Spatial Reasoning for “Terra Incognita” Challenges and Progress of Coastal/Marine GIS Dawn Wright Department of Geosciences Oregon State University

Explornography (n.) “The vicarious thrill of exploring when there is nothing left to explore” (John Tierney, New York Times, July 26, 1998)

Images courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum

Ocean Thematic Layers Graphic courtesy of Christina Massel, Steve Miller, Scripps

Single Beam Multibeam 1-2 K soundings per survey K soundings per survey 400,000 – 1,000,000 K soundings per survey Graphics courtesy of NOAA & UNH Bottom Coverage & Data Density by Survey Method Leadline

courtesy of the NOAA PMEL Vents Group (NEMO project) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Exploration of Seafloor Spreading Centers

Fine Scale Mapping on the order of tens of meters to meters features the size of a beer can!

GIS: A Spatial Context Integrating Many Parts to See the Whole Homes School Districts Streets Zip Codes Cities Counties Graphics courtesy of ESRI

Ocean Thematic Layers Graphics courtesy of Joe Breman, ESRI

Ocean Thematic Layers

GIS: A Spatial Context Integrating Many Parts to See the Whole Graphics courtesy of ESRI

Spatial Reasoning PlanningPlanning AnalyzingAnalyzing ThinkingThinking MeasuringMeasuring DecidingDeciding Science Graphics courtesy of ESRI

GIS: A Spatial Context Seeing the Whole to Manage Places Seeing the Whole Managing Places Estuaries Fisheries Marine Protected Areas Coastal Communities Patterns Linkages Trends Graphics courtesy of ESRI

Coastal/Marine GIS Challenges Lack of data Dan Fornari, WHOI

Coastal/Marine GIS Challenges Scale, accuracy, generalization, time, etc. No fixed features in the marine environment –No rigid reference frame – Eulerian vs. Lagrangian (object-centered) –“Mobile computing”

Figure courtesy of Anne Lucas, U. of Bergen, Norway

Marine Boundaries

Shaded relief image © Ray Sterner, Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory 2 horizontal dimensions equivalent? –“How long is a shoreline?” –Shoreline according to whom?

Where is the shoreline? Different interpretations of the shoreline

Shoreline Depiction Problems

One Grand Challenge … To find ways of summarizing, modeling, and visualizing the differences between a digital representation and real phenomena Uncertainty –no representation can be complete –what the data indicate about the world –what the user believes the data indicate about the world Scientific Measurement –the database as one sample from an error distribution The GIS Data Model –conceptual description of how our “sampling of the world” is organized for use by the GIS –objects with rules and behaviors

ArcGIS Marine Data Model dusk.geo.orst.edu/djl/arcgis

Relationships with rules, behaviors used in geoprocessing and analysis Basic template for implementing GIS projects –input, formatting, geoprocessing, creating maps, performing analyses Control of required data fields, relationships from collection through analysis phases Basic framework for writing program code A Marine Data Model

Implications for Data Collection

Implications for Data Sharing, Networking

Remainder of Symposium Biogeographic Assessments –Monaco/Caldow, NOAA Benthic Habitat Mapping –Greene et al., Moss Landing Marine Labs O.C.E.A.N. Model, Marine Ecology/Economy –Scholz - Ecotrust Fisheries Landing Statistics –Watson et al. - University of British Columbia Science and Policy of MPAs –Airame - Channel Islands Nat. Marine Sanctuary Sustainable Coastal Communities –Wedell & Revell - Oregon State Univ., Surfrider