Services

 The Camisea Pipeline runs from the Amazon Jungle of Eastern Peru to the Pacific Coast. Over 500km long, the pipeline traverses the jungle, cloud rain forest, the Andes, high alpine plateaus and coastal desert. The pipeline construction has been completed and reclamation of the ROW was initiated. The client was looking for a way to monitor and report findings on the successful revegetation of the pipeline. Walsh designed a video monitoring system using off-the-shelf components to acquire continuous video along the 500km of pipeline and produce monitoring tools.

 WALSH used historic and recent LandSat imagery to develop a model to help predict the long term effects of a seismic program. The project examined historic land use trends and deforestation patterns. Factors that influence deforestation such as roads and seismic lines were merged in the GIS to produce a complex table of influences and how they may promote future deforestation. The model was used on a proposed seismic program to quantify possible environmental impacts.

 For a previously completed seismic survey, WALSH monitored regrowth of the helipads and camp clearings using aerial photographs acquired by helicopter using Walsh's aerial photograph camera system. Satellite imagery was used to identify possible locations of helipads. Aerial imagery was analyzed to identify the size and amount of ground cover. Imagery was acquired one year later to evaluate growth rate. We used a GIS system to correlate the degree and timing of regrowth to factors such as size of helipad clearing, proximity of clearing to rivers and villages, and ecosystem type.

 Walsh is assisting our parent company, E & E, to define and protect sage-grouse steppe habitats within a 10-mile buffer along the Ruby Pipeline. The Ruby Pipeline will be approximately 670 miles of underground natural gas transmission pipeline originating at the Opal Hub in Wyoming and terminating at a Malin, Oregon interconnect, near California's northern border. Walsh scientists are determining ways to offset carbon emission, and protect or enhance sagebrush-steppe, sage-grouse and pigmy rabbit habitats. Carbon emissions from the pipeline will be offset through a combination of carbon sequestration through forest and sagebrush-steppe habitat enhancements and carbon credit purchases. Walsh scientists developed a GIS rule-based model to define sage-grouse and pigmy rabbit habitats within a 10-mile buffer along the pipeline corridor. The rule-based model relies on analysis of high-resolution, multispectral remote imagery, and literature descriptions of habitat attributes and state wildlife biologists expert opinions to spatially define sage-grouse and pigmy rabbit habitats. Best management practices will be employed to protect or enhance high-quality sage-grouse and pigmy rabbit habitats within the 10-mile wide pipeline buffer.