Environmental Studies - Alaska Region

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 The Alaska Environmental Studies Program was initiated by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1974 in response to the Federal Government’s decision to propose areas of Alaska for offshore gas and oil development. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act requires the Secretary of the Interior to conduct environmental studies to obtain information pertinent to sound leasing decisions as well as to monitor the human, marine and coastal environments.

Alaska Annual Studies Plan 

The Plan contains brief profiles of ongoing and proposed studies. The Plan also describes background, strategic overview, projected Outer Continental Shelf activities, examples of affected decisions, information sorted by discipline, and information needs.

2012 Alaska Studies Plan
Previous Years' Studies Plans 

Alaska Region Ongoing Studies 

OCTOBER 2011. This table, updated quarterly, contains links to all studies that the Alaska Region's Environmental Studies Program is currently undertaking, and those that are in the planning stages. Studies are broken down into seven categories: Physical Oceanography, Fates and Effects, Babitat and Ecology, Marine Mammals and Protected Species, Social Systems, Information Management, and Integrated Studies.

Environmental Studies Program Information System (ESPIS) 

ESPIS is a searchable database of all completed Environmental Studies Program reports. It includes technical summaries of more than 700 BOEM-sponsored environmental research projects, and more than 2,000 full research reports. The information is grouped geographically by BOEM region -- Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, Pacific, or Alaska. A "national" study is research that pertains to more than one geographic region (for example, the effects of wind on oil spill spreading).

Alaska Studies 

BOEMRE 2011-32 
Evaluation of the Use of Hindcast Model Data for OSRA in a Period of Rapidly Changing Conditions. Session 1. Session 2. Session 3.

BOEMRE 2011-31 
Synthesis of Time-Interval Changes in Trace Metals & Hydrocarbons in Nearshore Sediments of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea: A Statistical Analysis

BOEMRE 2011-30 
Alternative Oil Spill Estimators for the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas - Fault Tree Methods

BOEMRE 2011-29 
Annual Report No. 17, Calendar Year 2010

BOEMRE 2011-23 
Review of Salmonid Use of North Aleutian Basin Lease Area and Surrounding Habitats

BOEMRE 2011-06
Chukchi Offshore Monitoring in Drilling Area (COMIDA) Distribution and Relative Abundance of Marine Mammals: Aerial Surveys