| “We wanted to create a tool illustrating that Lake Erie is not just a big, open body of blue water.” | |
Brian George, Ohio Office of Coastal Management |
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An interactive online mapping tool using new ESRI technology is helping coastal resource managers in Ohio share information on the resources that may play a role in the placing of offshore wind turbines in Lake Erie. The tool is designed as a first step for offshore wind developers to help determine the studies that would be required in the state’s permitting process.
“With all the alternative energy discussions out there, wind turbine placement in Lake Erie is a really hot topic,” says Brian George, geographic information management specialist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Coastal Management. “We wanted to create a tool illustrating that Lake Erie is not just a big, open body of blue water. There are a lot of different resources, uses, and users out there that have to be taken into consideration.”
The Wind Turbine Placement Favorability Map Viewer allows users to select and view all or some of the thematic map layers that include bird habitat, fish habitat, commercial and sport fishing, lakebed sediments, distance from shore, land transportation, harbor navigation, shipping and ferry routes, shipwrecks, restricted areas, industries, and utilities.
The map viewer was developed using ArcGIS Viewer for Flex, which George says is a free, ready-to-deploy application for ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online services. It is designed to customize the appearance, functionality, and content of mapping applications without the need for programming.
The wind turbine map viewer is the first of six applications developed using Flex that make up the Ohio Coastal Atlas Use Case toolbox. Each case viewer in the toolbox gives users the ability to view data layers related to specific issues.
Perfect Position
According to the Ohio Energy Resources Division website, the Great Lakes region represents one of the largest offshore wind market opportunities in the world.
The region is projected to play “an important role in achieving the U.S. Department of Energy 20 percent Wind Energy Scenario”—a modeled scenario where wind provides 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030.
“Ohio’s strategic location on the shore of the shallow and centrally located Lake Erie places it in a perfect position to serve as the home of manufacturing, installation, and support services needed to ship, install, maintain, and repair offshore wind facilities in the Great Lakes,” the website says.
Being Proactive
The Ohio Office of Coastal Management is at the forefront of developing the state’s rules for leasing areas of Lake Erie for wind turbine development.
“We really wanted to be proactive on the issue rather than reactive,” George says. “We wanted to be out there as a department with information to let developers and members of the public know that there are a lot of things going on out there.”
He adds, “We wanted to provide developers, conservationists, boaters, and other interested parties with a tool that would be their first step toward the studies that would be required to proceed with developing wind turbines in the lake.”
Starting Static
In 2007, the agency first developed a static map showing different uses and resources that would impact the placement of wind turbines in Lake Erie.
“We had collected much of the data while working on the Ohio Coastal Atlas project,” George says. The original 11-by-17-inch printed atlas included county profiles, as well as maps and data on geology, sand resources, habitat, land use and protected areas, soils, groundwater, flood hazards, ports and transportation, and boating access.
“We had so much good and useful information at our fingertips, it was easy to integrate into a mapping product,” George explains. “Ninety percent of the information we incorporated into the map we had already collected for the atlas.”
It wasn’t until November 2010 that coastal staff members found the technology that easily let them translate the static map into an interactive product with multiple data layers.
Flexibility
“It was just a stroke of luck last October that we discovered an ESRI webinar on the Flex Viewer,” George says. “This uses some nice technological breakthroughs to really make interactive mapping viewers more seamless and fluid. It’s really easy to understand and use.”
The technology allows users to create interactive and expressive Web applications leveraging ArcGIS Server resources—such as maps, locators, feature services, and geoprocessing models—and Flex components—such as grids, trees, and charts.
After the experience of creating the wind turbine map viewer, George says he was able to easily create five additional use case map viewers looking at Lake Erie public access, shoreline erosion, watersheds, ports and harbors, and recreational boating.
Custom Tools
Each map viewer integrates thematic mapping layers relevant to the specific subject, and a variety of custom tools allow users to view resource layers on an index grid system, create a JPEG image, or print the map being viewed.
A custom tool for the wind turbine map viewer is that users can gather comprehensive attribute information, including lake depth, lakebed sediment, fish habitat, and limiting factor weight values.
The weight values allow viewers to look for areas that are considered more or less favorable for the location of wind turbines, George says.
“The purpose of the map viewer is not to say, ‘No, you can’t build here,’ or ‘Yes, go ahead.’ It’s to indicate that they might want to pay close attention to what they are seeing in an area and make sure it wouldn’t be a challenging location based on all this criteria for the development of wind turbines,” he says.
George adds, “I really believe this is a powerful tool that provides good information for people interested in wind energy development in Lake Erie. I definitely think that the methodology we have used could be applied by other coastal managers in other states.”
To view the Wind Turbine Placement Favorability Map Viewer, go to www.ohiodnr.com/coastal/ and select the “Coastal Wind” logo. To view the Ohio Coastal Atlas, go to www.ohiodnr.com/tabid/23320/default.aspx. For more information, contact Brian George at (419) 626-7984 or Brian.George@dnr.state.oh.us.
