Newletter
April 2005
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ASA, in conjunction with Rite Solutions
of Middletown, RI, recently simulated the
possible extent of coastal flooding in downtown
Boston resulting from climate change. The
Boston area is especially susceptible to flooding
because of its extensive coastline, many rivers
and streams, concentrated coastal development,
and vulnerability to hurricanes and nor'easters. Predicted flooding
from a 100 yr storm in 2100 (with 0.6 meters
of sea level rise) for downtown Boston.
The translucent blue represents land features that would be underwater. The city has already experienced a 0.3 m increase in relative sea level over the last 100 years and can expect an additional increase of 0.6 m by the end of this century. Higher sea levels add to the base elevation of a storm surge, resulting in more areas at risk from flooding. The study considered the flooding expected from a 100-year storm. To incorporate the effects of sea level rise the storm was assumed to occur in the year 2100. Storm surge elevations were provided by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Sea level rise predictions came from the Canadian Climate Center. These estimates were combined to determine future flood elevations which were displayed as a three-dimensional (3D) animation of the flood's advance.
An oil tanker runs aground and begins leaking oil. A pleasure boat is lost at sea. Medical waste is found washed ashore. Common to all these situations is the need to predict the path of objects at sea. To do this requires forecasting environmental conditions such as winds and currents. Operational weather prediction models have been used successfully since the 1950's. However, forecasting ocean variables is still a major challenge. ASA South America is meeting this challenge for the waters along the coasts of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela.
ASA's staff in the USA and Australia are developing and testing a unique extension for ArcGIS 9.0 and are currently finalizing the supply of 8 licenses of a NetCDF extension for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The COASTMAP NetCDF Layer Extension allows NetCDF data that is COARDS and CF compliant to be viewed in ArcGIS for RAN operations. This data is generated by the Australian Science Agency, CSIRO, and Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). The COASTMAP NetCDF custom layer and Time Toolbar extension allow RAN staff to manage, display, animate and analyse both scalar (salinity, temperature, elevation) and vector (current and wind data) data in its native NetCDF format. The next phase of the project has begun to extend the extension to include OPeNDAP support of the CSIRO and BOM data.
The Center of Documentation, Research, and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre), France, has recently taken delivery of CHEMMAP. CHEMMAP is a three-dimensional chemical dispersion model. It predicts the trajectory and fate of a wide variety of chemical substances, including floating, sinking, soluble and insoluble chemicals and product mixtures. CHEMMAP is integrated within a GIS framework making it easy to evaluate potential contamination with respect to geographical data. Other features include the incorporation of spatial databases, the ability to color code spill trajectories by chemical fate, create concentration contours of each fate over time, and display time-series data of concentrations for a particular location or throughout the whole area of contamination. The system was delivered to Cedre in support of their national remit for training, planning and emergency response operations in French territorial waters. The agreement includes the delivery of a CHEMMAP software license, 2 day training course, and the provision of predicted water circulation data for the English Channel, Bay of Biscay, and the Mediterranean Sea. In addition a variety of tools were provided to allow Cedre to directly import a range of third party hydrodynamic and GIS data to assist their support services and associated R & D activities. Nicole Whittier and Roddy Thomas carried out a training program at Cedre's offices in Brest. Attendees included Emergency Response Coordinators, biologists, chemists, and GIS specialists.
The Team consists of senior executive officials of state agencies responsible for the management, preservation, restoration, and monitoring of the natural resources of Rhode Island's bays, rivers and watersheds as well as the promotion of sustainable economic development of water-related activities. In February, Scott Langtry gave a briefing on the SARMAP model to the Western Australian Water Police, as a follow-up to assistance provided with that model by Asia Pacific ASA to locate an elderly couple lost at sea off metropolitan Perth. During the first week of February, Matt Ward delivered and conducted training for version 1 of the Boundary Condition Toolbox to the Naval Oceanographic Office. The Boundary Condition Toolbox is an ESRI ArcGIS 9.0 extension designed to access global and local operational databases such as bathymetry, tide stations and hydrodynamic model grids to investigate and develop appropriate environmental forcing for ocean, coastal and estuarine hydrodynamic models.
Eoin Howlett, Malcolm Spaulding, Deborah French McCay and Jiganesh Patel made presentations and participated in discussions at the workshop and conference: Gulf of Mexico Integrated Science -- Tampa Bay Study, 8-9 February, in Gulfport, Florida. Deborah French McCay and Jiganesh Patel made a presentation "Spill Impact Assessment Modeling: SIMAP and CHEMMAP - Coupled Oil/Chemical Fates and Biological Effects Models". Eoin and Malcolm demonstrated ArcGIS-Coastmap as a tool for integrating Craig Swanson participated in the EPA-sponsored workshop on Water Quality Modeling for National-Scale Economic Benefit in Washington, DC on 9-10 February. The invitees, from academia, state and federal agencies, and the private sector, discussed water quality models for both freshwater and marine systems including model requirements and approaches relative to evaluating economic benefits, and made recommendations to EPA's Office of Water. Roddy Thomas attended the Sea to Sea Regional Environmental Forum and Workshop in Cairo, 14-16 February. Sponsored by PERSGA and UNEP the Forum focused on three main themes: Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Biodiversity and Nature Conservation, and Reduction of Maritime Pollution in the Red Sea. Roddy presented a Poster Display co-authored by Matthew Ward: "The Integration of Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS) and Other Related Data in Support of a Range of Monitoring & Response Model Prediction Applications''.
Paul Hall attended the second Quality Assurance of Real-Time Ocean Data workshop (QARTOD-II), hosted by the National Ocean Service (NOS) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), in Norfolk, Virginia from 28 February to 2 March. The meeting focused on issues relating to the QA/QC of real-time data measuring ocean currents and waves. At the meeting, Paul presented a talk titled "Coastal HF Radar and Operational Search and Rescue Modeling" describing ASA's recent work for the US Coast Guard Research and Development Center using real-time data from coastal HF radar systems for Search and Rescue modeling. Sasha Zigic was invited
to present at the National Plan Marine Chemical
Spill Response Course held in Glenelg, South
Australia, 2 March. The presentation titled
"Decision Support Tools for Chemical
Spills - Chemical Plume and Spill Modelling"
covered ASA's hydrodynamic (HYDROMAP) and
chemical (CHEMMAP) models and their use
for planning and response. Following the
presentation, CHEMMAP was used as part of
desktop exercise to examine the potential
impacts from a hypothetical styrene spill
at the mouth of Bass Strait.
Sasha Zigic was a
participant at the annual ConocoPhillips
Indonesia Incident Management Team training
held in Jakarta. Sasha presented "Fate
and Effects of an Oil Spill on Water"
and "Trajectory Modelling (OILMAP)".
Sasha also presented "Response Trajectory
Modelling" to the Incident Management
Assist Team from the ConocoPhillips Asia-Pacific
region. The presentations covered data requirements
and various software tools that can be used
for a range of marine emergencies including
oil spills (surface and sub-surface), chemical
spills and search and rescue.
ASA and RealWeather of Newport, RI are working together to provide integrated meteorological and oceanographic forecasts for Narragansett Bay sailors this summer. The project will allow users to receive the Daily Bay forecast by email as well as tidal charts at NarragansettBayMap.com.
Felipe das Neves and Daniel Zacharias, both meteorologists, have joined ASA South America's modeling team. Felipe will be working in Rio de Janeiro and Daniel in São Paulo. Both are already engaged and up-to-speed on the operational modeling project where ASA South America is providing met ocean forecasts in the South Atlantic.
Matt Ward will be attending the Joint Services Environmental Management Conference in Tampa, FL from 11-14 April. Andrea Gallo from ASA South America has been invited to participate in the IBP (Brazilian Institute of Petroleum) technical review panel for the environmental requirements of the Brazil's 6th oil and natural gas licensing round, distributed by the Brazilian Environmental agency (ELPN/IBAMA). Matt Ward will be attending the Department of Homeland Security Research & Development Conference in Boston, MA from 27-28 April. Deborah French McCay and Nicole Whittier will be presenting at the 2005 International Oil Spill Conference, 15-19 May 15-19 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida. Eric Anderson, Eduardo Yassuda, and Scott Langtry will also be attending. Craig Swanson will be presenting a paper, Southport Harbor Hydrodynamic and Pollutant Transport Modeling Study, at the 2005 TMDL conference of the Water Environment Federation 26-29 June in Philadelphia. The paper will be presented in the session on Bacteria TMDL Modeling and Source Tracking, at 0830 on 28 June, and focuses on the use of backward tracking models to estimate source locations.
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Cedre's CHEMMAP
training attendees



