 Soon after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in May, 2010, the Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCPR) was designated as lead trustee to coordinate efforts within Louisiana to respond to the oil spill. Among their many duties is to plan the long process of mitigation and remediation required by the Natural Resource Damage Assessment, or NRDA. In July, OCPR contracted with Technology Engineers to develop work plan tracking and data management systems that collect, organize and archive scientific data needed to complete the damage assessment – a process that may take many years.
The entire breadth and scope of the NRDA response is the responsibility of many federal and state agencies, collectively known as the Natural Resources Trustees (Trustees). The trustees for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill are the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas; the U.S. Department of the Interior, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and U.S. Department of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Louisiana’s trustees are the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office, Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Natural Resources and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Working within this framework, Technology Engineers’ team of analysts, software developers and project managers developed components of a comprehensive system (now known as Louisiana Oil Spill Data Management System, or LOSDMS) that will ultimately be the central repository of data collected on the oil spill. Although developed for Louisiana requirements and to Louisiana specifications, the system is now used by all trustees, with some parts available to the public.
The initial component, central to organizing the efforts of Trustees, is the Work Plan Tracking system for the 27 Technical Work Groups (TWGs, or “Twigs”) with responsibilities in such areas as Marine Mammals, Near Shore Sediment, Coral Structures, Non-Migratory Birds, etc. Upon deployment of a workable Work Plan Tracking system, development began on the Data Repository component. Over time, the Data Repository will archive tens of thousands of documents, videos, photos, digital sound recordings (such as sounds of porpoises and other marine mammals), and other data needed by scientists to determine the extent of damage to Louisiana’s marshes and coastline.
As a result of Technology Engineers’ immediate response and comprehensive approach, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other federal trustees, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now use LOSDMS as a key repository of scientific data for the duration of the NRDA process. LOSDMS is used daily by federal and state trustees, while the public has access through a public access part of the system. The system is popular with scientists and the public because it:
- Has a powerful, easy-to-use Internet interface that researcher, attorneys and others use to access needed information
- Uses a comprehensive approach to archive the massive amount of collected data – an approach that can be modified and improved in the future without requiring major changes in how the data is organized.
In short, Trustees and members of the public needing access to Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill documents and digital files now have important data directly and immediately available over the Internet.
For more information on the Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration please click here.
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