Marine Page 5
(ECP and CTSP grantees, reports, and other sites of interest for
conservation geography, mapping and GIS. Grantees are coded by
program and year of grant at the end of their name/state, i.e. e91 means
ECP grant in 1991. c=cstp, cm=ctsp-mac, cs=ctsp-software)
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 the
Shepard 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
Email: 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 Email: 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 Email: 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."
All text by the respective organizations/authors
January 2, 1997
Web layout & design: Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program
April 2, 1996
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