to manage items like the roof, the siding, and the windows. Say my roof is rated to last 20 years and the replacement cost is about $2,000 (Yes this is really low, but remember I’m trying to make this a simple example). The siding should last a long time if painted every five years at a cost of $500 (assuming I do it myself), and the windows will last 35 years with a replacement cost of about $8,000.
I want my home to last forever, or to be sustainable so my great-grandchildren can one day live in the same home. In order to plan for the management of my asset, I plan to set-aside the money to pay for the maintenance and replacement of the exterior on a monthly basis: For the roof [$20,000/(12 months x 20 years)]= $8.33 per month; For the siding [$500/(12 months x 5 years)] = $8.33; and For the windows [$8,000/(12 months x 35 years)]= $19.04 per month. So my Asset Management Plan, indicates that to sustain the exterior of this house I have to set-aside almost $36 every month. Of course this example is extremely simple and ignores inflation and other realities (like a hailstorm that could give you a roof sooner than you expected).
Returning to my original point, this concept of asset management can be scaled up when you think about the sustainability of water services. Water utilities consist of many discrete yet interconnected elements often comprising a network of underground aqueducts and infrastructure of various ages, types, and condition located miles and miles apart. Many utilities have started using a fully digital system to track and manage assets. The system stores information about each asset such as pictures, status, description, acquisition date, expected maintenance dates, actual repairs, and costs. A Geographic Information System (GIS) combines data about the asset with its location for better resource management. Our society’s well-being requires properly managing water and water infrastructure, and using an asset management plan will likely position water utilities on the road to sustainability by establishing a framework for long-range financial planning to maintain critical infrastructure.
Asset Management Plans provide the structure to operate, maintain, rehabilitate, repair and replace things of value for a particular group or person; geospatially enabling them can further aid in scare resource allocation, planning, and growth. Asset Management Plans can be applied to a wide variety of resources including infrastructure and the environment, and can be adaptable to meet the needs of a scale; from your home to a large utility, from a single tree to the land, air and water upon life depends. Asset plans are a practical reminder of how we can strive towards our own sustainability by saving and planning right now.
About the Author: Neftali Hernandez grew up in Puerto Rico and is an Environmental Scientist with EPA Region 7′s Drinking Water Branch. He is a member of EPA’s Water Emergency Response Group and has a bachelor of science degree in biology and a masters of science degree in environmental health from the University of Puerto Rico.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Moving the Arch
By Casey J. McLaughlin
Remotely sensed data is a popular background for many maps today, but it isn’t all just a pretty picture. Images produced by satellite or airplane get processed and circulated at a very fast pace – everyone wants the latest and greatest. Speed often means ortho-rectification isn’t a high priority. Wikipedia gives a simple write up of the process:
An orthophoto, orthophotograph or orthoimage is an aerial photograph geometrically corrected (“orthorectified”) such that the scale is uniform: the photo has the same lack of distortion as a map. Unlike an uncorrected aerial photograph, an orthophotograph can be used to measure true distances, because it is an accurate representation of the Earth’s surface, having been adjusted for topographic relief,[1] lens distortion, and camera tilt.
Geospatial data can be a little more complicated than just having a latitude and longitude. We model the earth in two-dimensional space (the globe is an imperfect sphere) and we’re still relying on planar map views (flat) even on our screens of choice. Geospatial data should, therefore, contain good information about how that locational data (e.g. latitude and longitude) is collected and stored. I’ve commented previously on the challenges of managing spatial data (datums, cell vs gps, projections, field data) and now I present, “The Case of the Moving Arch.”
A few summers ago we visited the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. After dipping my foot into the Mississippi, we ran around on the grounds of the park. It’s a great monument although I confess I didn’t take the long and cramped ride to the top. After my stroll through memory lane, I got back to thinking about imagery and plotted a reference point. The graphic below shows a few years as seen using Google Earth’s historical imagery catalogue – as far as I can tell GE is still the best place for doing this exercise.
Nostalgia and the joy of Google Earth aside, notice how the arch “moves” in the images! In both the 2011 images the Arch run south into the 2011 portion of my label. August might have fewer letters than September or November, but the Arch is clearly running off the picture well to the left/east of the image!
Are you amazed yet? I would hope not but thought I would check. I saw the impact of this image distortion when I was reviewing some images with an inspector plotting some of his photographs onto a map using aerial imagery (the photos were geotagged with a lat/lon). For this particular facility there were several images taken from a catwalk. He placed the image location point onto a map (not Google in this case, FYI) and the location was definitely not on the cross-walk (more like walking on air). Eventually, we found a satisfactory picture for the report but I’m left wondering if I had taken a photograph and not geotagged it in the field, which image could I use for adding an accurate latitude/longitude?
Normal-color kite aerial photograph of the upland study forest, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, May 2000. Oblique view toward the south shows a fully developed forest canopy. Kansas Geological Survey Current Research in Earth Sciences, Bulletin 248, Part 1
Perhaps I’m getting into geography minutia, but there is more and more finer resolution imagery available than ever before. Satellites and planes and kites (yes, kites) are acquiring imagery faster and finer (gigapixels!) and this trend will only continue. In the movie “Enemy of the State” Will Smith’s character (Robert Dean) is tracked in real-time by satellite (drone maybe, but satellite?!?). If we envision using remotely sensed imagery with such detail (seeing a dime on the street is another example) then knowing the distortion and resulting precision/accuracy seems rather important.
Casey McLaughlin is a first generation Geospatial Enthusiast who has worked with EPA since 2003 as a contractor and now as the Regional GIS Lead. He currently holds the rank of #1 GISer in EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Bowl Games and Big (12) Data
By Casey J. McLaughlin
Our region struck out during bowl season this year but we can still look at some great sources for GIS data! We started by sharing some of the great sources available from Nebraska; today I turn to our host state of Kansas (for those keeping track, Kansas State lost to Oregon).
I should probably remind readers that I am an alumnus of the University of Kansas (I’m glad for college basketball season — ROCK CHALK) which is also home to several state level geo-related entities. The primary repository for Kansas’ GeoData is the Kansas Data Access Support Center (DASC). If you’re looking for Kansas data, , KansasGIS.org is the place to go with everything from LiDAR to Cell Towers to Aerial Imagery to Geology to Water to Wells. Most state offices who create GIS data, like the Office of Water, warehouse their data and metadata with DASC.
Aeromagnetic map of Kansas by Yarger, H.L., 1989: Kansas Geological Survey, Bulletin 226, sheet 2.
Not far from DASC (mostly just down the hall) is the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS). KGS is the primary creator of oil and gas data, water wells, and aeromagnetic data. Downloadable via KansasGIS.org, KGS itself connects users with data beyond just locations. It houses some very relevant and useful data as well as hosts some interesting web maps:
- Oil and Gas Maps: http://www.kgs.ku.edu/PRS/petroMaps.html
- Kansas Water Wells: http://maps.kgs.ku.edu/wwc5/index.cfm?extenttype=wwc5
- Aeromagnetic Data: http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Geophysics/gravMag.html
- Kansas High Plains Aquifer Atlas: http://www.kgs.ku.edu/HighPlains/HPA_Atlas/index.html
ASTER image (07/06/07) of Coffeyville, KS from KansasView
Next up is KansasView, “a consortium of universities and federal, state and local government working cooperatively to advance the use of remote sensing and GIS technologies in the State of Kansas for education and research and to assist government agencies apply these technologies.” KansasView provides data and information about the Kansas landscape using remote sensed data.
The Kansas Biological Survey (KBS), one building south of DASC and KGS, focuses on holistic environmental analysis. KBS hosts maps and webservices. I would highlight the reservoirs datasets that KBS has compiled; each reservoir is listed and most have readily available data and maps of bathymetry – that way you can find the best fishing spots or know the answer when someone asks, “How deep do you think this is?” The GreenReport map depicts “greenness” over the entire county (REST service available). I’ve heard several stories in the last week about winter wheat conditions in Kansas (specifically) and about potential flooding or drought activities in the spring and summer and this will be one way of monitoring conditions.
The Agency relies on state collected data and Kansas collects, maintains, and distributes a lot of great data. I know there is much more available; what is on your wish list of Kansas data?
Casey McLaughlin is a first generation Geospatial Enthusiast who has worked with EPA since 2003 as a contractor and now as the Regional GIS Lead. He currently holds the rank of #1 GISer in EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
I started watching the first season of Friday Night Lights during the holidays. I’m not sure how I missed watching the show the first time around. I’ve read the book by H.G. Bissinger a couple of times, and didn’t realize until the second read through that the kids were actually my age. In fact as a Penn Quaker I might have stared across the field at Permian’s tight end who went to Harvard. I digress. In one of the last episodes of the first season, a chemical accident causes their home game to be moved. On screen the mayor of the town comes in and says something to the effect of, “EPA is shutting everything down.” I chuckled knowing that if such an event occurred the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) not the EPA would be the folks who would have things well in hand and make any such call regarding risks to the public. It reminded me of a post a made four years ago on another blog. I’ve revised and extended my remarks in bold, italic, brackets, to cover an oversight I made in the initial post.
Movies require you to suspend your disbelief, but when you watch a film that hits close to home it can be tough. I have a friend in federal law enforcement who squirms when cardboard cutout agents run across the screen. Action flicks don’t do his profession justice, but at least his job is sometimes glorified on celluloid. The only two movies I can remember featuring a prominent EPA employee are Ghostbusters and the Simpsons Movie, [ok I was also reminded of Fire Down Below but I will never admit to having watched that movie] neither of which ever made a kid say, “Man, when I grow up I want to work for the EPA.” On the off-chance your youngster was inspired to seek out public service please let them know we don’t inspect unlicensed nuclear storage facilities, nor do we have a fleet of helicopters. We do however, have one cool plane.
EPA’s Airborne Spectral Photometric Collection Technology, known as ASPECT, is an aircraft equipped with sensors that allow for surveillance of gaseous chemical releases from a safe distance. ASPECT gives emergency responders information regarding the shape, composition and concentration of gas plumes from disasters such as a derailed train, factory explosion or terrorist attack.
Since its inception ASPECT has flown over several fires, provided support during the Olympics and Columbia shuttle recovery, and supplied some of the first aerial images of the devastation along the coast during Katrina.
This was the scene in Kansas City outside our office windows in 2007 when a chemical facility went up in flames. ASPECT deployed and was instrumental in verifying that while ominous, the fire did not present a significant health threat to the community (the white signature you see below is the fire down below) [Fire Down Below credits "Anonymous" as the writer...Still on the fence about watching?].
Most of the technology you see in movies is sheer fantasy, but EPA’s high-tech plane and the scientists who operate it are worthy of a spot in the next summer blockbuster. Here’s hoping for the appearance of an EPA scientist who isn’t a bad guy (although with my face the best I could hope for is Thug #4 in the next straight to DVD clunker) [OK, Steven Seagal is supposed to be a good guy but I'll let you be the judge].
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. During highschool Jeff used to work at West Coast Video, where he watched most of Seagal’s work in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Aquatic Conservation Focus Areas for EPA Region 7 – Part II
By Holly Mehl
In November, I laid out the classification hierarchy – the planning regions and assessment units – used by MoRAP and our environmental assessment staff to identify areas on which to focus conservation efforts in aquatic ecosystems of Missouri (download here). I explained how the Missouri analysis defined these areas at a more refined geographic scale (smaller areas) than for our other three states due to better data availability. In the end, separate conservation plans were completed for Missouri’s 17 Ecological Drainage Units (EDUs) within which 158 Conservation Focus Areas were identified. Our modeling showed these areas represent the broad diversity of stream ecosystems and riverine assemblages of species that exist within the state. To give an exciting example, if each of the 158 areas were adequately protected, 95-100% of targeted species within the state would be protected as well. Collectively, these areas represent occurrences of all native fish, mussel, and crayfish species in Missouri. This is very important when you consider that Missouri is home to numerous species that live nowhere else (see pictures below).
Without going into too much detail, for this blog I’ll talk specifically about what we were attempting to achieve with each component of our conservation strategy:
First, we wanted a separate conservation plan for each Ecological Drainage Unit (EDU). Learn more about EDU’s from Missouri Department of Conservation here. Endeavoring to conserve all EDUs is a holistic ecosystem approach to conservation since each one represents an interacting biophysical system and also because no single EDU contains the full range of species found within the state. Second, we wanted to represent two separate occurrences or populations of each target species within each EDU. Redundancy in the account of species that together determine each EDU’s distinct biological composition provides a safeguard for their long term persistence. Our next objective was to conserve an individual example of each Aquatic Ecological System Type (AES-Type) within each EDU. This helps ensure the wide spectrum of the diversity of distinct watershed types within each EDU are accounted for, including the varying successional patterns within ecosystems and dispersal capabilities of different species.
With each type of AES represented in our conservation strategy, and therefore hopefully protected, we next wanted at least one kilometer of the dominant Valley Segment Types (VSTs) for each size class (headwater, creek, small river, and large river) to be represented as an interconnected complex within each selected AES. The assumption here is that environmental conditions will be represented to which species have evolved adaptations for maximizing growth, reproduction and survival. It also represents a wide spectrum of the diversity of stream types within each EDU since the dominant stream types vary among AES-Types. Further, it accounts for source-sink dynamics which is science of how variation in habitat quality may affect the population growth or decline of organisms. Attempting to conserve an interconnected complex of dominant VSTs accounts for seasonal changes in habitat brought on by disturbances like droughts or floods. For example, a headwater species during a prolonged drought may have to seek refuge in larger streams in order to find suitable habitat.
Darters, crayfish, and mussels have limited dispersal capabilities; they cannot move long distances. We decided that three separate headwater VSTs should be represented within each Conservation Focus Area. Including multiple headwater segments should account for multiple distinct spatial occurrences of headwater species as well as preserve several high-quality examples of key nursery habitats.
Lastly, many species require multiple habitats for foraging, reproducing, over-wintering, or for disturbance avoidance. We wanted to conserve at least a one kilometer of each priority VST and ensure connectivity of a wide spectrum of diverse habitats (riffles, pools, runs, and backwaters) so that critters could reach their choice habitat.
My next blog entry in this series will cover the main steps we took to meet these objectives. Stay tuned for that one.
About the Author: Holly Mehl is an ecologist for EPA Region 7 who helps with water monitoring in the field and performs mapping for EPA Region 7’s program offices when in the office.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
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