321_Mastery_Exercise_3_Overlay_Buffer_Fish

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Rutgers University *

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3238

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Geography

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Feb 20, 2024

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pdf

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Mastery Exercise 3: Overlay and Buffer in ArcMAP Overlay and Buffer Operations Mastery Exercise Introduction This is the third mastery exercise and it focuses on the tools for vector analysis covered in class. This mastery exercise is in the form of a single problem with two stages. To solve the problem you will have to use Overlay operations such as Intersect, Union, and Clip as well as the Buffering tool in ArcMAP. You are encouraged to keep a lab journal where you can record each step you take toward the solution. The problem is to gauge the impact on fishing communities of a planned expansion to the Western Gulf of Maine Closed Area. The data for the exercise includes the following: Coast_Poly Polygon of land areas in the Northeast. Management_Area The areas at sea managed by the New England and the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Councils. Closed_WGOM The Western Gulf of Maine closed area (closed to most fishing). Trips Locations of commercial fishing trips (in one year). Port_Locations Federally recognized ports. The areas around the currently closed Western Gulf of Maine (WGOM) Closed Area remain some of the most production and biodiverse areas in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. The area is home to not only a wide range of commercial fish species but also endangered Right Whales, sea turtles, and dolphins. There is great pressure to increase the size of the WGOM closed area to not only conserve endangered animals but to also increase production of species important to the fishing industry. While fishing vessels are banned from closed areas, it is thought that the increasingly abundant fish in closed areas will “spill over” into fishing areas to the benefit of the fishing industry. Your task is to use GIS to model the effects of increasing the area closed to fishing. There is currently a proposal to increase the WGOM closed area by 10 nautical miles in all directions. There is, however, tremendous pressure from the fishing industry to not expand the closed area. The compromise is to expand the WGOM closed area by 10 nautical miles but only in Statistical Area 514 (see field SAREA in the Management_Area data layer). The WGOM closed area spans several statistical areas, and statistical area 514 is known to be
particularly important to Right Whales. Fishers have, therefore, agreed that the WGOM closed area may be made bigger within statistical area 514 but it should not be made bigger in other statistical areas. The first part of the problem, then, is to create a data layer representing the proposed expansion to the area closed to fishing (i.e. the area within statistical area 514 that is also within 10 nautical miles of the Closed_WGOM) united with the old closed area (i.e. Closed_WGOM). The new closed area will be the old closed area (i.e. WGOM) plus the new areas within statistical area 514. The second part of the problem is to gauge the impact of this closure on fishing communities. Stage 1 In this stage you are asked, first, to explore the relationship between the statistical areas and the WGOM closed area ( Question 1 ) and, second, to develop the new data layer ( Question 2 ). Question 1: Which statistical areas intersect with the WGOM closed area? Which “intersect” operation did you use in ArcGIS (i.e. intersect by location or Overlay/Intersect) to figure this out? Could you have used either of these two operations? Explain what would be the result in each case. Question 2: Create a map showing the entire closed area (new and old united) and clearly explain the steps you took to create this map (for each step specify the operation you used, the names of data layers used, and the result). Stage 2 Once you have created a data layer with the new total closed area, you can use it to assess the impacts of this closure on fishing communities. We will assess impact in terms of “Fisherdays.” Fisherdays will be a new variable representing fishing effort in terms of labor time: Fisherdays equals the number of crew (see field CREW in Trips) multiplied by the trip length (see Trip_Days in Trips). With this new variable (you need to create it), you can calculate how important an area is to a particular port community (e.g. do they spend much time within this or that area?). Question 3: Create the new variable Fisherdays for each trip. What are the top three ports in terms of total Fisherdays? Also, explain how you created the variable Fisherdays and what data type you chose for this variable. Question 4: Which community will lose the largest percent of its Fisherdays once the expanded closed area is put in place? You should consider the entire closed area, new united with old. Briefly explain how for each community you calculated percent lost due to the closed area expansion.
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