Turning Data into Information – Esri’s Lain Graham and Keith VanGraafeiland
Maps have always been a useful tool to get somewhere. But when the maps are computerized and overlaid with layers of data, the patterns they can reveal are exponential. Nowhere is that more important than in mapping the ocean.
By Warren Miller, Marine Construction Magazine
Maps of the known world have been around since time immemorial. Medieval mapmakers inscribed “here be dragons” on areas of the ocean’s surface that had yet to be explored. But two-dimensional maps have given way to graphic information systems (GIS), thanks to technologies for tagging information— such as high tide levels, air or water temperatures at a specific location, for example—by its geocode, its latitude and longitude within centimeters where the data were collected.
Today, the ability to map geocoded data allows people in all facets of life to analyze it. Esri, founded in 1969, was a pioneer in software to collect, map and analyze data, and its ArcGIS software still is the most widely used mapping software in the world.
Esri is highly involved in efforts to map the least known part of our planet, the ocean. Marine Construction Magazine spoke with two of Esri’s leaders about their work.
Lain Graham, Ph.D., is a Senior Solution Engineer on the National Government Sciences Team at Esri and a research associate at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History.
Keith VanGraafeiland is a Product Engineer and Ocean Curator for the Living Atlas of the World team at Esri. Keith works to create foundational layers that can help marine researchers, scientists and others gain a better understanding of our oceans.
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MCMag: You’ve said in the past that we’re at the beginning of mapping the ocean floor.
Lain Graham: That’s true. We’ve mapped only 24 percent of the ocean floor at this point with hi-res, multi-beam sonar.
MCMag: What technologies are enabling us to better map the ocean floor than in the past?
Lain: Sonar and drones, and the ability to use imagery from satellites. All of those sensors can be incorporated into our technology and processed with later information. Echo sounders with a resolution of one kilometer can measure ocean depth.
MCMag: Are there lessons to be applied from surface mapping to mapping the ocean floor?
Lain: One hundred years ago, we had only surveying for mapping. And we’re still surveying! The lesson, really, is the value of hybrid techniques.
MCMag: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered about mapping the ocean?
Keith VanGraafeiland: What’s most surprising to me is how much we didn’t know until recently. The sea floor was mapped by satellite and by a shuttle mission in ‘90s that mapped the sea floor by measuring gravity. It was a low-resolution, low-confidence technique. Today, we have autonomous, unmanned vehicles—AUVs—on which we can put high-quality, multi-beam echo sounders to map the sea floor in high resolution. The AUVs can be controlled by someone at their desktop in their office or home.
Lain: The effort to map the ocean floor is really driving some of that technology to meet new challenges. We’re not just creating tools for mapping, but also for things like locating oil spills and communication cables, using AI to think about how we can look at things in a new way. It’s exciting to think about where we’ll be in 10 years.
MCMag: What data do people in the marine industries ask you for?
Keith: A lot of organizations, like NASA and NOAA, disseminate information and do a good job of it. What we do—as providers not only of software but also of content—is to bridge the gap between data and information. We take some of these data traditionally used by data scientists and GIS users to provide ready-to-use data. Maps with layers. The layers might be things like sea-surface temperature and ocean currents, things that help us understand the physical environment better.
That starts to inform the marine industries about things like the impact of climate on fishing or construction at the waterfront. We’re picking up where other people left off and work as teams. I might make a map and Lain might add two or three layers to it.
Lain: We’re dependent on the oceans for a variety of resources, and everyone has some sort of relationship with marine resources. Thirty percent of the U.S. population lives in coastal communities and has proxy to inland and coastal flooding. Data on risk management, mitigation, demographics, protected areas, conservation efforts … these are high priority. They’re the main things people are interested in getting data on to respond to critical infrastructure risks.
We have processes in place for construction, like the Section 106 process for archaeology and environmental compliance, to better understand what we don’t know subsurface, and to help us to understand vulnerabilities and prioritization for construction on land.
Keith: In regard to offshore wind turbine construction, we work with data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratories, or NREL. They produce some great information about what, for example, the annual average wind speed is everywhere in the U.S. economic zone, on land and offshore. Understanding wind potential is the first step. They also have wind speeds at different altitudes from the surface up to 200 meters, depending on how you would construct the turbines. Then you can take other information about constructing these facilities and overlay it to construct a suitability map: high wind-energy potential, but not too far offshore, and water depths, since you can only construct these turbines between 30 and 100 meters. Just with those three layers, you’ve made a map.
Those are just some of the construction feasibility factors that we’ve mapped. Esri’s bread and butter are all the environment layers to bring this to fruition, such as bird or whale migration corridors. Where does the fishing community occupy space so that builders can avoid conflict? That’s really the power of GIS.
At Living Atlas, we engage with our user community to understand what data are most valuable. Whether it’s local government or a regional fishing management agency, we can put together a color-coded map that shows what’s most important to them.
MCMag: It sounds like most of your work is custom.
Keith: Yes. Depending on what your connection with the ocean is, where you live, and what’s happened to you in the past, you’ll have different set of priorities.
MCMag: What are the “unknown unknowns,” to use the phrase Donald Rumsfeld made famous, about undersea mapping?
Lain: Our global economic interests, and the many gaps in our knowledge of the sea floor and the water column. We want to facilitate not only the understanding for different sectors and customers but better understand the impacts of placing something that impacts the environment and our economy.
NOAA has mapped over 2,000 square kilometers of the floor and discovered 40 new species in the past 10 years. It’s critical moving forward to keep exploring. We have to target areas that are highest priority not only for conservation but for creating a better understanding of the gaps in our knowledge.
Keith: We know very little about the impacts of wind development to the offshore industry and environment. We’ve been dealing with this for less than a decade. We know that we want to be more green-energy dependent, so we’ll be looking at the ocean to install more of these facilities over time. But we want to make better decisions than we did, say, 20 years ago. We know more now and have different priorities.
MCMag: What are the most important data in regard to climate change?
Lain: We’re very dependent on the cooling powers of the ocean. It’s an interplay with a direct connect with the atmosphere. The ocean helps to regulate our environment.
Keith: The intersection of climate change and the ocean is going to be seen between now and 2050 when it comes down to sea level rise. We’re going to see even more areas impacted by high-tide flooding flood. We’re seeing community resilience plans developed, chief resilience officers hired to deal with this.
Another intersection with the marine construction industry is that I think we’ll see more nature-based solutions come into play. It won’t be just constructing a seawall. We’re going to see mangrove habitats, for example, alone or combined with seawalls. Oyster beds, mangroves, salt marshes are being developed in coastal areas to help prepare for something we know is coming. It’s going to be innovative. And we’ll learn from the areas that take a chance.
Lain: One example of this approach is the Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation app, developed by the federal government in conjunction with Esri’s Living Atlas and NOAA. It’s for policy makers and anyone else who’s planning steps for resilience to climate hazards. The tools could be developed for marine areas, as well—understanding impacts and how to create plans for addressing them.
MCMag: What will it take for the planners who’re using Esri tools to have a major impact on resilience?
Lain: I want to add, from my background in cultural resource management, that it’s important to think about community when you look at how to apply the data we’re collecting. You have to work in conjunction with the people who are participating directly in the economy. They’re also the recipients of the impacts on a day-to-day basis, and they have to be part of the solution.
Ultimately, human behavior drives action or inaction.
Reprinted from Marine Construction Magazine, Issue II, 2023