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

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