The landscape infrastructure footprint of oil development: Venezuela's heavy oil belt

Baynard, Chris W.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.10.005

Cited by 28 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…By minimizing the number of roads constructed and implementing newer technologies such as horizontal drilling, the surface footprint was reduced, leading to higher sustainability rankings compared to older neighboring oil blocks [21]. Similarly in western Russia, larger disturbance patterns related to energy development were linked to older oilfields, whereas newer fields with advanced technologies and modern regulations resulted in smaller disturbance footprints [22].…”

Section: Geospatial Studies Of Extractive Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In other locations such as Venezuela's heavy oil belt, researchers found that implementing best practices created a smaller infrastructure footprint in the newer oilfields [21]. By minimizing the number of roads constructed and implementing newer technologies such as horizontal drilling, the surface footprint was reduced, leading to higher sustainability rankings compared to older neighboring oil blocks [21].…”

Section: Geospatial Studies Of Extractive Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Geospatial Approach to Measuring Surface Disturbance Related to Oil and Gas Activities in West Florida, USA

Baynard¹,

Schupp²,

Zhang³

et al. 2014

ARS

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Oil and gas exploration and production activities (OGEPA) can produce surface disturbances created by the construction of roads, well pads, oil wells, pipelines, production facilities and storage pits. These alterations can range from landscape conversion to transformation depending on location, regulations and enforcement, environmental best practices and state vs. multinational management. Though not known as a major oil and gas state, Florida is ranked 23rd in gas and 24th in oil production nationally. Jay oilfield, located in West Florida's panhandle region, is the largest and top producer in the state. Though production peaked in 1979, a nationwide upsurge is taking place that could affect Florida. The accounting from above approach proposed here is well suited to understand the role that the infrastructure surface footprint has on West Florida's landscape and how to monitor potential changes underway. It involves remote sensing, GIS techniques and landscape ecology metrics to quantify surface disturbance in Santa Rosa County's six oilfields and then ranks each field based on environmental performance (sustainability). Findings suggest that agricultural conversion is the leading driver of land-use and land-cover (LULC) change, while OGEPA have created small-scale surface alterations. This paper's approach can help oil companies, land managers and local government authorities understand the spatial extent of OGEPA onshore alterations and plan future scenarios, particularly as drilling and production increase in the current shale revolution occurring throughout the US, as well as expanded drilling planned for Florida.

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Section: Geospatial Studies Of Extractive Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Geospatial Studies Of Extractive Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Geospatial Approach to Measuring Surface Disturbance Related to Oil and Gas Activities in West Florida, USA

Baynard¹,

Schupp²,

Zhang³

et al. 2014

ARS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, pipeline construction may lead to the importation of alien species that spread along accompanying roads, degrade the plant community, and disturb the community succession process (Tyser and Worley 1992;Coiffait-Gombault et al 2012), thus increasing the heterogeneity of the landscape. Ultimately, long-term effect, resulting in continuous human disturbance is brought to the regions through which a pipeline passes (Laurance 2001;Baynard 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential effects of large linear pipeline construction on soil and vegetation in ecologically fragile regions

Xiao

Wang

Shi

et al. 2014

Environ Monit Assess

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Long-distance pipeline construction results in marked human disturbance of the regional ecosystem and brings into question the safety of pipeline construction with respect to the environment. Thus, the direct environmental impact and proper handling of such large projects have received much attention. The potential environmental effects, however, have not been fully addressed, particularly for large linear pipeline projects, and the threshold of such effects is unclear. In this study, two typical eco-fragile areas in western China, where large linear construction projects have been conducted, were chosen as the case study areas. Soil quality indices (SQI) and vegetation indices (VI), representing the most important potential effects, were used to analyze the scope of the effect of large pipeline construction on the surrounding environment. These two indices in different buffer zones along the pipeline were compared against the background values. The analysis resulted in three main findings. First, pipeline construction continues to influence the nearby eco-environment even after a 4-year recovery period. During this period, the effect on vegetation due to pipeline construction reaches 300 m beyond the working area, and is much larger in distance than the effect on soil, which is mainly confined to within 30 m either side of the pipeline, indicating that vegetation is more sensitive than soil to this type of human disturbance. However, the effect may not reach beyond 500 m from the pipeline. Second, the scope of the effect in terms of distance on vegetation may also be determined by the frequency of disturbance and the intensity of the pipeline construction. The greater the number of pipelines in an area, the higher the construction intensity and the more frequent the disturbance. Frequent disturbance may expand the effect on vegetation on both sides of the pipeline, but not on soil quality. Third, the construction may eliminate the stable, resident plant community. During the recovery period, the plant community in the work area of the pipeline is replaced by some species that are rare or uncommon in the resident plant community because of human disturbance, thereby increasing the plant diversity in the work area. In terms of plant succession, the duration of the recovery period has a direct effect on the composition and structure of the plant community. The findings provide a theoretical basis and scientific foundation for improving the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of oil and gas pipeline construction as it pertains to the desert steppe ecosystem, and provide a reference point for recovery and management of the eco-environment during the pipeline construction period.

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“… Modeling the impacts of a liquefied natural gas tanker explosion [67].  Detecting infrastructure alterations related to oil exploration and production activities [68][69][70][71][72]; deforestation and soil contamination [73,74].  Military operations such as pre-mission planning and post-mission analysis, providing situational awareness for warfighters, developing threat analysis and identifying terrorist hideouts [75,76]; and netcentric warfare, which allows "warfighters to plan, execute, report and visualize a common operating picture" [77].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote Sensing Applications: Beyond Land-Use and Land-Cover Change

Baynard¹

2013

ARS

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Remotely sensed (RS) imagery is increasingly being adopted in investigations and applications outside of traditional land-use land-cover change (LUCC) studies. This is due to the increased awareness by governments, NGOs and Industry that earth observation data provide important and useful spatial and temporal information that can be used to make better decisions, design policies and address problems that range in scale from local to global. Additionally, citizens are increasingly adopting spatial analysis into their work as they utilize a suite of readily available geospatial tools. This paper examines some of the ways remotely sensed images and derived maps are being extended beyond LUCC to areas such as fire modeling, coastal and marine applications, infrastructure and urbanization, archeology, and to ecological, or infrastructure footprint analysis. Given the interdisciplinary approach of such work, this paper organizes selected studies into broad categories identified above. Findings demonstrate that RS data and technologies are being widely used in many fields, ranging from fishing to war fighting. As technology improves, costs go down, quality increases and data become increasingly available, greater numbers of organizations and local citizens will be using RS in important everyday applications.1 In December 2010, Google Labs released Google Earth Engine, a project that uses 25 years of Landsat TM and ETM+ data to enable global change monitoring. A primary aim is for developing nations to monitor their forests and to serve projects such as REDD (Landsat News, 2010).

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The landscape infrastructure footprint of oil development: Venezuela's heavy oil belt

Cited by 28 publications

References 85 publications

A Geospatial Approach to Measuring Surface Disturbance Related to Oil and Gas Activities in West Florida, USA

A Geospatial Approach to Measuring Surface Disturbance Related to Oil and Gas Activities in West Florida, USA

Potential effects of large linear pipeline construction on soil and vegetation in ecologically fragile regions

Remote Sensing Applications: Beyond Land-Use and Land-Cover Change

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