ESRI Conservation Program Resources:

Marine & Coastal

(ECP and CTSP members, sites of interest for mapping/GIS, scholarly papers and ESRI Conference Proceedings, and sites with public conservation and GIS data for downloading) (Under Construction)

(Legend: CTSP sites are coded "c" plus the year of the grant, (cs=software, cm=mac), ECP grantees are coded "e". Many groups, especially newer grantees, do not yet have their own sites and are colored green. Other new groups may be described or supported by other sites)

Alaska Marine Conservation Council Ak c97 . (P.O. Box 101145, Anchorage, AK 99510 ph (907) 277-5357 fax (907) 277-5975 GIS contact: Dorothy Childers email:dorothy@akmarine.org) GIS STATUS: "We created a statewide map showing juvenile halibut distribution. We chose to depict juvenile halibut areas throughout coastal Alaska since halibut is a species of fish that is important to Alaskans economically, culturally, and for personal use. Halibut has a directed commercial fishery, is caught by sports fishermen, and highly valued in subsistence use. Additionally, it is a "bycatch" species in North Pacific groundfish fisheries which is a major problem. We created maps that illustrate some of the problems of bycatch in several of the bottom trawl fisheries, expanding to other kinds of bycatch including salmon, herring, and crab. We used bycatch maps and the data that went into them to wage a successful campaign to eliminate bottom trawling in the pollock fishery of the Bering Sea by demonstrating bycatch savings in a non-bottom trawl pollock fishery. Using GIS maps in our outreach to coastal Alaskans to convey fishery/fishery regulatory information, as well as important marine habitat areas (i.e. juvenile halibut and/or nursery grounds). We're mapping changes in distribution and abundance of red king crab of the Kodiak Archipelago over the last thirty years....Our GIS work has been of great use in outreach to coastal Alaskans. The sharing of the statewide halibut map helped spark discussions with particular communities and their immediate concerns of marine habitat and bycatch. As a result of this, we've embarked on a second major project to map the change in abundance and distribution of red king crab around the Kodiak Archipelago. As an important part of this mapping, we are including a layer of local and traditional knowledge to add to the breadth of government agency and commercial fishery data. The maps we'll have from this project are instrumental elements of marine conservation education and advocacy. " GIS LESSONS: "One very interesting and significant lesson we learned through our work with GIS is that the questions we ask of the data don't necessarily give us useful answers. Creating maps just for maps sake doesn't necessarily help in advocating for conservation. However, nothing is lost in this educational process which focuses us then on the important and relevant questions we need to ask. "

California Ocean Resources Management Program (California Ocean Resources Management Program The Resources Agency of California 1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311 Sacramento, CA 95814 Brian Baird, Ocean Program Manager (916) 657-0198 mailto:brian@resources.ca.gov . or Melissa Miller-Henson, Policy Analyst (916) 654-2506 mailto:melissa@resources.ca.gov) "The mission of the California Ocean Resources Management Program is: To ensure comprehensive and coordinated management, conservation and enhancement of California's ocean resources for their intrinsic value and for the benefit of current and future generations." see: California's State Classification System for Marine Managed Areas: .

Catalina Island Conservancy, Avalon, Santa Catalina Island CA e94 .(Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, 125 Claressa Avenue, P. O. Box 2739, Avalon, CA 90704. Telephone: (310) 510-2595 ext. 105. FAX: (310) 510-2594. E-mail: seer@catalinas.net )..a private, non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the preservation of the natural heritage of Santa Catalina Island. "The mission of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy is to conserve the land it owns in perpetuity; to restore it to a natural state; to provide education and recreational uses of the land consistent with conservation; to foster and develop research to promote understanding of the resources of Santa Catalina Island and Conservancy activities and to promote an understanding of the underwater habitat surrounding the Island. ". Catalina Conservancy GIS Projects: GIS Tutorial: Overview of GIS, Linking GPS (Global Positioning System) Data into the GIS, List of data layers in the GIS . IWS Raptor Survey , IWS Feral Pig Control Program , Conservancy Membership Data, Spatial Analysis of the Thorne Flora Data , The Ironwood Project , RESPMAP: Rare and Ecologically Significant Plant Mapping Project, Wildland Weed Mapping Project . See: GIS-Based Conservation and Land Use Plan Demonstration...Catalina Conservancy Divers (CCD) Projects: Marine Biodiversity Survey, Marine Thermograph Project, Marine Refuge Census, Kelp Growth Survey, Abalone Restoration, Marine Conservation Video, Casino Point Scuba Trail. . . . GIS HISTORY AND ESRI GRANT: "Initially (1991) the Conservancy's GIS project used IDRISI software because it was very capable and extremely affordable ($100) for a non-profit institution. However, IDRISI was not easy to use which made it difficult to deploy the GIS to all Conservancy departments. In 1994 the Conservancy was able to purchase Atlas*GIS software thanks to special pricing from Strategic Mapping, Inc. While this software was easier to use, it had several limitations. The data model employed in Atlas*GIS required that specific data layers (such as roads) required in different "views" of the island be duplicated in each data file. In addition, this early version of Atlas*GIS did not allow raster data (such as satellite images) to be integrated with vector data (such as roads or plant locations). In 1995 Dr. Bill Bushing asked Charles Convis of Environmental Systems Research Institute's Conservation Support Program if ESRI would be willing to donate a copy of their market-leading ArcInfo GIS software to the Conservancy. Charles discussed the donation with Jack Dangermond, ESRI's founder, who offered not only ArcInfo software, but also Windows-based ARC/View (and later ARC/View's Spatial Analyst extension) at a very substantial discount making acquisition of this industry-standard product a reality for the Conservancy's GIS program. "

Center for Marine Conservation e97 . (1725 DeSales Street, N.W. Suite 600 Washington, DC 20036 (202)429-5609 Fax: (202)872-0619 email: ccmc@ix.netcom.com ) . Mission: The Center for Marine Conservation is committed to protecting ocean environments and conserving the global abundance and diversity of marine life. Through science-based advocacy, research and public education, CMC promotes informed citizen participation to reverse the degradation of our oceans. Projects: Marine Ecosystem Protection, Marine Wildlife And Fisheries Conservation, Science of Marine Conservation Biology, Marine Debris and Volunteer Cleanup Programs, Marine Debris Information and Resource Pages, Databases and links on Caribbean Biodiversity, National Marine Sanctuary Program,  Sea Turtles...Their new GIS MAP ROOM let's you see online maps of their project areas including: Protected Areas in Southern California, Protected Areas in Puget Sound, Selected US Protected Areas, Fully Protected Areas in the Northeast, Florida Keys Sambos Reserve, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary . Federal Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in Central California . Their Navassa Expedition also includes GIS maps. Search.

Center for Marine and Environmental Analyses. (Prof. Mark Harwell, RSMAS - University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149 Telephone: (305) 361-4157 Fax: (305) 361-4077 mharwell@rsmas.miami.edu) "The Center for Marine and Environmental Analyses (CMEA) has been established at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) to coordinate and promote ecological research to advance the state of ecosystem science, management, and policy, particularly focused on the coastal and marine environment. " GIS PROGRAM: Includes example maps of vegetation change in south Florida from 1900 to 1990: "The Geographic Information System at CMEA helps visualize and quantify the ecological effects of the rapid urbanization of South Florida." Data Library of CMEA GIS coverages for South Florida. See also: NOAA Coastal Ocean Program-Funded Geographic Information System for the Coastal Ecosystems of South Florida. "GIS at CMEA is centered around ESRI's ArcInfo standard for GIS data...CMEA continually updates its extensive GIS database of the South Florida coastal zone. The database includes satellite imagery, marine and land habitat coverages, and land use patterns, from past to present. Additionally, CMEA has integrated its hydrodynamic model of Biscayne Bay to the GIS, as well as its Biscayne Bay seagrass, sponge, and algae models. This facilitates the use of satellite imagery and field observations as initial conditions for the habitat models, and it allows for extensive spatial analyses of the model outputs. "

Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce, Astoria OR e94 . (750 Commercial Street, Room 205 Astoria, Oregon 97103 Phone: (503) 325-0435 Fax: (503) 325-0459 crest@OregonVOS.net) "Astoria-based bi-state quasi-governmental organization committed to the appropriate development and management of the natural, economic and human resources of the Columbia River Estuary...The Columbia River Estuary Data Development Program (CREDDP) has two purposes: to increase understanding of the ecology of the Columbia River Estuary and to provide information useful in making land and water use decisions. The program was initiated by local governments and citizens who saw a need for a better information base for use in managing natural resources and in planning for development. In response to these concerns, the Governors of Oregon and Washington requested in 1974 that the Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission (PNRBC) undertake an interdisciplinary ecological study of the estuary. At approximately the same time, local governments and port districts formed the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST) to develop a regional management plan for the estuary. " see: Streambank Landowner Handbook available free .

Cook Inlet Keeper Ak c98 . (P.O. Box 3269 Homer, AK 99603 tel:(907) 235-4068 fx:(907) 235-4069 email:keeper@xyz.net ) "Cook Inlet Keeper (Keeper) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Cook Inlet (Alaska) and the life it sustains. Local citizens concerned about pollution and short-sighted development formed Keeper in 1994, and formally incorporated it as an Alaskan nonprofit corporation in April 1995...GIS NEWS: In early 1997, Keeper compiled the first-ever digital datasets of point and nonpoint source pollution sources in the Cook Inlet watershed. This dataset includes information on Clean Water Act permits, wetlands dredge and fill permits, hazardous waste sites, contaminated sites, military sites, and Superfund sites, among others. Keeper used this information to create the GIS maps found in it State of the Inlet report 1997, and has developed a series of colorful maps and overheads for public presentations. For 1998, Keeper is compiling the first-ever GIS Atlas of Cook Inlet marine resources and the pollution sources affecting them. The Cook Inlet GIS Atlas will be available onCD ROM in Summer 1998...Watershed Information Network: Keeper helps citizens develop and implement local watershed-based conservation efforts by them with providing technical, organizational and legal support. The WIN includes Keeper's GIS Project, and Keeper supports local groups with GIS maps and other information for their local watersheds.. " Dont miss their CONSERVATION MAPS Page .

Coral Cay Conservation . (HEAD OFFICE 154 Clapham Park Road London, SW4 7DE United Kingdom, TELEPHONE +44 (0) 171 498 6248, fax +44 (0) 171 498 8447, Email ccc@coralcay.demon.co.uk, WWW http://www.coralcay.org) . Each year, hundreds of people just like you join Coral Cay Conservation expeditions to the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific to help protect threatened coral reef and tropical forests. They have helped create numerous reserves and wildlife sanctuaries (including the new Belize Barrier Reef World Heritage Site) and establish conservation education and training centres for local people. Projects: Belize Project, Indonesia Project, Philippines Project, Critters, Environmental Issues, Reef Check 1997 . GIS PROGRAM: " In the Philippines CCC collaborated with the SeaMap Research Group (University of Newcastle) to generate data using a RoxAnn side-scan sonar. Once the basic map is produced and the survey work is completed, each habitat can be labelled using the information generated by data analysis. " see also Research Methods : "...In contrast to aerial photography, satellite imagery will usually only allow the resolution of major zones with any certainty. For example, although it was possible to distinguish between the rubble Acropora zones and the Turbinaria/Porites zone of the carbonate pavement at South Water Cay, these two habitat types could not be distinguished from the SPOT satellite image of the Sapodilla Cays and were collectively termed "Carbonate Pavement" (Mumby et al., 1994)..." .

CRC Reef Research Centre ( James Cook University, Townsville QLD 4811 Telephone: (07) 4781 4976; Facsimile: (07) 4781 4099; Email: crcreef@jcu.edu.au . "The CRC Reef Research Centre undertakes an integrated program of applied research, training and extension to enhance sustainable Reef-based industries and economic activity, with particular emphasis on tourism, and provides an improved scientific basis for Reef management and regulatory decision making. " M. Puotinen is using GIS to study cyclone impact on corals across the entire Great Barrier Reef.

Davy Jones Locker! Seafloor Mapping, Marine & Coastal GIS (By Dr. Dawn Wright, Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, 257 Wilkinson Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 tel:541-737-1229 fax:541-737-1200 email:dawn@dusk.geo.orst.edu ) "Established in August of 1998, Davey Jones' Locker is the laboratory of Dr. "Deepsea Dawn" Wright..covering research areas including: marine and coastal geographic information systems (GISs), particularly data conversion, spatial analysis, and metadata. AND processing, production, visualization, and interpretation of seafloor maps based on multibeam bathymetry, sidescan sonar, towed camera imagery, and submersible observations. Excellent LINKS PAGE . Do Not Miss: Swashbuckling Seafloor Visualizations © 1996-1998, Dawn Wright . Also see: A published map series and online data archive of the seafloor between Fiji and Samoa (Tonga Trench and forearc)

Elkhorn Slough Foundation, Watsonville CA c96 . (P. O. Box 267, Moss Landing, CA 95039 tel:(831) 728-2822 email: mailto:esf@elkhornslough.org) "The Elkhorn Slough Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the wise use and conservation of Elkhorn Slough and surrounding wetlands. It is member-supported, and works with local, state and national constituencies to protect our natural heritage..Elkhorn Slough is one of the few relatively undisturbed coastal wetlands remaining in California. The main channel of the slough, which winds inland 7 miles, is flanked by a broad salt marsh second in size only to San Francisco Bay. Over 400 species of invertebrates, 80 species of fish and 260 species of birds have been identified from Elkhorn Slough. ." See a MAP of the reserve: Elkhorn Slough Reserve is managed by the California Department of Fish and Game in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Programs on the Reserve and around the slough are also supported by the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, a nonprofit membership-supported organization. MAPS: (This section is under development): Monterey Bay Area Map, Elkhorn Slough Showing Important Geographic Locations, Location of Dikes Constructed Around Elkhorn Slough - Late 1800's to 1986, Changes in the Areas of Vegetated and Unvegetated Salt Marsh Caused by Erosion between 1931 and 1980 in the Mid Slough. Dont miss NOAA'S example land cover map of Elkhorn Slough . GIS PROGRESS: "Managing the Wetlands/ Agricultural Interface - this project is a pilot demonstration implementing economically viable, environmentally sound cultivation practices in a sensitive estuarine watershed to reduce erosion from hillsides and inputs of agricultural chemicals to waterways. Our work with local growers and agencies to cooperatively solve resource management conflicts has been productive. We have utilized the GIS to electronically archive our historic aerial photo collection and make them more broadly accessible. A portion of this project entails the monitoring and analysis of water quality data, cultivation practices and soil analysis and tracking species abundance and distribution in relation to inputs. These data are now part of the GIS layers available for research here. ..The data produced here is now incorporated into the regional Joint Data Committee of the Monterey Bay Area. . .Watershed Outreach Program - This GIS has been used to identify farms and ranches "at risk" of serious erosion and run-off. Analysis of aerial photographs, on the ground checks and mapping are involved in this project. Linkage of a recent digital ortho photo with the County's parcel map database has led to more rapid progress than would have been possible without these tools. Other GIS Projects include: Promoting and implementing habitat restoration in the Elkhorn Slough . Acquisition of Rare & Sensitive Maritime Chaparral . Central Bay water quality monitoring program . Decision makers Workshops . Tidal scour and the erosion of the marshes of Elkhorn Slough . Aerial Photo Archives & Clearinghouse . Value of GIS: "The two most important aspects, aside from the power of the information we can access, is that, one, we are now players in the local and regional GIS picture and two, we are a focal point for this kind of work in the watershed. The development of our long-term acquisition plan would have been virtually impossible for us to complete without this technology and without access to the County's datalayers. Because we are on the regional Joint Data Committee and share data with the regional agencies, we have access to tremendous storehouses of information. We anticipate that these relationships will continue to grow as time goes by."

Florida Marine Research Institute: (100 Eighth Avenue SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 tel:(727) 896-8626 General email mailto:info@fmri.usf.edu) . (See the article on ESRI's Development work for FMRI: MSAS and SORI) . " Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI), is the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's scientific bureau for providing applied research and information synthesis to better manage our marine resources. This is done in concert and collaboration with our academic, non-profit, and private marine research institutions. " see: Statewide Ocean Resource Database for free GIS data downloads. Their GIS program includes AVHRR SST & Reflectance Satellite Imagery, Coastal and Marine Resource Assessment (CAMRA), Boater's Guides, GIS Metadata, SORI Statewide Ocean Resource Inventory, Biscayne Bay SWIM . Florida Marine Spill Analysis System (FMSAS) is an Arc-based system which is used to map coastal resources (such as beaches, seagrass beds, or mangrove shorelines) that may be threatened by a spill and to provide rapid analyses of the possible effects of a spill on these resources (Contact Christopher Friel, E-mail: friel_c@epic7.dep.state.fl.us) SEE SAMPLE FMSAS MAP1 and MAP2 . See EPA's FMSAS report: "The Florida Marine Spill Analysis System (FMSAS) was developed by the Florida Marine Research Institute as a computer application which uses Geographic Information System technology for marine spill contingency planning and response. The FMSAS integrates a variety of information such as geographic data, satellite imagery, and reference materials with targeted analytical routines needed to focus oil spill emergency response efforts on resource protection and to asses the extent of damage to coastal and marine environments. The FMSAS was successfully used to help various state and federal responders during the August 1993, Tampa Bay oil spill. This spill occurred when a freighter and two barges collided in the entrance to Tampa Bay, an especially environmentally sensitive area. Over 350,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil spilled into the bay waters. The FMSAS was used to track the oil relative to natural resources during the ten day period when the oil was adrift. Hundreds of maps produced using the FMSAS were distributed to responders who used the information to deploy booms, skimmers, and clean-up crews. In the aftermath of the spill, information derived from the FMSAS was used to support litigation aimed at recovering damages from responsible parties. "

Friends of Casco Bay Baykeeper, South Portland , ME e94 . Friends of Casco Bay is a grassroots organization that works to improve and protect the bay's environmental health by taking a cooperative approach to solving pollution problems and by creating a strong association with bay businesses, marine entities, and regulatory agencies.  See: A BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CASCO BAY by Erno R. Bonebakker. See also: Casco Bay Estuary Project: "The Casco Bay Estuary Project ( Rm. 408, Law School Building, PO Box 9300 Portland, Maine 04104-9300 207-828-1043) began employing GIS at the outset of its work in order to gather and map information on existing conditions (e.g., soils, topography, wetlands, hydrography, and roads) in the watershed. Later applications have involved buildout analyses, systems for identifying threats to natural resources, and threedimensional visualizations of development uses. GIS technologies have been shared with local municipalities throughout the watershed to enhance their capacity for informed decisionmaking." see also Quality Assurance Plan For The Friends of Casco Bay’s Citizens’ Water Quality Monitoring Program . See Also: . CASCO BAY ESTUARY PROJECT (Peter Leimgruber, Timothy Boucher Contact: Smithsonian Institution, Conservation and Research Center, 1500 Remount Road, Front Royal, VA 22630 GIS Lab tel:540-635-6543 FAX:540-635-6506 Courses: Chris Larson (larsonc@crc.si.edu) "The Casco Bay Estuary Project in Maine is currently engaged in the environmental monitoring of Casco Bay...Increasingly, satellite imagery, remote sensing, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become key tools for environmental monitoring...One task of the Casco Bay Estuary Project is to describe and delineate urban land cover."

Galveston Bay Foundation, Tx e97 . (17324-A Highway 3 Webster, TX 77598 tele: (281) 332-3381 fax: (281) 332-3153 ) "The mission of the Galveston Bay Foundation is to preserve and enhance the Bay for its multiple uses. To accomplish this mission the Foundation has targeted four goals: - Education: Provide resources and guidance for education projects aimed at developing a constituency for the Bay, from schoolchildren to public officials. - Conservation: Develop projects aimed at preserving/enhancing the natural resources of the Bay system. - Research: Support the allocation of public and private resources for research into the multiple resources of the Bay system and ultimately establish a research endowment. - Advocacy: Encourage and actively seek solutions to conflicts among the diverse users of the Bay. Wise, prudent and careful utilization of administrative and legal proceedings when required and approved by a 2/3 majority of the Executive Board present and voting. " GIS STATUS: "GIS has definitely had an overall positive impact on the Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF), primarily by organizing and displaying the various elements of the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), which was the original and still is our main application of GIS. Using the GIS, we have been able to handle a large amount and variety of data and to select only the data that are relevant to each individual site as it is being described and evaluated. The GIS has the added benefit of being accessible to many users simultaneously. It allows us to avoid duplication of effort because all user's have immediate and easy access to the growing database. The alternative for the HCP project would have been to gather multiple copies of many maps and reports, each with its own format and scale and translate each to a new map and report. This would have been cumbersome, time-consuming, and would have resulted in much duplication of work. The HCP is a conservation program and so addresses an important element of the mission of the Galveston Bay Foundation. "

Heal The Bay, Ca e98 . ( Heal the Bay, 2701 Ocean Park Blvd. Suite 150, Santa Monica California 90405 USA tel:(310) 581- 4188 Fax: (310) 581- 4195 temai:htb@healthebay.org ) . "Heal the Bay was founded in 1985 when a small group of citizens became outraged when the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant applied for an exemption from the effluent discharge requirements outlined in the Clean Water Act. From this small group of citizen advocates, Heal the Bay has grown into an organization of over 10,000 members and volunteers. " GIS NEWS: "The Malibu Creek Watershed Stream Team is a group of dedicated citizen volunteers who will walk throughout the Malibu Creek Watershed to collect data that can be used by the various stakeholders in the region to protect and enhance the natural resources of the Malibu Creek Watershed. ..The Stream Walk volunteers will be armed with GPS units so that they can record the latitude longitude coordinates of the following items: Areas that are obviously degraded and are likely sources of sediment transport, locations of outfalls into the creeks and streams, areas of exotic invasive vegetation, barriers to steelhead migration, human alterations to the stream or stream bank, and locations of dumping or littering....The purpose of the program is to utilize volunteer labor to supplement the information needs of the various groups in the watershed, to educate the public about the unique ecological concerns in this area, and create citizen stewards who take an active role in identifying and solving problems. The Stream Team Program has been designed by the Graduate Department of Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona who have collected and created a large digital data base for this watershed using ArcView version 3.0 a and Spatial Analyst version 1.1. ...This information collected will ultimately be used to prioritize and institute restoration activities, to focus education activities that target the specific problems in this watershed, and to initiate planning and enforcement actions to correct violations that are degrading water quality or impacting the ecological function of this watershed. " See the Beach Report Card Map, see also the Geography/Watershed section .

Large Marine Ecosystems of the World Site . (NOAA/NMFS Narragansett Laboratory, 28 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882 USA . Contact: Kenneth Sherman, email:Kenneth.Sherman@noaa.gov ) . "The 50 Large Marine Ecosystems are regions of ocean space encompassing coastal areas from river basins and estuaries to the seaward boundaries of continental shelves and coastal current systems. They are relatively large regions of distinct bathymetry, hydrography, productivity and trophically dependent populations. " Site includes Descriptions of LME's, DATA DOWNLOADS in Arc formats

Lithuanian Institute of Ecology, Baltic Sea Birds project (Gediminas VAITKUS, Lithuanian Ac. Sci. Akademijos 2, 2600 Vilnius, Lithuania GSM (+370-99) 99940 FAX (+370-2) 729257 e-mail:seabird@post.5ci.lt urls(bad): http://www.5ci.lt/users/seabird/public/Gedas.htm or http://www.5ci.lt/users/seabird/ ) "This page will cover the main issues related with studies of sea birds in the Baltic Sea, which were started on regular basis since winter 1991/92. We will try to establish links to other sea bird related Web sites. The page will cover some environmental information of the Baltic Sea, provide links to the related Web-sites of institutions involved in studies of the Baltic Sea. " See also Sea Bird Transect Counts software for sea bird line transect counts data storage and processing. You can download Dr. Vaitkus' Phd Dissertation: STUDIES OF SPATIAL STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF SEABIRD POPULATIONS IN EASTERN BALTIC .

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Ca e91 . (MBARI, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039-0628 USA, Tel:(831) 775-1700, FAX:(831) 775-1620 GIS contact: Gerry Hatcher, gerry@mbari.org, extension 1758) "A unique private oceanographic center, the non-profit Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), was established in 1987 by David Packard (1912-1996) with the goal of developing state-of-the-art equipment, instrumentation, systems and methods of scientific research in the deep waters of the ocean. "GIS has been very popularly applied in land information system. However, It has been modestly used in oceanographic applications. The reasons are from many aspects, such as different data standards, different data accuracies, resolutions, densities, low positional accuracy, difficulties in acquiring and representing oceanographic data in multiple dimensions etc. MBARI is one of the few institutes which have the potential to develop a marine GIS." MBARI GIS PROGRAM: Projects: MBARI GIS Datasource Page . .Also see their 1998 report on the..Marine real-time GIS system : A customized application for at-sea navigation that saved them an estimated 6 survey days through improved efficiency and planning.

Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Ca e98 . (C/O RICK STARR, MLML MARINE OPS, 7700 SANDHOLT RD., MOSS LANDING, CA 93955 USA tel:408-475-1584 GIS Contact: Ron White, email:RONWHITE1@AOL.COM) "The Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) are the marine research and teaching facilities which serve a consortium of seven California State Universities in Northern California. "

New England Aquarium, Boston MA c95 . (Central Wharf Boston, MA 02110 tel:617.973.5200) Our core mission is to promote, present, and protect the world of water. Through exhibits, research, conservation, and education, we seek to change the way people think about the world of water so they will want to protect it....Landmark studies on right whales, African lake cichlids, fisheries bycatch issues, bluefin tuna, and sea turtles, have established the Aquarium as an internationally recognized marine and aquatic conservation research center. Their Rescue and Rehab program releases animals to the wild and features an online map of wildlife movements .

NOAA National Ocean Service Special Projects Office . (Special Projects Office, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce, 1305 East-West Highway, SSMC IV, 9th floor Silver Spring, MD 20910 . Tel:(301) 713-3000 x168 Email: mailto:to_contact_special_projects@seamail.nos.noaa.gov) "The mission of the Special Projects Office is to provide expertise, products and services that help the National Ocean Service (NOS) to design and implement an effective program of coastal stewardship throughout the agency". Notable Achievements Include: NOAA's State of the Coast Report, NOS MapFinder Service, Sustainable Seas Expeditions, National Coastal Assessment and Data Synthesis Capability, National Estuarine Bathymetry, Benthic Habitats of the Florida Keys mapping project, NOAA's Estuarine Eutrophication Assessments - Report, NOAA's Estuarine Eutrophication Assessments - Summary . "National and regional coastal geographic assessment frameworks will provide a wide range of coastal stewards with co-registered geographic data, in digital and map-based formats, for organizing and comparing thematic data and information by watersheds, state and county boundaries, census tracts, ecosystem and/or other coastal units."

NOAA Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (ORCA) . Was replaced by the Special Projects branch in reorganization but the website is being maintained it's topics as listed below are available on other sites: "ORCA is one of the four major line organizations of the National Ocean Service (NOS), within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce...You may learn more about the mission and organization of ORCA, select and download a variety of products, request publications, send e-mail to ORCA personnel, and get updates on ORCA projects and the ORCA Information Service by clicking on the appropriate HotText links...ORCA provides decisionmakers with comprehensive scientific information on the resources of the nation's coastal areas, estuaries, and oceans...Major Units within ORCA: ORCA Headquarters . Coastal Monitoring and Bioeffects Assessments Division (CMBAD), Damage Assessment Center (DAC) ,Hazardous Materials Response and Assessment (HAZMAT) Division , and the NOAA Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) Division: SEA organizes data on the nation's coastal and ocean resources and provides this information to decisionmakers in the form of environmental reports and papers, regional and national atlases, and desktop and geographic information system products. Through its five branches and support staff, the Division also supports other government agencies, such as NOAA's Sanctuaries and Reserves Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as other organizations concerned with protecting the United States' coastal and ocean environments of U.S. Programs: Biogeographic Characterization (BC) Branch, Data Management and Geographic Information Systems (DM&GIS), Decision Support Systems (DSS) Branch, Human Activities Assessment (HAA) Branch, Physical Environments Characterization (PEC) Branch, Pollution Sources Characterization (PSC) Branch ...Decision Support Systems (DSS) Branch: The Decision Support Systems (DSS) Branch has two missions. First, DSS works directly with coastal resource managers to design and implement desktop information systems intended to organize and display information for use in the management of the nation's ocean and coastal resources. Over the past several years systems have been developed for various coastal issues including fisheries management, water rights and uses in Texas, National Marine Sanctuary management, shoreline uses and regulation in Oregon, and others. An important characteristic of this mission is fostering state partnerships. The series of Coastal Ocean Management, Planning, and Assessment (COMPAS) products have been produced in direct collaboration with state natural resources and environmental institutions. "

NOAA ORCA Coastal Assessment Framework (CAF) is a digital spatial framework developed using geographic information systems technology, which allows resource managers and analysts to organize and present information on the nation's coastal and marine resources. The CAF provides a consistently derived, watershed-based digital spatial framework for managers and analysts to organize and present information on the nation's coastal, near-ocean, and Great Lakes' resources....The Coastal Assessment Framework is currently available from ORCA in digital format (see the Availability of Digital Data files section of this page)...The Framework encompasses nearly 83 percent of the land area within the contiguous United States(1) and include the drainage basins of nearly all of the nation's rivers.

NOAA Coastal Services Center (2234 South Hobson Avenue Charleston, SC 29405-2413 843-740-1200 (phone) 843-740-1224 (fax) mailto:csc@csc.noaa.gov) Don't miss their extensive list of GIS products and services . see the Integration & Development department for a list of GIS CD-ROM Databases and Products they have produced, including Columbia River, WA/OR, Land Cover Change CD-ROM . San Francisco Bay, CA, Land Cover Change CD-ROM, NOAA Searchable Coastal GIS Bibliography . NOAA Nautical Chart Extension for ArcView® 3.0 . Standard Data Exchange Format Extension for ArcView® 3.0 . ArcView® Metadata Collector v2.0 . National Estuarine Research Reserve Digital Boundary . Their Projects include: Coastal Hazards Overview, Imagery Derived Products, "The Protected Areas Geographic Information System (PAGIS) project is a National Ocean Service (NOS)-wide initiative to develop fully integrated GIS, spatial data management, and Internet capabilities at all National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERR) and National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS)." . "The Ocean Planning and Governance Geographic Information System (Ocean GIS) is a prototype on-line regional marine Geographic Information System (GIS), for the Southeast, covering the ocean area bounded by North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, the exclusive economic zone, and several maritime boundaries. " . Geospatial Product Development: "Satellite-derived land cover data have not previously been readily accessible to the desktop geographic information system (GIS) community. The I&D Program is addressing this problem by integrating satellite-derived land cover data with other vector data in a multi-platform environment for use by coastal resource managers. The satellite data is generated by the Coastal Change Analysis Program and the Coastal Remote Sensing groups at the NOAA Coastal Services Center. " Penobscot Bay Geographic Information System "I&D Program will provide technical support to the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and the Island Institute of Maine to develop a regional Geographic Information System (GIS) decision support system for Penobscot Bay in the Gulf of Maine." Their Ocean GIS is built in MapObjects IMS to be a "prototype, on-line GIS that covers the coastal zones and ocean areas off North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. This is the first attempt in the U.S. to create regional, multi-state GIS for the ocean; similar projects for other regions may be developed in the future."

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). NMFS administers NOAA's programs which support the domestic and international conservation and management of living marine resources. NMFS provides services and products to support domestic and international fisheries management operations, fisheries development, trade and industry assistance activities, enforcement, protected species and habitat conservation operations, and the scientific and technical aspects of NOAA's marine fisheries program.

NOAA National Status and Trends (NS&T) Program is the primary vehicle for monitoring conducted by the Division. It is made up of seven major components: the Mussel Watch Project, the Benthic Surveillance Project, Bioeffects Surveys, the Quality Assurance Project, Specimen Banking, Historical Trends, and Coastal Contamination Assessments. see a map of "high" concentrations. The Raw Data is available for download.

NOAA ORCA Coastal Assessment Framework (CAF) is a digital spatial framework developed using geographic information systems technology, which allows resource managers and analysts to organize and present information on the nation's coastal and marine resources. The CAF provides a consistently derived, watershed-based digital spatial framework for managers and analysts to organize and present information on the nation's coastal, near-ocean, and Great Lakes' resources....The Coastal Assessment Framework is currently available from ORCA in digital format (see the Availability of Digital Data files section of this page)...The Framework encompasses nearly 83 percent of the land area within the contiguous United States(1) and include the drainage basins of nearly all of the nation's rivers.

NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (NOAA R/PMEL 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 PH: 206-526-6239 FAX: 206-526-6815 ) "Current PMEL programs focus on coastal and open ocean observations in support of prediction of the ocean environment on time scales from days to decades...Innovative technology in software and hardware has been developed in support of PMEL's research projects. Outstanding software and data management capabilities allow scientists to access, view and analyze observational and gridded data, and to work with geograpical information systems. " Don't miss the VENTS Online Geographic Information System (GIS): You can also see INTERACTIVE GIS DATA for several ridges and a 1996 Acoustic Whale Experiment .

NOAA VENTS Online Geographic Information System (GIS): (Andra Bobbitt - GIS contact, NOAA/Oregon State University, Hatfield Marine Science Center, 2115 SE OSU Drive, Newport, OR 97365-5258 tel:541-867-0274 fax:541-867-3907 email:bobbitt@pmel.noaa.gov) "NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory maintains numerous data bases related to the research and exploration of hydrothermal vent processes. PMEL utilizes Geographic Information Systems to integrate these multidisciplinary data sets. Many of the data sets are provided here to the research community in a GIS format (mainly ArcInfo and ArcView Shapefile)"

OCEAN98 (Koopmanstraat 1 P.O. Box 5807 2280 HV Rijswijk Netherlands Phone: (+31)-70-3366816 Fax: (+31)-70-3900691 E-mail: ocean98@unesco.org)" is an exciting educational challenge combining ocean going and virtual expeditions. Information from various perpectives and anywhere in the world is presented. " Their LINKS PAGE links to a lot of ocean maps (but some of the links are old)

Oceanic Resource Foundation, Ca . (P. O. Box 280216 San Francisco CA 94128-0216 USA tel:415-835-9478 or 888-835-9478 fax:415-954-7199 GIS Contact: Greg L. Carter, gcarter@orf.org ) "ORF is dedicated to the protection of the marine environment through research, conservation and education, with a focus on Baja California and Latin America....Remnant turtle populations that were once large, and five years ago thought to be nonexistent, are being studied, protected and slowly restored. Turtles are no longer commercially hunted in Mexico, but they are still illegally killed for local consumption and their nests are subject to animal predation and human poachers. GIS mapping of migratory routes and habitat analysis is expected to play an important role in the successful restoration of these creatures. " Example GIS projects include: Sea of Cortez Biodiversity Species Inventory Project: ..The collection of fish population data will be translated to a GIS mapping program for trend analysis. Potential impacts to the ecosystem from shrimp trawling will be analyzed."

People for Puget Sound, Seattle WA c96 . (1402 Third Ave., Suite 1200 Seattle WA 98101 phone: (206) 382-7007 fax: (206) 382-7006 . email: mailto:people@pugetsound.org GIS Contact: Zach Schwartz) People for Puget Sound is a non-profit citizens group dedicated to educating and involving people in protecting and restoring the land and waters of Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits. We seek to eliminate contamination of our waters, to halt the destruction of natural habitats, and to sustain the Sound and Straits as a healthy source of people's livelihood, enjoyment and renewal. Don't miss their stunning GIS Mapping Report: Citizen's Shoreline Inventory: "The Citizens Shoreline Inventory is a project created by People for Puget Sound and Adopt a Beach that recruits and trains volunteer stewards to collect detailed data about the shoreline of Puget Sound. The project was created to fill gaps in understanding Puget Sound shorelines and educate citizens about the importance of these habitats. The information collected by our stewards is stored at People for Puget Sound and connected to a series of interactive maps using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The resulting Citizens Shoreline Atlas has become the most comprehensive citizen-based, nearshore habitat assessment of its kind in Washington State." Also see the review article on the CSI in the Soundweb Newsletter . See also: A conservation blueprint for the Snohomish estuary : "To assist with the site selection/decision-making process in the Snohomish, People for Puget Sound is using a combination of existing reports, on-the-ground habitat surveys, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and a community-based outreach program. 'Our project goal is to identify sites that will contribute substantially to the ecological integrity of the Snohomish River estuary, and to connect existing high quality habitat in a fish and wildlife corridor stretching from the head of tidal influence to Puget Sound'....To identify potential areas for restoration or preservation data was analyzed using criteria like acreage, ownership, land use, and existing condition or "functional wetland value. "The GIS system allowed us to 'ask' the database which parcels of land had a particular combination of these characteristics," says Schwartz. ' (For a copy of the blueprint, call Tom Dean at (206) 382-7007 or send email to tdean@pugetsound.org. ) Also see: Duwamish Estuary Stewardship Project . "This spring People for Puget Sound launched a major new habitat restoration effort, the Duwamish Estuary Stewardship Project. We are bringing together an experienced group of organizations to work with agencies, local businesses, volunteers and urban youth to restore salmon habitat at more than 20 sites in the Duwamish Estuary. "

Prince William Sound Science Center, Cordova , AK e95 . (P.O. Box 705, Cordova, AK 99574 phone: 907-424-5800 fax: 907-424-5820 Contact: Nancy Bird - bird@grizzly.pwssc.gen.ak.us ) Dedicated to the comprehensive description, sustained monitoring and ecological understanding of Prince William Sound, the Copper River and their wetlands, river systems and drainage basin. Projects: The Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) Selected Programs: Development of a geographic information system for the Greater Prince William Sound Region. See The Sound Report for real-time Prince William Sound Imagery, Maps and Data on Oil Spill Response . The Long-term Killer Whale Database is an ArcInfo AML project by David Scheel for analyzing and viewing Killer Whale data . "The Long-term Killer Whale Database project is part of North Gulf Oceanic Society's long-term study of killer whales in Prince William Sound, Alaska; and is supported as a component of restoration research designed to monitor and promote the recovery of the damaged ecosystem in the area impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) in 1989. " Also see David's work on theShepard Point Region Habitat & Biological Assessment in the Corridor of the Proposed Shepard Point Road & Port including site maps .

Reef Check . (Reef Check Coordinator, Gregor Hodgson, PhD, Reef Check Headquarter, GPO Box 12375, Hong Kong, China Tel: 852-2358-0317 Fax: 852-2887-5454 . mailto:gregorh@hk.super.net) . "Reef Check is the largest international coral reef monitoring program involving recreational divers and marine scientists. In 1997, Reef Check teams completed the first global survey of coral reefs. Over 750 volunteer sport divers were trained and led by 100 volunteer scientists in surveys of more than 300 reefs in 31 countries. The results of Reef Check 97 provided the first solid evidence that coral reefs have been damaged on a global scale. Reef Check 98 covered 40 countries and documented an unprecedented global bleaching and mortality event (Results of Reef Check 98). In addition to producing valuable scientific results, Reef Check 97 raised the awareness of scientists, governments, politicians and the general public about the value of coral reefs, threats to their health and solutions to coral reef problems."

 

Restore America's Estuaries (raecoalition@estuaries.org ) "is a national coalition of 11 regional, coastal community-based environmental organizations with a combined membership of over 250,000 citizens. The coalition includes: American Littoral Society (Hudson-Raritan estuaries of N.Y and N.J.), Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Conservation Law Foundation (Gulf of Maine), Galveston Bay Foundation, North Carolina Coastal Federation, People for Puget Sound, Save San Francisco Bay Association, Save the Bay (Narragansett Bay), Save the Sound (Long Island Sound), Tampa BAYWATCH .

San Francisco Estuary Institute, Richmond CA e93 . (1325 South 46th Street Richmond, CA 94804 tel:510.231.9539 Fax:510.231.9414 GIS Contact: Zoltan Der mailto:zoltan@sfei.org . formerly San Francisco Bay Delta Aquatic Habitat Institute) "Mission: To provide the scientific understanding necessary to manage the complex and biologically rich San Francisco Estuary. Projects: Wetlands Monitoring, Regional Monitoring Program for Trace Substances, SINBAD--The Scientific Information Network for the Bay and Delta , Bay Area EcoAtlas© "a computer-based Geographic Information System (GIS) to support local and regional environmental planning and management." EcoAtlas measures landscape change by contrasting the present day landscape condition with a 'native' landscape condition: " The Native Landscape View of the EcoAtlas is a composite picture based upon hundreds of independent sources of data. These include eighteenth- and nineteenth-century maps, sketches, paintings, photographs, engineering reports, oral histories, explorers' journals, missionary texts, hunting magazines, interviews with living elders, and other sources. Documents were selected from about 10,000 materials examined at archives around the Bay Area and are catalogued in the project databases. Sufficient information about the natural Bay Area landscape is available from early European documents to discover the distribution and abundance of many habitat types fairly confidently. With a robust amount of data, historical sources overlap and confirm (or contradict) each other, strengthening their interpretation. The intersection of discrete sources is then mapped and recorded in a database. This is the basic procedure used to compile the Native Landscape View of the EcoAtlas. " In addition, a careful procedure for quantifying and tracking error and uncertainty is utilized, an important method when dealing with inconsistent historical data. Don't miss their Interesting Collection of online historical/modern habitat maps for the San Francisco Subregion . Don't miss the Regional Volunteer Watershed Monitoring Online Interactive Database Program, in coordination with the Coyote Creek Riparian Station, where you can select from a clickable map, view, and download, monitoring data in the San Francisco Bay area including Birds, Fish, Water Quality, Vegetation, Amphibian Species, Amphibian Habitat. Check out their Map Interpretation Online Tutorial (in the ECP training section) . The Bay Area Historical Ecology Project "The project will help SFEI make the information developed through our watershed science efforts into a packet of watershed-specific maps, photography, text, and artwork, which can be delivered to local educational institutions and programs for distribution and use."

Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, Ca e98 . (101 Centre Plaza Drive, Monterey Park, CA 91754 tel:213.266.7516 fax:213.266.7626 email:SMBRP@earthlink.net . GIS contact: Jack R Topel, jtopel@rb4.swrcb.ca.gov ) "SMBRP was established in 1988 under the Clean Water Act's National Estuary Program in recognition of the national significance of Santa Monica Bay and the need to protect and restore this important natural resource. The SMBRP helps coordinate the efforts of decision-makers, technical experts and the public to solve a variety of problems confronting the Bay. One way that the Project fills this role is by compiling and interpreting data, collected by various agencies and organizations, to present a clear and comprehensive picture of the Bay and its resources for policy-makers and the public. " see their educational maps of the bay watershed and the bay ecosystems .

Save The Bay, Providence RI c96 . (434 Smith St Providence, RI 02908 tel:401-272-3540 FAX: 401-273-7153 e-mail: savebay@savebay.org) "The mission of Save The Bay is to ensure that the environmental quality of Narragansett Bay and its watershed is restored and protected from the harmful effects of human activity (The Plan to Restore Narragansett Bay Habitat). Save The Bay seeks carefully planned use of the Bay and its watershed to allow the natural system to function normally and healthfully both now and for the future. See their List of Baykeeper and Waterkeeper Programs around the US . See their list of Smart Growth Links .

Save the Sound, Inc., Stamford CT c97 . (Save the Sound, Inc, 185 Magee Ave., Stamford, CT 06902 , tel: 203-327-9786, Fax: (203) 967-2677, Vic Pyle, Habitat Restoration Project Manager, email: <savethesound@snet.net>, OR: c/o Garvies Point Museum, 50 Barry Drive, Glen Cove, NY 11542, tel 516-759-2165) . "Save the Sound, Inc. is a 25 year-old nonprofit organization with offices in Stamford, CT and Glen Cove, NY, that is dedicated to the restoration, protection, and appreciation of Long Island Sound and its watershed through education, research, and advocacy. In 1996, Save the Sound involved over 19,000 children and adults in education activites; monitored water quality in 3 rivers and 12 harbors and coves throughout the Sound; and advocated for the continued implementation of the Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan <http://www.epa.gov/region01/eco/lis>. Save the Sound is also a member of Restore America's Estuaries (RAE) <http://www.estuaries.org>, an alliance of eleven regional environmental organizations working to protect and restore one million acres of estuarine nationwide by the year 2010...Save the Sound conducts ongoing water quality research in harbors and watershed areas around Long Island Sound. In 1996, Save the Sound staff and almost 200 Save the Sound volunteers monitored water quality at 61 sites in 11 harbors and coves and three rivers across the Sound. Our monitoring projects cover areas in Westchester County, N.Y. and Fairfield and New Haven Counties in CT....To address the habitat loss problem in the Sound, Save the Sound, Inc. was recently awarded a two-year, $103,000 matching grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts in order to conduct the Long Island Sound Habitat Preservation and Restoration Project. (See Example GIS MAP) The grant will allow Save the Sound, Inc. to prioritize habitat restoration needs; to increase awareness and appreciation of significant habitats in need of protection and restoration; to stop current habitat losses; and to mobilize and empower stakeholders to restore degraded habitats of Long Island Sound. The Project will initiate a grassroots effort to preserve and restore significant habitats with the focus on the many communities along the 600 miles of the Sound's shores on Long Island, in Westchester County, around New York City, and in Connecticut."

SEAGIS Coastal and Ocean GIS Distribution List. listserv@irlearn.bitnet, " subscribe sea-gis "

Surfrider Foundation, Ca c98 . (122 S. El Camino Real #67, San Clemente, CA 92672 tel. (949) 492-8170 fax (949) 492-8142 email:info@surfrider.org GIS Contact: Chad Nelsen, cnelsen@surfrider.org ) . "Established in 1984, the Surfrider Foundation is a decentralized, grassroots organization with national headquarters in San Clemente, California. There are 42 Surfrider chapters dispersed along the West, East, Hawaiian and Puerto Rican coasts. The Surfrider Foundation has close to 25,000 members in the U.S. and, in addition, has affiliates in 4 foreign countries. Surfrider members are surfers, divers, swimmers, and ocean-lovers of all ages. The Surfrider Foundation has built a solid reputation in protecting the coastline by creating solution-oriented programs, activating its membership, and educating the public. Most importantly, the Surfrider Foundation acts to empower individuals and our chapters on a grassroots scale to protect and care for their own coastline. ." GIS PROGRAM: "Beachscape: A community-based coastal mapping program: "The natural integrity of our coast is threatened by increasing environmental pressures. Threats include increasing coastal development and associated habitat destruction, water pollution, armoring of the shoreline, and a loss of public access. Unfortunately, coastal management agencies often lack the information necessary to make planning decisions that will protect the long-term health of the coast. In response to this information shortage, the Surfrider Foundation is developing Beachscape, a volunteer-based mapping program, to document the physical characteristics, land use patterns, pollution sources, public access, erosion, habitat and wave characteristics of our nation's coastlines. The aim of this program is to mobilize the Surfrider Foundation's vast national network of local chapter volunteers to characterize their local coastal areas at level of detail that is currently not available. The Surfrider Foundation's 42 chapters represent an enormous work force of concerned citizens with intimate knowledge of their coastlines. Tapping the Surfrider Foundation's chapter resources will enable the Beachscape program to develop data sets at a scale that would be prohibitively expensive for traditional, contract-based data collection projects. By employing the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and aerial photography, the Beachscape program will develop an accurate and credible database of baseline conditions that will be widely available to local citizens, community activists, state and federal agencies. Over time these detailed datasets will illustrate cumulative trends and improve information to enable sustainable coastal stewardship....The methodology for basic Beachscape is relatively simple. Using a USGS 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle (topo quad) the chapter members delineate their coastal area into discrete beach sections. These sections are then numbered and named. Volunteers are then sent to the beaches to collect beach attribute information using the Basic Beachscape form (see Appendix A). The information collected is then entered into an Access database. A beach delineation theme is created in ArcView by creating line segments from a coastline derived from the 7.5 minute USGS quadrangle. The attribute information can then be linked to the beach segments in ArcView. A map visualization convention is still being developed for these ArcView projects. "

Tampa Baywatch, St. Petersburg FL c97 . (Tampa Baywatch, 8401 Ninth Street North Suite 230-B, St. Petersburg, Fl. 33702 tel:(813) 896-5320 Email:TPBAYWATCH@aol.com ) (Alternate URL) "Tampa BayWatch utilizes a professional staff and citizen volunteers to support resource monitoring, education, and restoration activities. Time after time, unintentional or illegal environmental impacts are identified and reported by individuals like you, people who care about the bay! Tampa BayWatch is the first organization of its kind in the southeastern United States, and has proven highly effective in mobilizing the Tampa Bay community to participate in restoration and protection activities, so far involving thousands of volunteers. GIS STATUS: "The addition of the GIS technology to Tampa BayWatch allowed us immediate access to many environmental data layers already developed by governmental entities in the bay area. The next step was to apply the ArcView GIS technology to our projects, through analyzing and interpreting information gathered from our environmental activities, monitoring events, and research, and examining for status and trends....Tampa Bay has lost more than 80 percent of its seagrass meadows during the last 100 years. Only recently has the water quality improved enough to allow regrowth in areas that previously held dense meadows. During the summer of 1997, Tampa BayWatch will be transplanting grass to the impacted areas to accelerate seagrass regrowth. This will entail a large amount of map work to determine suitable donor sites and appropriate transplant sites. Reference GIS layers would consist of current and past seagrass coverage (from aerial photography), bathymetry, shoreline characteristics, and others. Successful use of GIS would produce data depicting the number and location of transplant sites, original seagrass coverage, monitored growth rates of seagrass, as well as other data....Tampa BayWatch is coordinating the development of a volunteer program to provide rapid deployment of oil booms in the event of a material spill at an environmentally sensitive 8,583 acre Aquatic Preserve. The Florida Marine Research Institute has generated ArcView data sets for oil spill contingency planning. Tampa BayWatch will build on the existing information with site-specific oil spill prevention techniques within the Aquatic Preserve. "

University of California, Santa Cruz, Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) () "Established in 1972, the institute now supports a variety of research activities in many areas. The institute on-campus complex includes the IMS office, faculty research laboratories; analytical labs for Marine Chemistry; biology and geology; a computer laboratory; culture room for invertebrates and algae; portable seagoing analytic labs; and support facilities for the Ańo Nuevo Island program. In addition is the Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory, an onshore site located 3 miles from the UCSC campus."

USFWS Gulf of Maine Project (Arnold Banner) Covers the fish and wildlife of Great Bay, New Hampshire. "We used gis to create grids of bathymetry, temperature and salinity gradients, and substrate, then used these parameters to create maps for a number of marine/estuarine organisms. The site includes the full text, tables, appendixes, and figures of all life stages of all species modeled and all environmental themes. A wordprocesser version and all of the gis data may be downloaded as raster (*.bil) files zipped to include metadata and header information. These can be brought directly into ARCINFO by the imagegrid command, or viewed as images in ArcView "

White Point Systems, Inc. (P.O. Box 2989 180 First Street Friday Harbor, WA 98250 USA

Phone: 360-378-7292 Fax: 360-378-7260 E-mail: napis@wpbm.com ) . NAPIS Lite is available for FREE download with optional Taxonomy lookup table data and Sample data.

..."NAPIS supports researchers at the government, industry, and university levels by providing a link between the library, laboratory and field. In addition to sample tracking and bioactivity directed isolation, NAPIS integrates geographic information system (GIS) technology using ESRI's Map Objects, which allows text-field database tables to be related to spatial features on computer-based maps. Researchers can query using the GIS map and drill down on chemical structures, or vice versa; query on field database tables to be related to spatial features on computer-based maps.

Wisconsin Coastal GIS Applications Project (University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, 1975 Willow Drive 2nd Floor, Madison, WI 53706 tel:(608) 262-0644 fax:(608) 263-2063 (fax) . mailto:dahart@facstaff.wisc.edu) "is a cooperative venture of the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute and the Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The primary goal of the project is to teach the application of GIS/LIS and related spatial technologies to local government staff and officials to aid them in moving towards the sustainable management of Great Lakes coastal resources". See tutorials & projects .

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WWW Server . (Woods Hole, MA, 02543 Phone: 508/289-2252 or 508/289-2100 MAILTO:information@whoi.edu) see the Sosik Research Lab's work on: Patterns and Scales of Variability in the Optical Properties of Georges Bank Waters, with Special Reference to Phytoplankton Biomass and Production . see the Benthic Ecology and Nearshore Oceanography Lab projects on Biogeography of nearshore species, Large scale perturbations (global warming) and their effects on nearshore benthic communities, Population and Community Ecology. . see The Cooperative Institute for Coastal & Ocean Research : "The research activities of CICOR will be organized around three themes: the coastal ocean and near shore processes, the ocean's participation in climate and climate variability and marine ecosystem processes analysis. " see the WHOI / Data Explorer Site .

Developing Manatee GIS Using ArcView Avenue. (1997 ESRI paper: Zhangshi Yin DYNAMAC Mail Code DYN-2 Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899 Telephone: 407-853-3281 Fax: 407-853-2939 E-mail: Yinz@dugong.ksc.nasa.gov , Mike Provancha, Jane Provancha, Resa Reddick, Dynamac ). Defining Issue: There is a disadvantage to managing manatee spatial and attribute data in the long term without GIS. How can a manatee be developed for inputting, managing, displaying, and analyzing manatee data in ArcView Avenue? GIS Solution: An ArcView/Avenue program integrated with Oracle, ArcInfo, the operating system, and C programs was written to input, manage, display, and analyze manatee spatial and attribute data.

DEVELOPMENT OF GIS-BASED DECISION-SUPPORT TOOLS AND THE DATABASING OF PHYTOPHTHORA-SENSITIVE TAXA. (Ray Wills, Email: rwills@sunny.gis.uwa.edu.au, Ph: +61 9 480 3640, Fx: +61 9 480 3641, Snail: Kings Park & Botanic Garden, West Perth WA 6005, Australia.) "Between 1992 and 1995, my program of research with the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) in Western Australia was aimed at establishing a GIS database bringing together relevant spatial biophysical data and remote-sensed imagery to provide information on the spread of Phytophthora and its proximity to populations of susceptible threatened taxa, and includes a study to model the dynamic effects of infection."

Facilitating Integrated Regional Ocean Management Using a Web-based Geographic Information System (Robert M. Neely, Programmer Analyst, Technology Planning and Management Corporation, Eric Treml, Programmer Analyst, Technology Planning and Management Corporation, Tony LaVoi, Spatial Data Analyst, Technology Planning and Management Corporation, Cindy Fowler, Senior Spatial Data Analyst, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center) "...there is a great need for the development of ocean management information systems that integrate environmental data with spatially referenced legal, political, and jurisdictional frameworks to help resource managers and policy makers make sense of offshore jurisdictional complexities. With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration providing leadership for the U.S., staff at its Coastal Services Center (CSC) are building upon ongoing state-level efforts to develop a regional model for a Web-based ocean governance and management geographic information system (GIS). This prototype the Southeast Ocean Planning GIS (Ocean GIS) will help facilitate the shift from fragmented management of individual ocean resources to integrated management of ocean ecosystems."

The Florida Marine Spill Analysis System - Using GIS to Support Marine Oil Spill Response in Florida (Presentation at Coastal GeoTools 99, by Henry A. Norris Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Marine Research Institute GIS Coordinator 100 8th Ave. SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 (727) 896-8626 Fax:(727) 893-1679 e-mail: harry@fmri.usf.edu ) "This presentation will consist primarily of a live demonstration of the Florida Marine Spill Analysis System (FMSAS). This ArcView application was developed to support marine oil spill responders by providing data, maps and analyses for all phases of oil spill response, including contingency planning, real-time response, damage assessment, and long-term monitoring. The successful transferability of the FMSAS to other applications will be discussed along with a brief discussion about how the FDEP is working with NOAA and other agencies to develop a standard model for coordinating the future development of the FMSAS. "

Geographic Information Systems for RIDGE Research (From: RIDGE Events, 5(2):5-7, 11, 1994 by Dawn J. Wright ) "...GIS may also be used effectively in support of RIDGE-related research. The major advantages of GIS in this regard lie in its ability to: (1) provide integrated access, processing, and display of data from multiple sources and in multiple formats, projections, coverages, themes, etc.; and (2) simultaneously elucidate the spatial implications of data while analyzing their descriptive attributes (e.g., to quickly and accurately establish correlations, proximities, and coincidences between data layers while keeping data in their correct geographic location)..."

GIS Europe magazine (7)March 3, 1998.Special Issue on Marine GIS

The GIS Methodology Applied for a Statewide Assessment of Propeller Scar Damage in Seagrasses (Florida) (1995 Paper, Timothy J. Leary)...Seagrasses are a vital component of Florida's coastal ecology and economy; they provide marine fauna with improved water quality, nursery grounds, shelter, and nutrition. As the state's human population grows, threats to the health and very existence of these ecological communities increase. Habitat degradation has many sources (e.g., pollution, dredge and fill), but an increasingly common cause is scarring of seagrasses....As one component of this effort, the Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI) investigated the distribution of scarred seagrass beds in the shallow marine and estuarine waters of Florida's coastal counties. Aerial photography was used to locate areas of scarring. Aerial surveys were then conducted in 1992-1993 to confirm and amend the demarcation of scarred seagrasses.

Identifying Regions of Persistent Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) Around Santa Catalina Island for Designation as Marine Reserves (1995 Paper, William W. Bushing) ...This study utilized a GIS to investigate the influence of submarine and terrestrial topography on the distribution of giant bladder kelp around an island off the southern California coast. Macrocystis pyrifera is an important species in the marine environment, serving both as structural habitat and food for a wide range of marine invertebrates and fishes.

Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems (Taylor & Francis, in press, Edited by Dawn Wright (Oregon State University, USA) and Darius Bartlett (University College Cork, IRELAND) "As marine and coastal applications of GIS are finally gaining wide acceptance in scientific as well GIS communities, our hope is that this book will be a timely compilation of ongoing GIS research and innovation in deepsea geology, chemistry, and biology, and coastal geology, biology, engineering, and resource management."

NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) Use of GPS-Linked Field Computers for the Columbia River Estuary Change Detection Project . (L. Dorsey Worthy, Ph.D. Program Manager, NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP), NOAA Coastal Services Center, U.S. Department of Commerce) "C-CAP has recently completed a project examining land cover change in the area of the Columbia River estuary. The change detection was performed by comparing satellite scenes from 1989 and 1992 from the Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite. This data is already being used by the city of Astoria, Oregon, to strengthen their zoning ordinances to control development in sensitive environmental areas. "

THE POTENTIAL OF SPOT PANCHROMATIC IMAGERY AS A TOOL FOR MAPPING CORAL REEFS: P. J. Mumby, M. A. Baker, P. S. Raines, J. M.. Ridley, A. T.. Phillips, Presented at the Second Thematic Conference on Remote Sensing for Marine and Coastal Environments, New Orleans, Louisiana, 31 January - 2 February 1994. "Landsat (TM & MSS) and SPOT XS multi-spectral satellite images have been successfully used to map coral reefs. The use of SPOT Panchromatic (XP), which offers higher resolution but is confined to a single band of reflectance, has been restricted to providing morphological detail to refine marine maps generated using multi-spectral images. This study investigated the application of SPOT XP as a primary mapping tool for coral reefs in the southern province of the Belize barrier reef, Central America." .

Rumblings on the ocean floor: GIS supports deepsea research , (Wright, D.J ., Geo Info Systems, 6(1): 22-29, 1996. )

Using Geographic Information Systems and Hazards Information for Local Planning and Coastal Management (ESRI 1998 conf paper: Anthony LaVoi, Technology Planning and Management Corporation, Charleston, South Carolina, and Sandy Ward, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coastal Services Center, Charleston, South Carolina ) contents: Alabama Coastal Hazards Assessment CD-ROM, Alabama Coastal Hazards Geographic Information System Databases, Shoreline Erosion, Coastal Flooding, Hurricane Storm Surge, Additional Geographic Information System Databases for Analysis, Geographic Information System Project Development, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), ArcView® Project Files, ArcExplorer® Project Files, Development and Evaluation of a Monitoring and Emergency Response / Crisis Management System for Oil Spills and Hurricanes .

All text by the respective organizations/authors, January 2, 1997

Web layout & design: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. January 2, 1996