Powdermill Nature Reserve

Maps and Geographic Information Systems

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James Whitacre

PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells 2019 Q3 Update

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Pennsylvania Unconventional WellsThe latest version of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pennsylvania Unconventional Natural Gas Wells data set is now available. The update includes all well records through the September 30, 2019, except for Production and Waste reports which are through August 2019. The data is available at our Download page.

There were no major updates to the PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells geodatabase. For information about past updates, see the Version Information page.

For more information about the geodatabase, please see the Metadata and User License Agreement. The data can also be viewed without GIS software using our web mapping application.

PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells 2019 Q2 Update

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Pennsylvania Unconventional WellsThe latest version of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pennsylvania Unconventional Natural Gas Wells data set is now available. The update includes all well records through the June 30, 2019, including Production and Waste reports. The data is available at our Download page.

There were no major updates to the PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells geodatabase. For information about past updates, see the Version Information page.

For more information about the geodatabase, please see the Metadata and User License Agreement. The data can also be viewed without GIS software using our web mapping application.

PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells 2019 Q1 Update

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Pennsylvania Unconventional WellsThe latest version of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pennsylvania Unconventional Natural Gas Wells data set is now available. The update includes all well records through the March 31, 2019, except for Production and Waste reports which are through February 2019. The data is available at our Download page.

There were no major updates to the PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells geodatabase, however, we did update first and last production dates to reflect production records that were greater than 0 Mcf of production. For information about updates, see the Version Information page.

For more information about the geodatabase, please see the Metadata and User License Agreement. The data can also be viewed without GIS software using our web mapping application.

PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells 2018 Q4 Update

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Pennsylvania Unconventional WellsThe latest version of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pennsylvania Unconventional Natural Gas Wells data set is now available. The update includes all well records through the December 31, 2018. The data is available at our Download page.

The PA Unconventional Natural Gas Wells has gone through some minor, but significant updates over the last year to accommodate for use in ArcGIS Pro, while maintaining complete functionality in ArcMap. Additionally, the web mapping application has undergone a complete revision to be more user friendly and informative. For information about updates, see the Version Information page. For more information about the geodatabase, please see the Metadata and User License Agreement. The data can also be viewed without GIS software using our web mapping application.

Mapping Pittsburgh’s Plastic Waste

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If you have visited the Museum recently, you have probably seen the We Are Nature, Living in the Anthropocene exhibit (if not, you have less than a month to check it out!!). When I walked through the exhibit the first time, I was struck by the image of the surfer gliding across a wave with plastic and other debris floating all around him. It is a bleak image of how the beauty and ecology of our oceans, rivers, and lakes is being tarnished and even destroyed by the accumulation of so much plastic waste.

[Include the Surfer pic??]

Recently, I also came across an interesting 2017 article, ‘River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans‘, in which the authors have developed a global model using spatial and temporal data on waste management, population density, and hydrology to measure the amount of plastic in rivers that makes its way into oceans. They found that the top 20 polluting rivers account for 67% of the global total of plastic waste, which is between 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic a year. While most of the top 20 rivers are in Asia, and none are in the U.S., their findings have great implications for how plastic waste should be managed and mitigated at global and local scales.

Mass of river plastic flowing into oceans in tonnes per year
Mass of river plastic flowing into oceans in tonnes per year. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15611/figures/1

This article got me thinking…How can we, as humans living in the Anthropocene, do something to decrease and even eliminate the accumulation of plastic in our waterways? Many people are thinking about this, but what about our beloved three rivers of Pittsburgh? How much do we as a community contribute to the global plastic waste epidemic? Well, to start answering these questions, we need data to know where the plastic waste is…

How often have you walked through your neighborhood, a local or state park, or even while driving around and noticed plastic waste (and likely other trash)? With this in mind, we’d like to invite you into an experiment…to help us map Pittsburgh’s plastic waste. The GIS Lab, located at Powdermill Nature Reserve, has developed a simple mapping survey to help track plastic waste in our area. To participate, all you have to do is fill out the form using your GPS-enabled smartphone or mobile device when you encounter plastic waste:

Plastic Waste Survey

 

What will we do with this data?

Well, right now this is just an experiment…But we are thinking of some cool ways to map and analyze this data. We will definitely share a map that shows the data, so stay tuned. We would also like to help our community understand what happens to the plastic if left in the environment. So, here are some example research questions we hope we shed some light on in the near future:

  • If you find some plastic near your house, what stream will it end up in, and what is the shortest path to the ocean from there?
  • How much rain or wind would it take to move that plastic to a stream or river?
  • Where is the nearest recycling center that I can take a few bags or a large heap of plastic (and other) waste?

Data can be very powerful, and sometimes more powerful than we can imagine on our own. So if you have any other ideas for how we could use this data, please email the GIS Lab!

What is Survey123?

The GIS Lab used Survey123 to build this survey, which is part of the ArcGIS platform. Survey123 for ArcGIS is a simple and intuitive form-centric data gathering solution that makes creating, sharing, and analyzing surveys easy using GIS software. Download the free Survey123 app to use the form we created.

Powdermill Flood Changes the Landscape

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Here at Powdermill Nature Reserve, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center, we were reminded of the ever-present forces of nature when a flood recently inundated the Ligonier Valley. Homes and buildings were damaged and numerous people had to be rescued by swift water rescue crews. At Powdermill, a few of our buildings also experienced damage (see the video below).

Linn Run State Park USGS stream gauge graph for June 20, 2018
Linn Run State Park USGS stream gauge graph for June 20, 2018

On June 20, 2018, over 5.5 inches of rain fell on Powdermill and the surrounding area in about 6 hours. At the nearest USGS stream gauge at Linn Run State Park, the water level rose about four feet in five hours. The force of the flood waters was able to move large boulders, take down trees, and change the course of many streams, including Powdermill Run. The flood levels were so high that we have reason to believe that this was a very significant flood event. But was it a ‘100-year flood’?

The concept of the ‘100-year flood’ is quite familiar, but this concept is a bit misleading. It does not mean that a flood rated as a ‘100-year flood’ will occur every 100 years. Rather, it means that every year, there is a 1% chance that a flood will reach the annual exceedance probability (AEP) (i.e. the height of the flood waters in a particular area). On average, a flood will reach the AEP level every 100 years. This definition was established for the National Flood Insurance Program. For more information, see the USGS page The 100-Year Flood—It’s All About Chance.

So the question still stands, was the flood at Powdermill a ‘100-year flood’? Using the power of maps and GPS, the GIS lab at Powdermill decided to compare the FEMA flood zone maps to the flood levels observed in the field. As the map shows, it appears that it is very close, though more assessment is needed to be certain.

 

While the damage was extensive, this event will provide researchers at Powdermill the opportunity to study yet another instance of how natural disasters affect the ecology and landscape of the nature reserve. A similar event six years ago, in June 2012, occurred when a tornado touched down in the Ligonier Valley and blew down nearly 50 acres of forest in the nature reserve. Powdermill continues to utilize these areas in numerous on-going research projects to track succession and plant-animal interactions after a disturbance. While the flood event may not produce an obvious research project at the moment, Powdermill researchers will be keeping their eyes open to see how we may need to respond.