As stewards of commercial real estate, infrastructure, and marina facilities, the Port of San Francisco must do more than ensure the health of their resources against man-made degradation. Additionally, the Port’s waterfront resources are also threatened by environmental changes like storms and flooding, as well as longer term processes such as sedimentation of shipping channels in San Francisco Bay.
In our last few posts, we’ve been focusing on how Arches supports resource stewardship workflows of all kinds, including the Port’s property leasing efforts. But using Arches to make our clients better stewards doesn’t mean wantonly applying Arches as the fix for every problem. At Farallon, we prioritize deploying the right tools to support our clients’ goals; and this mindset has been integral to building our 14-year relationship with SF Port.
Our partnership with SF Port includes supporting efforts to map the impact of environmental conditions upon its properties and infrastructure, as well as SF Port’s influence on their surrounding ecosystems. Stewardship is a two-way street—being protective of infrastructure doesn’t mean that natural or communal resources should suffer. In fact, SF Port proactively identifies and responds to ever changing near-shore conditions.
Making Proper Use of Your GIS Tool Belt
One important way that Farallon helped the Port to manage interactions between its resources and environment included the implementation of Esri’s Enterprise ArcGIS platform. Now, the Port can manage collections of previously disparate geospatial data. One example of the data in question? Bathymetry readings of the San Francisco Bay that needed to be spatially indexed and geoprocessed.
Bathymetric data is incredibly important to ensuring that business resources are protected and used effectively. Collected as a part of sounding operations throughout the Bay Area, bathymetry readings provide the Port with essential information needed to assess how accessible its facilities are to shipping traffic. The bathymetric data describe how deep the San Francisco Bay is, the character of the sea floor, and ultimately how much of the seabed needs to be dredged to ensure safe passage around and near its piers.
ArcGIS is the perfect tool for SF Port to conduct their dredging data analysis. For example, bathymetric data can be integrated with other data layers (e.g., shipping channels, infrastructure locations) to assess the volume of seabed removal, impact on navigation routes, environmental preservation, and coastal development efforts.
Not only did Farallon ensure ArcGIS was rolled out effectively, but we also built a catalog of bathymetry readings so SF Port could monitor long term changes to the ecosystem it manages. This is also where Arches sneaks back into the fold. If you remember, Arches seamlessly integrates with ArcGIS, thereby giving SF Port a comprehensive understanding of their resources all in one place; allowing potential risks to be mitigated while fostering exciting new economic developments.
In our next few posts, we’ll delve deeper into Arches’ data integration with traditional GIS systems like Esri ArcGIS and QGIS.
