Journal of Coastal Research SI 39 1436 - 1440 ICS 2004 (Proceedings) Brazil ISSN 0749-0208

Modeling and Development of a Geographic Database: Application to the

elaboration of oil-spill environmental sensitivity maps in coastal areas of the Rio
Grande do Norte State.
A. F. de Castro†; A. M. Grigio†; M. V. S. Souto†; V. E. Amaro‡ and H. Vital‡
† Post Graduation Program on Geodynamics and ‡ Geology Department, Post Graduation
Geophysics, CCET/Federal University of the State of Program on Geodynamics and Geophysics,
Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Campus Universitário, CCET/ UFRN, C.P. 1639, Natal-RN, Brazil,
Natal-RN, 59072-970. PRH-ANP 22 59072-970. PRH-ANP 22.
angelica@summer.com.br; amaro@geologia.ufrn.br;
grigioma@yahoo.com helenice@geologia.ufrn.br
mikesouto@bol.com.br

ABSTRACT
CASTRO, A. F.; GRIGIO, A. M.; SOUTO, M. V. S.; AMARO, V. E. and VITAL, H. 2006. Modeling and
development of a geographic database: Application to the elaboration of oil-spill environmental sensitivity maps in
coastal areas on the Rio Grande do Norte State. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 39 (Proceedings of the 8th
International Coastal Symposium), 1436 - 1440. Itajaí, SC, Brazil, ISSN 0749-0208.

The study area is located between Galinhos and São Bento do Norte beaches, northern coast of the Rio Grande do
Norte State. This area is characterized by natural factors and the human interference huge in the surroundings due to
the Guamaré Petroliferous Pole nearby, the greater terrestrial oil producing in Brazil. The first part of this work
consisted to elaborate a Geographic Database to store all the data collected on this study. This dataset was stored as a
virtual library to assist men decisions from the results presented as digital thematic maps, tables and reports. The
second stage of this work consisted on elaborate the Oil-Spill Environmental Sensitivity Maps. These maps are
cartographic products that supply full information to the decision making, contingency planning and assessment in
case of an oil spilling incident in any area. They represent the sensitivity of the areas related to oil spilling, through
basic data such as geology, geomorphology, oceanographic, social-economic and biology. Thus using the available
data were possible to develop sensitivity maps of the study area on different dates (June/2000 and December/2000)
and to perceive that there was a difference on the sensitivity index generated. The area on December presented more
sensible indices to the oil than June presents because hydrodynamic data (wave and tide energy) allowed a faster
natural cleaning on June. This presented a medium index (3 to 4) to the long shore and a high index (10) to the
mangrove areas highly vulnerable to oil spill.

ADDITIONALINDEX WORDS: Geographic information systems, geographic database, oil-spill environmental

sensitivity maps.

INTRODUCTION
Currently, the worry with environmental factors is a reality
presents in all society's sectors, mainly between researches and
professionals that work directly with environment. There is a
big worry to organize the space, doing this changes attack the
minimum possible the environment. From this worry, many
studies about environmental impacts have been realized to
value and protect the regions more sensitive in relation to
modifications; and the Geoprocessing lets the efficient and fast
treatment of environmental data, doing the execution of
processing of data and guaranteeing confidences in the finals
results obtained.
This technology is becoming a indispensable tool in the
studies about Environmental Impacts. In view of this new
tendency the present work was performed with the main
objective to elaborate oil-spill environmental sensitivity maps
of coastal areas of the north of the Rio Grande do Norte State,
Brazil, based in the Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
and Geographical Database (GD). This necessity appeared due
to the Guamaré Petroliferous Pole nearby.
CARACTERIZATION OF STUDY AREA
The study area is inserted in the geologic context of Potiguar
Basin, located of the Northeast Brazil, northern portion of Rio
Grande do Norte State coastal zone. The area is limited from
Sao Bento do Norte to Galinhos city, with approached
2
dimension of 600 Km (Figure 1).
The local geologic context is the domain of Potiguar Basin
(Cretaceous); with some sediments of the Barreiras Group
(Tertiary), with sand soil and clay-sand soil that recover
calcareous rocks of the Jandaíra Formation (this occur only in
sub superficial). In Galinhos estuarine band predominate recent
alluvium with clay-sand soil with organic matter.
The whole area belongs in the coastal zone and has sediments
and sedimentary rocks represent cenozoic deposits of coastal
deposition systems (CALDAS, 1996). The area were strongly
marked by deposition and erosion coastal processes caused by
wind, currents, waves and tides action (HUSTEDT, 2000).
The geomorphology has a monotonous landscape near the
coast, marked by ample tide plain. In these littoral areas
altitudes generally are situated to the mean sea level (DANTAS,
1988). This region suffers continuous geomorphologic erosion
or deposition modifications caused mainly by marine
processes. The depositions forms are mobile and fixed dunes,
beach cusps and sand plains without strong geomorphologic
features. The marine cliffs are one erosion type caused by
directly wave action (CALDAS, 1996).
JUSTIFICATION
The main justification to this study was the localization of the
Guamaré Petroliferous Pole in a strongly dynamic coastal zone;
where the development of an environmental database with
geographic information basis served to elaborate oil spill
environmental sensitivity maps. The environment monitoring
of these areas, where activities of prospecting, exploration and
transport of oil occur, have the goal to prevent and to minimize
accidents with oil and gas. This necessity is evident in the
Ministry of Science and Technology Edict nº 552, from
December 8, 1999, which defines the general lines of National
Plan of Science and Technology of Sector of Oil and Natural

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 39, 2006

 Castro et al. 1437

Figure 1. Location of the study area, showing São Bento do
Norte and Galinhos cities.
Gas CTPETRO. This CTPETRO objective is the preparation of
contingency plan to oil spill at oceanic and coastal areas
influenced by offshore exploration and production in Brazil,
with the participation of the operators.
The preparation of the contingency plan is important: (i) to
map the sensitive areas to oil-spill and, (ii) to do provisional
models of the oil-spot from Environmental Geographic
Database which include several stages of environmental
monitoring. The Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) shows
the area sensitivity in the presence of oil.
OIL-SPILL ENVIRONMENTAL
SENSITIVITY MAPS
The environmental sensitivity of coastal line classifies the
coastal sections in habitats, in accordance with its
geomorphology characteristics, sensitivity to the oil-spills,
natural persistence of oil and conditions of cleanness/removal.
The system of sensitivity classification is based on
geomorphologic characteristics of the coastal areas: degree of
exposition to the energy of waves and tides, declivity of the
coast and type of the substratum that affect its permeability and
mobility.
The ESI is based in geomorphologic characteristics of the
coast, very important for the determination of the degree of
impact and permanence of the spilled oil, as well as, in many
cases, for the types of cleanness procedures employed. The
geomorphology is determinative for the type and density of
biological communities present in the area (MMA, 2002).
Each ESI indicates the sensitivity of the coast in a range from
1 to 10, in accordance with the physical characteristics, if is sand
beach, cliff, mangrove, tidal flats etc. The ESI on this study
were based in the Specifications and Technical Norms for
Elaboration of Environmental Sensitivity Maps for Oil Spills
(SAO Maps) elaborated by Ministry of Environmental in 2002,
based on the sensitivity classification adopted by NOAA. After
determinate the ESI, each index is represented by a colour in the
Oil-Spill Environmental Sensitivity Maps. This map presents
the reaction of environment in the presence of oil. The colours
are applied to coastal line, limit between land and water
(Table 1).
METHODS
The first part of this study was the development of a
Geographic Database with environmental data useful to
determine the ESI.
To development this database it was necessary to follow the
essentials stages in the development any database described in
GOMES (1997), FILHO (2000) and HEUSER (2001): 1º)
Conceptual Model, where from specifications requisites, the
entities will be represented through its attributes and its
relationships will be stored in database; 2º) Logical Model, used
to define how the entities will be stored in database (in Tables,
for example); and 3º) Physical Model, stage where details
implementation are defined, describing the structure storage
and the methods to access the data.
The Conceptual Model adopted in this work was the
GeoFrame, a model developed by research group in geographic
database of Institute Computer Science of Federal University of
Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The GeoFrame is a conceptual
framework offers a classes diagram basics to help the designer
in the conceptual modelling geographic data (FILHO et al.,
1989).
The GeoFrame does a boarding top-down composed of three
stages. First, for each geographic area, the diverse themes (and
sub-themes) are identified. In the second stage, a sub-project of
classes for each theme is identified. Still in this stage, a
specification association is done between classes from different
themes. In the last, the analysis is done and the modelling of
kind spatial representation to each geographic phenomenon is
identified (CASTRO et al., 2003).
The GeoFrame first stage was defined the geographic
location of study area and the more generic themes to be
represented. The data of study area are from some distinct
sources and of different categories. They were grouped in
packages according to its similar characteristics (Figure 2):
• Hydrodynamic Data: the main aspects of the coastal
dynamics (winds, chains, waves, tides);
• Beach Profiles Data: monthly survey of topographical
profiles of the beach zone and ambient characterization;
• Sedimentary Data: information about grain size analysis
of of sedimentary samples collected in the area;
• Remote Sensing Data: satellites and aerial photographs
images;
• Thematic Maps: category that include different type of
maps that can be constructed after the stage of field control
(Use of Soil Map, Geology Map, Vegetation Map,
Geophysical Map, Geomorphology Map, among others).
In the second stage, the packages are detailed, identifying the
classes that each one of them belongs and the relationship
between them. The category Hydrodynamic Data was chosen to
be more detailed in the follows stages (Figure 3).
In the third and last stage, it effectuates the definition of

Table 1. Definition of ESI from specific data (modified of table NOAA)

Degree of exposition Slope Kind of Penetration Oil in Definition
Coastal Geomorphology
to Waves Intertidal Substratum the Substratum ESI
Exposed cliff, impermeable High > 30º Cliff Impermeable 1
artificial structures
Platforms eroded by action of High < 30º Rocky substratum Impermeable 2
waves
Fine and medium sand beaches --- < 5º Fine and medium Semi-Impermeable 3
sand (< 10 cm)
Beaches of sand and gravel --- 5 - 15º Coarse grain size Permeable (= 25 cm) 4
Beaches of sand and gravel --- 8 - 15º Sand and gravel = 50 cm 5
Beaches of gravel and rip-rap --- 10 - 20º Gravel highly permeable 6
Exposed flat intertidal areas Variable high to medium < 3º Sand limited penetration 7
Protected cliffs Low > 15º Rocky substratum --- 8
Protected flat intertidal areas Low < 3º Mud Low permeability 9
Salt marshes, mangroves Medium to low < 10º Mud sand Low permeability 10

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 39, 2006

1438 Geographic Database and Oil-spill Environmental Sensitivity Maps
Figure 2. First stage of Geoframe conceptual model: location
of geographic area and packages used.
Conventional Object ( ), what is Geographic Object ( ) detailing of each existing class in the package Hydrodynamic
and what kind (point, line, polygon or complex object); and
what is Geographic Field ( ) and what kind (image, TIN,
regular point, adjacent polygons…). Look Figure 4.
The database conceptual model was developed on ArcView
Version 3.2 software package. To define the ESI it was
necessary to access many database categories. Data as
geomorphology map; hydrodynamic, specific waves energy
and currents direction; data of profile beach, as intertidal slope
and characteristics of substratum, such as grain size and
permeability are considered essential to define the sensitivity of
the coastal to the oil presence.
RESULTS
The degree of exposition to the waves energy and tides and
currents direction are considered on GD. The time of
permanence of oil on environments of high energy of waves and
tides tends to be lesser compared to sheltered environments.
Therefore, as much bigger the exposition to the waves energy
and tides, faster will be the natural cleanness of the beach and
minor will be sensitivity to the oil. The beach slope can be
favourable or not to the oil trapping. The coasts with high slopes
are characterized by minimum time of oil permanence. The
substratum type affects parameters as permeability, mobility of
the sediment and oil permanence, beyond the transit of vehicles
(CASTRO, 2002).
One of the requirements to the GD efficiency was the
multiple consultations to verify changes in the sensitivity index
depending on the station. On this paper, the months of
June/2000 and December/2000 had been chosen to perceive
these possible changes.
Thus, the four categories of essential data cited previously to
ESI definition has been accessed on the GD. The result of this
access has been 4 distinct tables with a common field: Month. It
was necessary to make a JOIN between tables, across the field
Month. From the result of this JOIN, a new field ESI was added,
typed Number. The tool QUERY BUILDER from ArcView
package was used to find specific categories (for example:
Geomorphology with beach rocks, Waves >= 30 cm, Intertidal
slope >= 10º and substratum medium sand). The result would be
an intersection of all these requirements. After the
determination of the lines (or area spaces) with all these
characteristics, an ESI value is defined.
The ESI is defined to the whole coast susceptible to oil spill.
Higher the index greater is the coast sensitivity to the oil. For
instance a coastal portion with ESI equal to 10 is more sensible
than a portion with ESI equal to 5. After the ESI definition to
Hydrodynamic Data
Winds Currents Waves
<Atributes> <Atributes> <Atributes>
Figure 3. Second stage of Geoframe conceptual model: detailed
package Hydrodynamic Data and its classes association.
Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 39, 2006
Hydrodynamic Data
Winds Currents Waves
Data Table Data Table Data Table
Profile Number: Profile Number: Profile Number:
Data: Profile Location: Profile Location:
Direction winds Data: Data:
Velocity Current Height wave:
Direction Current Period:
Angle:
Kind of wave:
Figure 4. Third stage of conceptual model of Geoframe:
Data.
hole coast it was possible to view each index in the
geomorphology map of study area.
The results showed that the Environmental Geographic
Database is perfectly functional and useful to the Oil-Spill
Environmental Sensitivity Maps elaboration based on a
multitemporal approach for the months of June/2000 and
December/2000.
A table was elaborated showing all the ESI to the study
area, defined for the GIS through the crossing of information
(Table 2).
After determined the ESI of the region, these could have been
visualized in the geomorphology map (Figures 5 and 6).
CONCLUSIONS
The conclusions proved the use GIS was highly satisfactory
to environmental studies involving oil-spill, where the database
is an important component in the attainment of confidante
results.
The conceptual model used - Geoframe - is able to deal with
all the data inserted in the GD, as well as with all existing
relationships between them. The ArcView 3.2 was satisfactory
in stocking data and as a friendly tool of easy manipulation and
visualization of the spatial information.
The ESI identified to the area between Galinhos and Sao
Bento do Norte cities for the months June/2000 and
December/2000, showed that to December/2000 the coastal
area was more sensible to oil than the month of June/2000. The
increase in sensibility index can be explained by the reduction
of the wave's size because as bigger the wave faster is the natural
cleanness of the oil by sea water. Some data were essentials in
determination of IS: area geomorphology, degree of exposition
to the energy of waves and tides; intertidal declivity and the
substratum type, mainly emphasizing the oil penetration.
The potentiality of the Geoprocessing techniques was really
valid in the determination of the environmental indexes to
mesure the ambient sensitivity to the oil spilling.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Project Environmental Monitoring
Coastal Areas (MAMBMARE) and PROBRAL 150-02
(CAPES/DAAD), for the financial support, as well as to the
Brazilian National Oil Agency and FINEP, through PRH-ANP
22, by the master scholarship to the three firs authors.
LITERATURE CITED
CALDAS, L.H.O., 1996. Geologia Costeira da Região de São
Bento do Norte e Caiçara, Litoral Potiguar. Natal, Rio
Grande do Norte: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do
Norte, Master's thesis, 83 p.
CASTRO, A.F.; SOUTO, M.V.; AMARO, V.E. and VITAL, H., 2003.
Desenvolvimento e aplicação de um Banco de Dados
 Castro et al. 1439

Figure 5. Geomorphology map showing the sensitivity indexes of study area on June/2000 (ISL 2( ), 3( ) and 10 ( ).

Figure 6. Geomorphology map showing the sensitivity indexes of study area on December/2000 (ISL 3( ), 4 ( ) and 10 ( ).

Table 2. Sensitivity indexes to study area on June/2000 and December/2000.

JUNE / 2000 DECEMBER / 2000
Height Intertidal eight Intertidal
Geomorphology Substratum ESI Geomorphology Substratum ESI
Waves Slope Waves Slope
Medium Medium
Beachrocks 45,2 16º 2 Beachrocks 10,7 9º 4
sand sand
Medium
Beach Fine sand 40,1 0º Fine sand 3 Beach Fine sand 14 12º 4
sand
Fine to
Medium
Beachrocks 43,7 15º 2 Beachrocks 17,2 5º medium 3
sand
and
Mangrove --- --- --- 10 Mangrove --- --- --- 10

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 39, 2006

1440 Geographic Database and Oil-spill Environmental Sensitivity Maps
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