Environmental sensitivity index (ESI) mapping for oil spills using remote sensing and geographic information system technology

Abstract

The original environmental sensitivity index (ESI) mapping concept for oil spills was developed to assist spill-response coordinators in evaluating the potential impact of oil along a shoreline and the allocation of resources during and after a spill. This paper describes enhancements to the ESI concept which includes: (1) a planimclric basemap derived from SPOT multispectral and/or panchromatic data resampled to 10 × 10 m spatial resolution within ± 5 m root mean square error; (2) information for a shoreline ESI derived from a combination of visual and digital image processing techniques applied to remotely-sensed data; (3) information on oil-sensitive wildlife placed in a geographic information system (GIS) for rapid retrieval and querying; and (4) placing all access and protection information in the GIS and interfacing it with a relational database for rapid access and query. These enhancements to the ESI mapping concept make it more effective for developing contingency plans before an oil spill and making management decisions immediately after such a spill.