QMSS Practicum 2025
Natural Resources Defense Council
Anticipating Areas of Conflict over Natural Resources in Oil and Gas Leases
Statement of Project Objectives
Primary goal of the project: Create a data-driven visual dashboard identifying oil and gas leases with potential environmental or public health conflicts
Core problems that stakeholders are trying to solve:
● Identifying overlap between oil and gas leasing areas and regions designated for solar application
● Outlining critical habitats, wetlands, overburdened communities, natural parks, and recreation areas near federal leasing regions
● Expecting a dramatic increase on federal leasing, the NRDC hopes to create a data-driven tool to address these federal leases
Key objectives that have to be met to be successful:
● Successful incorporation of data into GIS-based model providing accurate spatial overlay analysis
● Creation of an intuitive dashboard that outputs key attributes like proximity to existing developments and conflicts with important environmental resources
● Ability for the model to easily accept and incorporate new data after handed off to NRDC
Description of Deliverables (Updated 3/2/25)
● 02/18 - Every member of the team can access Columbia Windows remotely on their mac, can upload/alter/visualize data in ArcGIS Pro, can share work into the portal
● 02/23 - One dashboard with a solid, put-together map working on the Montana test case
● 02/28 - Test case map and dashboard with all layers (solar, big game, karst etc.)
● 3/21 - Map and dashboard (with added layers for national parks and recreation areas & American Indian Tribal Reservations) for Utah
Overall Project Timeline
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Phase
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Milestones
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Timeframe
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Present Montana update to NRDC
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Finish Montana case in accordance with NRDC comments (add existing/active wells drilled,
proximity to parks and recreation areas, remove glacial ice, add avian critical habitats)
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March 13/14
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Present Utah case to NRDC
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Incorporate new datasets (recreation and
proximity to special location, lease sale
boundaries). Manually produce analytical findings.
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Tentative March 26 (comment deadline is March 28)
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Dashboard Enhancement
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Dashboard updates: automate analytical findings, provide symbology for different layers (just show the outlines) with special select feature, ways to toggle visibility of the layers, parcel IDs, number of conflict metrics
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April 1
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Create National Dashboard
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Preliminary check in over National case with NRDC
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April 8
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National Dashboard Coding
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Code national GIS dashboard
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April 15
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National Dashboard Reproducibility Check
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Dashboard testing, automation and reproducibility checks
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April 22
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Prep + Handoff
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Develope NRDC training and onboarding
materials, Final presentation and project handoff
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April 29
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Action Items - Updated 2/25/2025
● Create ArcGIS maps and dashboard to deliver to NRDC mentors for Montana test case – to be completed prior March 3, when comments are due for Wyoming, Dakotas, and Montana lease sales
○ Preliminary deliverable: map with solar, karst, big game, and oil & gas lease sales by Feb 25
○ Check in with Josh + Matthew about deliverable expectations for other states
● Each team member find more datasets to use for other lease sale states
● Think about methodology/developing scoring metrics for each layer
● Figure out how to deselect ‘out of priority areas’ for big game shapefile
Action Items - Updated 3/2/2025
● Metrics: Finish these up for Montana and then move on to Utah test case
○ Start calculating by hand the number of conflicts for the lease sale
○ Then figure out how to automate these calculations in ArcGIS Pro
● Gather all datasets for Utah lease sale
○ Add in layers for national parks and recreation sites for Utah; do research on viewshed – these metrics will be proximity-based; example viewshed analysis and dashboard here
○ Find a layer that includes existing/active wells/drilled, to help see areas that have no existing oil and gas → visualize how landscape would change with new lease sales
● Esri tutorials: (log in to your ESRI account to access)
○ Tutorial on overlay analysis
○ Tutorial on using Python in ArcGIS
● Figure out best way to streamline/organize sharing permissions so that NRDC can access, edit, and add to our work
● Update Timeline slide with new items from meeting and shifting start time
● Update Workflow slide - especially regarding process with dashboards
ArcGIS Pro Workflow
● 1. Data collection
○ Find GIS layer labeled Feature Layer - this will allow you to edit in ArcGIS Pro; layers labeled Web Map will not be as editable in ArcGIS Pro
○ ArcGIS Hub is a helpful resource for finding layers
○ Upload Feature Layer to ArcGIS Online Group so that it can be accessed through Portal in ArcGIS Pro
■ To do this, go to Groups within ArcGIS Hub (found through clicking on your profile), click on the correct Group, and press Add Content > Search for Existing or Upload or Link (where you can upload by URL - easiest)
● 2. Create and handle data locally in ArcGIS Pro:
○ Upload data into ArcGIS Pro using virtual machine through CUIT
■ Grab data from Portal, connected to ArcGIS Online - should be able to access all data from group
○ Organize data within ArcGIS Pro using Catalogue
○ Edit map Symbology and Attribute Table in ArcGIS Pro
● 3. Upload edited data online:
○ Save work and share layer as a Web Layer to ArcGIS online, adding tags
○ Make sure it is saved to group
○ Once uploaded, this data can be accessed by other team members within group through Portal
● 4. Connecting map to ArcGIS online:
○ Build a Web Map, adjusting map style. style.
● 5. Dashboard:
○ Create a Dashboard in ArcGIS Online (Steps: Columbia Map Hub → Applications → Dashboards → Create Shared Dashboard → Edit permissions to share with group) and embed the Web Map within it as a widget
○ Set map interactivity; incorporate analytical tools within dashboard