THE USE OF GIS TECHNOLOGY AT THE CALIFORNIA SONS 2004 EXTRAVAGANZA

ABSTRACT Geographic Information System (GIS) support has become a basic tool for oil spill response because of the inherent data management, analysis, and display capabilities. Presented here are example GIS maps from the 2004 California Spill of National Significance (SONS) exercise. The SONS scenario had two major spill incidents occurring off the coast of southern California requiring a massive response from State, Federal and Local agencies. The exercise locations included Port-level incident command posts (ICP) in San Diego, Los Angeles and Ensenada, Mexico. A regional ICP for the US Coast Guard (USCG) National Incident Command (NIC) was established in Los Alamitos, CA, and USCG National Response Team activities occurred in Washington, DC. The California Department of Fish and Games (CDFG) Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) had GIS equipment and personnel deployed at the three southern California ICP locations. GIS data was electronically transferred between the three ICPs through email a...