GIS@SU

Issues with Natural Gas Extraction on the Landscape

By: Matthew Innes

This study presents a large amount of information about the landscape consequences on natural gas extraction. The main issue with the natural gas extraction in the study is that it uses hydraulic fracturing which causes a release of toxic contaminants. This study uses GIS to develop a map showing how natural gas extraction is distributed across Pennslyvania.

Just in this small portion of the entire state there is a large group of natural gas extraction and based on where the disturbances are, the loss of forest and agriculture can be destroyed and slowly deteriorate. Not only in this study but in the general news throughout the past five years there has been issues arising from the fracturing technique. One of the major issues in this study is shown through forest fragmentation, which is the splitting of a large forest area into smaller dysfunctional parts. This is a serious environmental concern that is caused by the contamination of ground water within the fracturing area.

This image shows that splitting of a large forest into smaller parts and this is where GIS is then used to map out this forest fragmentation, which can then be used to prove how the fracturing is a direct cause of the environmental issues within Pennslyvania. The study goes into further details about the individual counties, which is the same as the previous map I have shown.

Slonecker, E. Milheim, L. Roig-Silva, C. Malizia, A. Gilenwater, B. (2013). USGS science for a changing world. Retrieved from http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1119/OFR2013-1119.pdf