Arctic Oil Spill Assessment - Alaska Ocean Observing System
Original (non-English) name
Acronym
Arctic Oil Spill Assessment - AOOS
Citation
Abstract
This project integrated data products describing vessel traffic patterns, estimated oil spill impacts, and subsistence use data from the communities of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Nuiqsut, and Kaktovik along the Beaufort Sea coast, and incorporated them into a unique tool for planners and subsistence community members. Spatial heat maps of vessel traffic density were developed by analyzing Automated Identification System (AIS) data from the Marine Exchange of Alaska and NOAA to isolate marine vessel corridors experiencing the heaviest traffic. Investigators ran over 100,000 oil spill trajectory scenarios powered by ocean circulation and atmospheric wind models initialized at locations and times corresponding with historical vessel traffic. Spill trajectory results were summarized to produce a spill impact density map for the Beaufort Sea. Subsistence use patterns were produced by aggregating individual subsistence mapping, harvest, and other socio-economic surveys from the Alaska Beaufort Sea communities of Utqiaġvik, Nuiqsut, and Kaktovik. These previously unavailable subsistence datasets include species descriptions, timing and area for targeted species, and other traditional ecological variables for each community. The subsistence mapping and species distribution data were compared to the spill impact density maps to estimate how different subsistence activities and their relative timing could be impacted in the event of a spill. The data gathered and synthesized through this project are now publicly accessible through an interactive web-based mapping tool as a mechanism for increasing public, private sector, government, and community knowledge about possible spill effects to subsistence uses in the US Arctic.