Benefits of GEOSS in Alaska

In Alaska, Earth Observations will:

Improve earthquake prediction and response by integrating ground-based earthquake monitors with satellites, and earthquake models. We can get near real-time updates on extent of potential danger and damage.

Track and predict effects of global change. Earth observations will provide better information on such variables as sea temperature, sea level, ice thickness, permafrost temperature, etc. This will allow better prediction of potential flooding, shifts in roads or bridges due to permafrost changes, etc.

Weather and climate-sensitive industries, both directly and indirectly, account for about one-third of the United States' GDP, or $3 trillion, ranging from finance, insurance, and real estate to services, retail and wholesale trade and manufacturing.¹

Help emergency responders pinpoint the location of technological accidents and oil spills. Water monitoring and satellite imagery can help clean-up crews respond faster and to avoid hazards as they work.

Prevention of another major oil spill similar to the Exxon Valdez is valued at approximately $3 billion to the U.S. public (1990 dollars).²

Enable us to predict how changing environmental conditions, including sea currents, affect the whereabouts and numbers of fish and marine resources; thereby, allowing us to better protect the resources and give commercial, subsistence, and recreational fishermen critical information about location of abundant fish. Additionally, identifying scarce fish resources will help sustain the financial income for commercial and recreational fishing each year.

The economic value added to the national economy by the commercial fishing industry is approximately $28.5 billion yearly. Approximately 17 million Americans engage in marine fishing as a recreational activity and spend approximately $25 billion per year on fishing related activities.³

Monitor snow moisture and water runoff, particularly in areas that receive a major portion of their river and stream waters from mountain snow packs.

Improve advance weather forecasts for ocean areas, and provide ocean fisherman with access to more real time ocean and weather condition information.

Protect watersheds through water quality monitoring and mapping of land cover changes; thereby, protecting sources of water for agriculture, forestry, and human uses.

Economic activity in coastal regions is very large. In the U.S., seventy-five percent of the nation's Gross States' Products came from the coastal states in 2000. Almost half of the national economy came from the coastal watershed counties, and more than one-third came from those counties in which states operate their Coastal Zone Management programs. The near shore area, which is four percent of the nation's land, produces more than 11 percent of the nation's economic output.⁴

Increase tribal subsistence hunters success and safety with better access to data such as sea ice thickness and fisheries information.

Be critical in the prediction of wildfire tracking, smoke plume direction, and air quality effects. Earth observations will also allow prediction of emergency costs for lost property and habitat, fire fighting, rebuilding, and the economic costs of human health impact from smoke inhalation.

Severe fire seasons due to drought and frequent winds can result in billions of dollars in damages. The Western Fire Season of Spring-Summer 2000 resulted in nearly seven million acres burned and an estimated $2 billion in damage costs (includes fire suppression).⁵

Improve management of Federal and State lands (National Parks, Forests, grazing lands) by providing increased access to integrated data sets of weather, land use, land changes, geology, water monitoring data, air quality data, etc.

¹ Dutton, John A., Opportunities and priorities in a new era for weather and climate services, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, September 2002, volume 83, no. 9, pp 1303-1311.

² A Contingent Valuation Study of Lost Passive Use Values Resulting from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Natural Resource Damage Assessment, Inc., La Jolla, Calif., November, 1992.

³ Fisheries of the United States, 2000, 2001, 2002, http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/. Marine Angler Expenditures in the Northeast Region 1998. NOAA Tech Memo No. NMFS-F/SPO-47.

⁴ National Ocean Economics Project, www.oceaneconomics.org.

⁵ Economic Impacts of Drought and the Benefits of NOAA's Drought Forecasting Services, NOAA Magazine, September 17, 2002. Website: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/magazine/stories/mag51.htm.

Benefits of GEOSS in Alaska

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