Coastal Community Vulnerability Index and Visualizations of Change in Cook Inlet, Alaska

The Cook Inlet Response Tool (CIRT) is a web-based data integration and visualization platform designed to assist with planning for oil and gas extraction activities in the region and to improve outcomes in the event of an environmental crisis. The CIRT is a component of the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) portal, which provides interactive public access to environmental data for Cook Inlet and other regions around Alaska. This project added to the CIRT by creating an integrated human-dimension, socio-economic data layer titled Wild Resource Harvest and Use by Cook Inlet Communities. We partnered with Axiom Data Science to add harvest and use data that can be overlaid to create maps and visualizations. Meetings were held with environmental managers representing three Cook Inlet native villages to ground-truth the harvest and use data and to get a better understanding of coastal change, resource abundance, and harvesting activities. The villages engaged in the project included Tyonek in northern Cook Inlet, Seldovia in southern Cook Inlet (Kachemak Bay), and Nanwalek at the mouth of Cook Inlet. Community members expressed interest in using the CIRT and proposed adding data on contaminants, vessel traffic, harmful algal blooms, ocean acidification, and seabirds to inform the analysis of harvest and use activity.

USD: $50,000

2016-06-01 → 2019-06-30