Abstract

A GIS Decision Management Tool for Louisiana's Barrier Berm Project
Track: Disaster Management and Emergency Response
Authors: Ben Holt

In the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the State of Louisiana made a decision to build sand berms to block oil from impacting the coastline. Much of the US dredging fleet was summoned to accomplish this task. With so many moving parts, a decision management tool was required to keep track of progress and logistics. An online "Dashboard" was developed to report project information including completion percentage, total miles of berm built, and project milestones. A GIS interface was included to visually show progress of the berm creation and where the numerous vessels were located. In addition to the dashboard, a massive surveying operation was included to keep track of the sand that had been dredged. This was managed in part through the use of 3D analyst to create daily volume calculations. At projects end, there was enough sand moved to fill 4 Superdomes.