| "It lets you do a whole lot of analysis in a quick amount of time, often reducing or even eliminating the need to go to the file room, different agencies, or out in the field." | |
| Kevin O'Brien , Office of Long Island Sound Programs |
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Connecticut coastal resource managers began customizing a geographic information system (GIS) in the early 1990s to more rapidly identify an area’s permitted activities and locate the file of the associated hard copy permit. The idea was to someday bypass the trip to the file room and, instead, instantly retrieve permit documents via the computer.
That vision is now a reality.
For the past decade, the Connecticut Office of Long Island Sound Programs has diligently kept existing data on its Coastal Resources GIS up to date, as well as adding data layers that are helping coastal managers in their daily decision making.
In addition to retrieving scanned versions of permits dating back to 1939, coastal program staff members can use GIS on their desktop computers to study data layers such as 2003 oblique aerial photography, true color and false color infrared photography, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) nautical charts. Staff members can quickly find the locations of tidal wetlands, submerged aquatic vegetation, shellfish beds, and docks.
It also is helping staff members address activities out in the sound, such as the laying of submerged cable and gas pipelines, and locating liquefied natural gas facilities and infrastructure, says Kevin O’Brien, environmental analyst and GIS specialist with the Office of Long Island Sound Programs, which houses the state’s coastal management program and coastal permitting programs.
“It lets you do a whole lot of analysis in a quick amount of time, often reducing or even eliminating the need to go to the file room, different agencies, or out in the field,” O’Brien notes.
In addition, Office of Long Island Sound Programs staff members have helped set up an Internet-based GIS viewer for the state’s entire Department of Environmental Protection.
“There’s now a lot of information available from the department as a whole via an internal Web-based server,” O’Brien says. “This is another way to provide high-quality information to a lot of people very quickly.”
Staff members are currently working on a system to provide a “department-wide way to manage environmental regulations and interests.” When it is complete, he says, regulators will be able to “look at a site and see what permits have been assigned from the various agencies in the department. That will take us towards a more holistic approach from a regulatory and environmental interest standpoint.”
The Coastal Resources GIS and other department efforts, O’Brien notes, also may help the state’s coastal managers move towards addressing ecosystems as a whole when making regulatory decisions. The need for ecosystem management was a key finding of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.
“I definitely see that as something you could do with this format,” O’Brien says. “We now have the tools to take a look at an entire watershed, or however you may want to define ecosystem management, and the data to support that type of investigation and analysis.”
Being able to successfully use a GIS for coastal resource management depends on the amount and quality of available data, how easy the data are to access, and keeping that data up-to-date, O’Brien says.
He adds, “We’re a pretty savvy GIS shop. A lot of the results we’ve had are really exciting.”
For more information on on Connecticut’s Coastal Resources GIS, contact Kevin O'Brien at (860) 424-3432, or kevin.obrien@po.state.ct.us.
