Mapping Oil & Gas Data – A Focus on the FracTracker Mobile App
1. Mapping Oil & Gas Data – A Focus
on the FracTracker Mobile App
By Samantha Malone, MPH, CPH
Manager of Education, Communications, & Partnerships,
FracTracker Alliance
The Advocate’s Toolkit:
Resources for Tracking the Harms of Fracking
Halt The Harm Webinar • April 8, 2015
3. About Us
• Our Mission: We share maps, data, and analyses to
communicate impacts of the global oil and gas
industry and inform actions that positively shape our
energy future.
• Our website, FracTracker.org, provides a variety of
online oil and gas resources:
• Articles
• Analyses
• Photos
• Collaborative Projects
• Maps: Static (paper or
image file) and Dynamic
(ArcGIS Online)
• Raw Data
4. We look at oil and gas issues broadly
Analysis of national data, March 2015
5. At the state level
PA Shale Viewer
Compressor stations, SkyTruth pit
data, wells, permits, & violations
6. And more closely at thematic
and timely issues…
• Addressing these data collection issues led us to
develop a mobile app that tracks oil and gas
activity in the U.S.
• Available for iPhones and Androids
• Download the app: fractracker.org/app
7. App Features
See oil and gas wells
near you on a map
Submit oil and gas
reports about nearby
activity and issues
Upload your oil and gas
photos
8. Quick Walk Through
Download the app:
fractracker.org/app
Open the app on your
phone. Select “allow
location” as this with
enable you to take full
advantage of the app’s
features.
Fill in your name and email
on the next screen (shown
right) to get started. Tap
“Save”
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9. Start: O&G Wells Near You
The start screen shows the
U.S. oil & gas map. The
blue dot is your location,
with the number of
counties by well in shades
of blue.
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Zoom in to explore wells
and reports (in red) by
region. If there are a lot of
wells, you may need to
zoom in quite close to see
them individually
10. Legend
Clicking on “Legend” in the
top toolbar will show you
what each dot or color on
the map means.
Unconventional wells are
often “fracked” to stimulate
production and/or
directionally drilled.
Citizen reports were
submitted by users.
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11. Explore a Site
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Once zoomed in on the
map, tap on a dot to learn
about the site.
In the popup box, tap
to see more details about
that location, such as a
well’s API number.
Tap “Submit Report” in the
bottom toolbar to add an
observation of your own.
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12. Submit Report
Share observations about
oil & gas activity near you
through this form,
including the issue, facility,
& location. Upload photos,
too!
Change the location
associated in this report
(e.g. in case of poor
reception in the field) by
tapping “Add a different
location.”
Tap “Save” to submit.
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13. Previous Submissions
Once we have reviewed
your report, a red dot will
appear on the oil & gas
map based on the location
you provided.
Tap on “My Submissions”
to view your previous
reports & their statuses in
the review queue.
Share a report via social
media by tapping “Share.”
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14. Oil & gas development at Theodore Roosevelt
National Park w/NPCA
with FracTracker’s Mobile App • www.fractracker.org/app
explore the map
15. Contact Information
Samantha Malone, MPH, CPH
Manager of Education, Communications, &
Partnerships – FracTracker Alliance
malone@fractracker.org
412-802-0273
www.fractracker.org
Editor's Notes
The FracTracker Alliance (www.fracTracker.org) currently provides online oil and gas (O&G) maps for 30 U.S. states with O&G activity, international pipelines, and even British Columbia wells. Maps are interpreted and contextualized by blogs, analyses, and photos. The primary data sources for these maps are regulatory and industrial. As a way to ground-truth such data points, FracTracker is conducting community-based data collection through the use of a new mobile app and volunteer field projects in order to quantify industry activities such as truck counts and train counting. This session will describe these ground-up approaches to data gathering, preliminary results, and barriers.
The FracTracker Alliance shares maps, data, and analyses to communicate impacts of the global oil and gas industry and informs actions that positively shape our energy future. We are a registered 501(c)3, with nine staff members and offices in PA, NY, OH, WV, and CA.
FracTracker.org, launched in 2010, and now provides oil and gas maps for over 36 U.S. states with drilling activity.
These maps may include drilled wells, violations, proximity to vulnerable populations, pipelines and proposals, waste disposal sites, sand mining operations, and more. Maps are interpreted and contextualized by accompanying blogs, data analyses, and photos.
Unconventional oil and gas drilling, also referred to as fracking, is occurring with greater frequency in the US – with over 1.1 million oil and gas wells currently in operation.
36 states are seeing some sort of activity, with ranging levels of intensity. Kern County in California, for example, has over 120,00 active wells – many of which are utilizing unconventional drilling technologies such as acidizing.
To help understand the overall impacts, we will map and analyze national datasets. In this map we’re showing the number of organic farms currently operating near oil and gas activity
Some of our most valued maps are those showing state-level data. This one shows compressor stations based on data obtained through a right to know request by a collaborator GASP, pits that were crowdsourced using volunteers by SkyTruth, as well as violations, drilled wells and permits from the state.
Mention layers and zooming capacity
Compressors (generalized) green
SkyTruth Pits (generalized) blue
Violations (generalized) yellow
Drilled Wells (generalized) orange
Permits (generalized) purple
Oil and gas development is widespread, and the potential impacts of the industrial activity are numerous and varied. It’s impossible to be an expert on every subject that could possibly intersect with oil and gas activity. Because of this, FracTracker often collaborates with other groups, sharing both our knowledge as well as our audiences.
We believe that oil and gas data should be accessible to the public and that individuals can contribute meaningful insight into potential impacts of the industry through crowdsourcing. This area is where our mobile app has been of significant interest.
Available for iPhones and Androids
Download the app: fractracker.org/app
Download the source file with all icons below: http://psdblast.com/500-web-icons-pack-for-web-graphic-designers
In May of last year, FracTracker worked with the National Parks Conservation Association (or NPCA) to document oil and gas development in the vicinity of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, in western North Dakota.
NPCA was primarily interested in potential impacts on the park itself, as well as the experiences of park visitors. FracTracker was interested in chronicling the oil and gas activity in Bakken oil play, as well as the opportunity to test out our brand new mobile app, which allows users to document what they see, and share their results with others who are interested.
With the help of the app, local volunteers spend two days driving are the North, South and Elkhorn Units of the park, recording images of wells, flares, oil trucks, trains, drilling rigs, pipelines, and other products of the boom on the Bakken.
Hundreds of photos were taken by staff from the FracTracker Alliance, NPCA, Kestrel Aerial Service, and numerous volunteers, chronicling oil and gas infrastructure and impacts, as well as wild life and scenic vistas. Let’s take a look at the end result.
Much of this project occurred during the beta testing of our mobile app. A key barrier during this initial phase was in allowing people to submit reports after the fact when they had better cell phone service. While we have overcome that technological barrier by adding a “change your location” feature, there are still bumps on the road related to a lack of experience using mobile phone apps for submitting this kind of data, and more generally in awareness of the app’s availability.