GIS

Our team conducted an analytical comparison of bathymetric survey data to assess the status of remediation activites at the Historical Area Remediation Site (HARS) in the New York Bight. GIS analysts normalized an appropriately 20-year record of bathymetric data to a 2017 surface and the performed comparisons for 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10-year periods. Depth change models were developed and analyzed to estimate volumetric coverage of managed units within the HARS. These spatial analyses supported site management and monitoring decisions. These anlayses were augmented by an interactive web-visualization with a slider tool that was developed to allow users to compare datasets themselves.

Our GIS team worked in concert with our hard bottom benthic ecologist to create an interactive StoryMap to accompany post-construction monitoring data collected at Orsted’s South Fork Wind Project. This StoryMap paired high resolution imagery collected by ROVs with analytical data results in a spatial context.

To advance NYSERDA’s Master Plan 2.0 identifying new floating wind energy areas, we conducted a desktop Benthic Habitat Study, which synthesized data, identified gaps, summarized known effects of floating wind development on benthic habitat, and provided guidelines for avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating impacts, identified risks, and recommended next steps.

INSPIRE, with its team of subject matter experts providing a desktop Risk Assessment of potential permitting risks associated with the anticipated sale and subsequent purchase of a potential lease block within the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area. The subsequent report outlined the methodology used to make risk assumptions and broke down risk areas by group and spatial area and provided an overview of areas with the greatest potential risks, and assumptions for potential impacts and implications.