TITLE:
A Geospatial Approach to Measuring Surface Disturbance Related to Oil and Gas Activities in West Florida, USA
AUTHORS:
Chris W. Baynard, Robert W. Schupp, Pingying Zhang, Paul Fadil
KEYWORDS:
Oil and Gas, Landscape Disturbance, Environmental Management, Geospatial Technologies, Infrastructure Footprint Accounting, Surface Footprint, Geo-Sustainability
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Remote Sensing,
Vol.3 No.2,
June
25,
2014
ABSTRACT: Oil and
gas exploration and production activities (OGEPA) can produce surface
disturbances created by the
construction of roads, well pads, oil wells, pipelines, production facilities
and storage pits. These alterations can range from landscape conversion to
transformation depending on location, regulations and enforcement,
environmental best practices and state vs. multinational management. Though not
known as a major oil and gas state, Florida is ranked 23rd in gas and 24th in
oil production nationally. Jay oilfield, located in West Florida’s panhandle
region, is the largest and top producer in the state. Though production peaked
in 1979, a nationwide upsurge is taking place that could affect Florida. The
accounting from above approach proposed here is well suited to understand the
role that the infrastructure surface footprint has on West Florida’s landscape
and how to monitor potential changes underway. It involves remote sensing, GIS
techniques and landscape ecology metrics to quantify surface disturbance in
Santa Rosa County’s six oilfields and then ranks each field based on
environmental performance (sustainability). Findings suggest that agricultural
conversion is the leading driver of land-use and land-cover (LULC) change,
while OGEPA have created small-scale surface alterations. This paper’s approach
can help oil companies, land managers and local government authorities
understand the spatial extent of OGEPA onshore alterations and plan future
scenarios, particularly as drilling and production increase in the current shale revolution occurring throughout the
US, as well as expanded drilling planned for Florida.