New Palmer Basin and SW Anvers Island environmental plan and maps
ERA worked in close collaboration with the Office of Polar Programs, US National Science Foundation, the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, Raytheon Polar Services (RPS)(Centennial, Colorado), and the United States Antarctic Program to develop a new environmental plan and maps to assist management in the SW Anvers Island region. The plan and maps are for a new Antarctic Specially Managed Area, which the US Government proposed at the 2007 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting held in New Delhi, India.
Preparation of the maps required integration of data from a wide range of sources, and a key challenge was to harmonise as far as possible the geographical referencing on which data were based. Data sources included the RPS (in particular the Survey team), Palmer LTER, Eugene Domack & David Amblas (Palmer Basin bathymetry), Scott Gallagher (Arthur Harbor bathymetry from the PRIMO project), the USGS (orthophotos and survey control), the British Antarctic Survey (1:250K mapping of Anvers Island), and the SCAR Antarctic Digital Database. Maps were prepared as black & white line drawings so they can be easily reproduced using a wide variety of technologies, and show key geographical features in the region, including topography, bathymetry, ice extent, proposed management zones, wildlife breeding localities, and infrastructure at Palmer Station. Palmer Station facilities data are maintained by RPS in AutoCAD format, which were transferred and converted to a form that could be used in ArcGIS.
Antarctic Specially Managed Area No. 7 Palmer Basin and SW Anvers Island was adopted by the Antarctic Treaty Parties through Measure 1 in 2008. After new topographic data became available for Gamage Point later in 2008, minor revisions to the maps were made and these were adopted at the 2009 Antarctic Treaty Meeting held in Baltimore.
The final maps are made available here for reference. The management plan and maps are also available through the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat Protected Area Database.
Maps for ASMA No. 7: Palmer Basin & SW Anvers Island
Map 1: Regional Map & ASMA boundary (pdf 1.1 MB)
Map 2: SW Anvers Island Restricted Zones - Rosenthal, Joubin & Dream Islands (pdf 2.1 MB)
Map 3: Arthur Harbor & Palmer Station access (pdf 2.75 MB)
Map 4: Palmer Station Operations Zone (pdf 375 KB)
Map 5: Torgersen Island Zones (pdf 385 KB)
Map 6: Dream Island Restricted Zone (pdf 534 KB)
Map 7: Litchfield Island, ASPA No.113 (pdf 451 KB)
Map 8: Biscoe Point, ASPA No.139 (pdf 612 KB)
Thanks to Emma Gatti, Nick McWilliam, Gillian Bunting and Miguel Cardoso for technical GIS assistance.
