INSPIRE’s Marisa Guarinello to Present INSPIRE Survey Work in Hawai’i

Marisa Guarinello of INSPIRE Environmental will be presenting the results of INSPIRE’s sediment profile and plan view imaging survey of the Nawiliwili Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site in Hawai’i at the Western Dredging Association’s Conference in October 2018. Marisa will also briefly cover results from the Kahului and Port Allen sites, which INSPIRE also surveyed for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October 2017. At the Nawiliwili site, the team had to account for surprising results in seafloor images, including large volcanic features and coarse coralline material throughout the site in assessing the dredged material footprint. At the time of site designation in 1981, available low-resolution bathymetric contours depicted a relatively uniform seafloor. High-resolution bathymetric data from 2017 revealed a large volcanic feature in the southeastern portion of the site that was confirmed with INSPIRE’s imagery.

INSPIRE’s innovative visualization tools were instrumental in interpreting and presenting these confounding variables to allow for a clear understanding of features at the Nawiliwili site. In addition to the scope of the initial project, INSPIRE used archival data from 2013 surveys of the South Oahu and Hilo sites to create a complete Popup visualization of all five Hawaiian sites. Integrating all five sites into a single map environment, INSPIRE’s visualization provided crucial conceptual models to describe results of dredged material placement and serve as a valuable communication tool for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as they determine best future uses of all sites and communicate with the public. Marisa is eager to share INSPIRE’s work on dredging in Hawai’i while she is actually in Hawai’i, co-authoring the presentation with counterparts from Battelle and the EPA.

Marisa Guarinello will be presenting at the WEDA Pacific Chapter Fall 2018 conference in Honolulu, HI, at the Hilton Waikiki. She will present her talk, “Imagery reveals confounding factors in evaluation of dredged material at the Nawiliwili ODMDS off the coast of Kauai”, during the Wednesday October 24 afternoon session on Environmental/Beneficial Use; she presents on behalf of Allan Ota (US EPA Region 9), Brian Ross (US EPA Region 9), Scott Libby (Battelle), and Drew Carey (INSPIRE). Reach her here to connect before the conference!