Current Projects
Pacific Islands Ecosystem Management
In partnership with other organizations, the NOAA Pacific Services Center will provide training and technical assistance for marine protected area management planning and evaluation, a thorough socio-economic and cultural assessment of small-scale fisheries, and ways to better coordinate the efforts of the various coastal resource management programs in the region. (2008-2009)
Pacific Islands Technology Tools and Applications
The NOAA Pacific Services Center is conducting a range of activities that support the development of technology tools and applications to enhance its ability, and the ability of its partners, to effectively manage the coasts and build resilience to coastal hazards. Some of the new activities initiated during 2008 include a partnership with the NOAA National Weather Service to develop an Internet application for distributing NOAA Weather Radio alerts. This application will provide a much-needed service for the Pacific Islands region, since the NOAA Weather Radio coverage for portions of the islands is intermittent. Another activity is the development of the Guam Resource Environmental Assessment Tool (GREAT). (ongoing)
Pacific Islands – Enhancing Coastal Community Resilience
The NOAA Pacific Services Center is conducting a range of activities that support the enhancement of coastal community resilience. Some of the activities planned for 2008 include a coastal community resilience guidebook and assessment tool, as well as an assessment of existing hazard mitigation plans. The assessment will evaluate ways to incorporate more resilience-building elements into the plans, especially elements focused on the integration of community development and coastal resource management. Tsunami inundation models will also be developed for the U.S. Pacific Island territories. These areas are highly vulnerable to tsunami impacts but have never been modeled. The Pacific Services Center will also continue working with the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System Program. (2004-2009)
NOAA Resilience Portal
This Web-based portal will provide access to a basic suite of data, information, tools, products, and services available from NOAA that are needed to help communities in pilot regions understand, evaluate, and enhance community resilience to natural hazards. (2007-2009)
Pacific Services Center Partner Support
The NOAA Pacific Services Center is committed to supporting NOAA National Ocean Service partners working in the Pacific. This assistance includes damage assessments and restoration support, including two natural resource damage assessment workshops in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Pacific Services Center also supports technical assistance needs related to contaminated sites, including cleanup evaluation and marine debris removal. A typhoon protection strategy is also being discussed. (ongoing)
Pacific Islands Technical Assistance
The NOAA Pacific Services Center provides technical assistance to the coastal resource managers in the U.S. flag Pacific Islands. This assistance includes working with geospatial technologies, raising awareness of the availability of remotely sensed data sets, providing technical training, and directing efforts to create a unified geodetic network. In 2008, efforts include working with the National Geodetic Survey to make improvements to the National Spatial Reference System in the Pacific, introducing new land cover data and related tools, and providing geographic information system (GIS) training classes when needed. (ongoing)
NOAA Pacific Region Support
The NOAA Pacific Services Center (PSC) provides leadership to the Pacific Regional Team to support the NOAA Regional Collaboration efforts. Through the team lead, Bill Thomas, PSC will serve as a primary point of contact on regional team work, as well as liaison to the Pacific Region Executive Board (PREB). The plan for the regional team includes several projects that work across NOAA line offices with a presence in the Pacific to facilitate more collaborative product and service delivery. (ongoing)
Environmental Literacy Program
This program serves underrepresented groups by working with various organizations to develop professional internships, fellowships, mentorships, and traineeships for young adults who are interested in pursuing scientific and technical careers. In addition, professional development opportunities help teachers increase their ability to teach environmental sciences. (ongoing)
Coastal Hazards Risk and Impact Assessment Toolkit
Through a portfolio, or toolkit, of products and services, the NOAA Coastal Services Center will help local communities analyze their coastal hazard risks and impacts from hurricanes and coastal storms, inundation, flooding, and shoreline change. The toolkit will include mapping tools and templates, training, visualization techniques, methodologies and best practices, and data resources, as well as marketing materials and the NOAA Coastal Services Center’s coastal hazards outreach plan. (ongoing)
Digital Coast: Legislative Atlas
This Web-based legislative mapping tool provides coastal resource managers with easy access to coastal legislative data and information. In 2008 the Legislative Atlas team will add additional legislative information for the three regions represented in the atlas—Hawaii, California, and the Gulf of Maine. This added information includes both federal and state regulations. The legislative query tool will also be redesigned according to user input. (2008 update)
N-SPECT Applications
The Nonpoint-Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool (N-SPECT) is a geographic information system (GIS)-based screening tool that models basic hydrologic processes, including overland flow, erosion, and nonpoint source pollution for watersheds. In 2008, assistance will be given to Puerto Rico and the states of California, Hawaii, and Texas as they use N-SPECT to estimate runoff in various land cover scenarios. Staff members also work with the Environmental Protection Agency and private-sector groups that want to use N-SPECT with their programs. (2008 update)
High-Resolution Land Cover
The Center’s Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) develops high-resolution data that complements the C-CAP regional land cover products by providing information that managers can use to address more site-specific management issues. In 2008, this high-resolution work focuses on the completion of impervious surface products for the main eight islands of Hawaii, high-resolution land cover maps for the counties of Oahu and Maui, and continued work with the National Estuarine Research Reserve System and other partners as they explore new ways to use these data. The data were obtained via contracts with various remote sensing companies. (2008 update)
C-CAP Land Cover and Change Data
The Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) is a nationally standardized database of land cover and change data within the coastal regions of the U.S. C-CAP products inventory coastal intertidal areas, wetlands, and adjacent uplands with the goal of monitoring natural and human-induced changes in these habitats on a one-to-five year cycle. Key efforts in 2008 include land cover and change maps and products developed with private-sector remote sensing contractors for the Great Lakes, Northeast, Pacific, and Caribbean Island regions. (2008 update)
Ahupua'a Management Toolkit
Numerous watershed management products and services have been developed across NOAA as well as other agencies for the State of Hawaii. This project will package these efforts together and build upon their cumulative, rather than individual, benefits. A unique aspect is the integration of traditional Hawaiian knowledge and practices with contemporary science and technology to enhance natural resource and community resilience. (2008-2009)
Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Hawaii Grant Opportunity
B-WET Hawaii has an annually awarded, competitively based grant that supports environmental education programs. Twelve-month awards provide meaningful outdoor experiences for K-12 students and professional environmental education development opportunities for teachers. Over 15,000 students and 700 teachers and adults have benefited from this grant opportunity. (2007)
Digital Coast: Legislative Atlas
Users will be able to point to places on the map in the project area and find information about local, state, and federal policies, as well as legislation and jurisdictional boundaries pertinent to these locations. (ongoing)
Hawaii Flood Response Tool
This software, which is being developed for local emergency managers, will provide an improved operational picture for flood response activities by automatically logging disparate real-time and near real-time observation data and text products via the Internet. The information will be displayed along with historical and baseline data in an-easy to-interpret format utilizing GIS. This rapid access to new data streams should provide a more realistic picture of on-the-ground conditions and reduce data compilation time. (2006-2009)
Hawaii Tsunami Evacuation Visualization Tool
New models and updated data are causing Hawaii to rezone some tsunami evacuation areas and change the designations of some previously identified tsunami evacuation shelters. However, new information is not always easy for the public to find. This project will include the development of an Internet mapping application to provide a user-friendly mechanism for the public to access Hawaii’s tsunami hazards information. (2006-2008)
High Resolution Land Cover Mapping
The NOAA Coastal Services Center has partnered with the Pacific Services Center to develop high-resolution impervious surface data and land cover data for the island of Oahu. Through a contract with private industry, high-resolution satellite imagery and topographic data will be utilized to inventory Oahu’s land cover features in greater spatial detail. Final products will be provided through the Center’s Web site. The impervious surface product will be ready by spring 2007, and the land cover data will be available in fall 2007. (2006-2007)
NOAA in Hawaii Experts Guide
This project will collect information on federal and contractor staff working in NOAA offices in Hawaii. The collected data will be organized into a searchable database that allows both internal and external audiences to quickly identify resources among NOAA offices in Hawaii. Guide information will include areas of responsibility, areas of expertise and experience, contact information, and other details. (2007)
Pacific Islands Marine Protected Area Community
The Pacific Islands Marine Protected Area Community (PIMPAC) will be a forum for marine protected area (MPA) sites to share information and receive training on important management tools. In 2007 an international MPA forum will be held in Hawaii. The forum will include a large public event to showcase MPA experiences throughout the Pacific Islands, as well as to show support for Hawaii's MPA efforts, specifically the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument. (2005-2008)
Regional Coastal Water Quality
Coastal water quality and nonpoint-source pollution are priority watershed issues for coastal communities. Participation from the Center’s regional staff play an important role in many of these efforts. In California, staff provides key support for the development of a statewide water quality education and technical assistance organization, the California Water and Land Use Partnership. Staff in the mid-Atlantic initiated the Chesapeake Bay Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) program in partnership with the National NEMO Network and Center for Watershed Protection. In the Northeast, an assessment of the existing efforts in the Gulf of Maine watershed is being undertaken to help the organization decide how to focus its efforts more strategically. (2006-2008)
Small-Scale Fisheries Assessment for Hawaii
Small-scale fisheries are believed to be the single largest influence on nearshore marine ecosystems (particularly coral reefs) in Hawaii. This project would initiate the first thorough socioeconomic and cultural assessment of small-scale fisheries in Hawaii. Armed with this information, both parties officials as well as participants in small-scale fisheries would be in a better position to understand each other and form partnerships that would protect the natural resources and current uses of those resources. 92007-2009)
Building Geospatial Capacity in the Pacific
Pacific Services Center efforts are ongoing in providing the Pacific Islands with the needed geospatial tools, data, training, and services. These efforts include developing an inventory of spatial data for the Pacific Islands region; supporting regional data development initiatives; and supporting land cover, watershed, and land-based pollution efforts. (ongoing)
Coral Reef Management Fellowship
The fellowship program provides professional on-the-job education and training to highly qualified individuals on island-level coral reef management and provides policy and management support. Fellows are placed every other year and spend two years working on specific projects and activities determined by each island's lead coral reef management agency. (ongoing)
Hazard Assessment Tools
Local communities have requested an easy-to-use way to access hazards data, as this information is useful when issuing building permits and making zoning decisions. Site-specific tools are being developed in response to this request, as well as open-source versions of the hazards data viewer and identification tools enabling U.S. communities with hazard mitigation plans to develop similar Internet mapping applications approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Developers are also looking to expand tool functionality to address other issues besides hazards. (2004-2009)
Pacific Islands Contaminated Sites Support
A partnership between the Pacific Services Center and NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (ORR) helps Pacific Island agencies investigate, characterize, remediate, restore, and redevelop contaminated sites, including Formerly Used Defense (FUD) sites, Superfund sites, and brownfields. The partnership matches the combined technical expertise of ORR and the Pacific Services Center with local needs related to contaminated sites. (ongoing)
Pacific Islands Damage Assessment Support
Natural resource damage assessment is a process by which natural resource trustees assess damage to and plan restoration for resources injured by oil spills, vessel groundings, and hazardous substance releases. A workshop in Guam will be offered to individuals from federal, state, and territorial agencies who may be involved in this process. The workshop will focus on issues unique to the Pacific Islands. (ongoing)
Pacific Regional Geodetic Advisor Support
The Pacific Services Centers supports a variety of activities geared toward enhancing the geodetic foundation of the National Spatial Reference System in the Pacific region. This initiative primarily involves technical support and training. (ongoing)
Pacific Risk Management `Ohana (PRiMO)
The Pacific Risk Management `Ohana (PRiMO) is an interagency working group that has evolved in the Pacific Islands to further collaboration among organizations that have disaster risk management roles. The group’s focus is on building hazard resilience at the community level. The Pacific Services Center will lead efforts to assess the applicability of the Indian Ocean Coastal Community Resilience Program and the Community Resilience Index to the U.S. Pacific Islands. Efforts will also focus on initiating multiagency collaborative projects geared at enhancing hazards resilience in coastal communities throughout the Pacific Islands region. (ongoing)
Strengthening the Capacity for Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness Evaluation in the Pacific Region
The Pacific Services Center offers technical assistance and training on management planning and management effectiveness evaluation to international governments and their nongovernmental partners. Requests have come from Indonesia, Fiji, the Bahamas, South Korea, and U.S. territories in the Pacific region. (2007-2009)
U.S. Government's Contribution to the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System
Work will continue with the U.S. Agency for International Development to develop a coastal community resilience program for the Indian Ocean region, a component of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System. Products include a community resilience guidebook, a training program, and a hazard assessment Internet mapping tool. (2006-2008)
Updating Nautical Charts and U.S. Coast Pilot
The Pacific Services Center is partnering with the Office of Coastal Survey to ensure that the nautical charts and U.S. Coast Pilots within the Pacific Islands are up-to-date and accurate, so that this data (e.g., current shorelines, hydrographic depths, features, and aids or dangers to navigation) can assist maritime commerce. (ongoing)
Watershed Management Technical Support
The goal of this project is to provide assistance to coastal managers and other stakeholders to enhance their local planning and management capability and effectiveness in addressing land-based pollution sources. A key element involves providing technical training and assistance and concept design development. This element will help jurisdictions acquire technical knowledge and establish a programmatic framework for addressing and controlling land-based sources of pollution using a watershed approach. (2005-2008)
NOAA Regional Collaboration Support
NOAA regional collaboration is an effort to improve NOAA products, services, partnerships, and stakeholder relations. The effort is led by eight newly established regional teams and four national priority area task teams. These teams work together to represent NOAA’s regional and national capabilities. They provide the coordination necessary for NOAA to address regionally distinct priorities and its own national priorities of hazard-resilient communities, integrated ecosystem assessments, integrated water resource services, and outreach and communication. The NOAA Coastal Services Center currently has one or more members on five of the eight regional teams (Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic, Pacific, Western, and Southeast and Caribbean) and two of four priority area task teams (hazard-resilient coastal communities and outreach and communications). This includes leadership of the Pacific region, the Southeast and Caribbean region, the New England sub-region of the North Atlantic, and the hazard-resilient coastal communities priority area task teams. (ongoing)
Land Cover Mapping
Nothing provides a big picture view of land cover status better than these maps, which are developed using remote sensing technology.
The NOAA Coastal Services Center has baseline land cover data for most of the coastal zone. The goal is to update the imagery every five years
to also provide a means of detecting change or trends. The data is available free of charge from csc.noaa.gov/landcover.
Completed Projects
Addressing the Challenges and Opportunities of Climate Variability and Change for PacificIsland Communities
Funding for this project helps provide coastal managers, other governmental officials, businesses, and community leaders in U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands with access to the most recent scientific information on the consequences of climate variability and change. In addition, this project will support the dialogue necessary to more fully understand local vulnerability and develop effective adaptive strategies. This project was funded with a Pacific Islands special project grant from the Center.
Community-Based Habitat Restoration
NOAA’s community-based restoration program helps community groups restore marine and estuarine habitat by providing funds and technical expertise. NOAA Fisheries leads the program. The Center has been a program partner since fiscal year 2001 and has co-funded several projects, including the restoration and monitoring of Limahuli stream and marine habitats.
Coral Reef Mapping Workshop
The Center provided the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service with support for a workshop that reviewed ways in which remote sensing from satellites, spacecraft, and aircraft can facilitate the mapping and monitoring of coral reefs. Particular attention was paid to the potential use of the technology to investigate the global problem of coral mortality (bleaching) associated with El Niño, and the implications for millions of people dependent on coral reefs for food and livelihood. The workshop proceedings are being used to advise governments and nongovernmental organizations of future needs, opportunities, and the implications of the use of the technology to monitor the health of coral reefs.
Developing Risk and Vulnerability Assessments & Hazards Mitigation Strategies
Funding for this project will educate decision makers and stakeholders about multihazard mitigation strategies and the development of effective risk and vulnerability assessments. Educational workshops for the islands of Oahu and Hawaii will provide information on developing risk and vulnerability assessments and applying assessment data to the development of a multihazard mitigation strategy. This project is funded with a Pacific Islands special project grant from the Center.
Developing Safer Communities in Maui County, Hawaii
The goal of this project was to develop a prototype hazard mitigation strategy for Maui County, Hawaii, that includes a comprehensive community-wide vulnerability assessment. The Center hired a hazard mitigation specialist from the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, under an Intergovernmental Personnel Act agreement, to perform this work. The specialist assisted Maui County in preparing to implement multihazard mitigation measures to help reduce the costly impacts associated with natural disaster events. Outreach efforts highlighting the process and resulting products serve as community models for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Project Impact Initiative, as well as for the Pacific region as a whole.
Hawaiian Shoreline Variability This Century: A Demonstration of Data Capacity Building
This project established a high-quality, high-density database of shoreline change histories to improve management efforts. The database is utilized by regional coastal managers to make informed, factually based land-use decisions and is available to the commercial sector through state and county geographic information system (GIS) service agencies. Additionally, the project worked to improve the understanding of why shoreline change happens, where future changes are likely to have societal impact, and how past and present coastal land use may be related to ongoing shoreline change. This project was conducted by the University of Hawaii and funded with a Pacific Islands special project grant from the Center.
Information Exchange through Partnerships
The Center is leading the effort to implement the NOAA Ocean Service Pacific Services Center (PSC) in Honolulu, Hawaii. PSC is the focal point for the deployment of resources, products, and services from NOS to the Pacific Island region. The new center works in partnership with NOAA, as well as with other federal, state, academic, private sector, and local coastal resource programs, to establish a collaborative program that addresses identified coastal and ocean information needs of island states and territories. PSC works with these partners to determine the best way to implement this collaborative effort and fund special projects that will accelerate the process.
Main Eight Hawaiian Islands Land Cover Data
This project mapped terrestrial land cover in coastal watershed environments. The project relied on satellite multispectral imagery as the primary information source. These data were used to distinguish major land cover classes. For this project, the data were acquired according to the Center’s Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) methods.
Maui County, Hawaii, Hazards Training
The Center conducted a two-day hazard mitigation training workshop in Maui County, Hawaii. The purpose of the workshop was to help build local capacity for developing a regional coastal hazard mitigation plan. Training sessions addressed risk and vulnerability assessments, mitigation planning, mitigation funding opportunities, developing public-private partnerships, and community education and awareness.
Needs Assessment for Island Coastal Programs
The Center is committed to conducting needs assessments of each island coastal program. The goal of the needs assessment is to collect information about the position of the coastal management program, in terms of its technical and nontechnical resources, to meet its goals. The assessment will initiate the development of appropriate and feasible projects between the Center and the particular island coastal program.
Pacific Islands GIS
The Pacific Islands GIS project is developing fully-integrated geographic information systems (GIS), spatial data management, and Internet capabilities within the Pacific Islands coastal programs. The project concentrates on data and structures necessary to support the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) and the organizations charged with carrying out CZMA. This project is assisting in functions such as coordinating GIS hardware and software purchases, providing GIS and metadata training, developing spatial data layers and associated metadata, creating and maintaining a Web site with an interactive GIS application, maintaining a list server, and providing technical support to the islands.
Pacific Islands Special Projects Program
Special Projects is a general program that provides services, such as technical assistance and funding, as defined by island needs. The goal of the program is to provide assistance to the Pacific Island coastal management community on a very broad range of issues related to coastal management. Through the Center's Broad Area Announcement, applicants can compete for project funding to meet their needs.
Pacific Islands Technical Assistantship Program
To accommodate a need expressed by Pacific Island coastal managers, the Center has designed a specialized technical assistantship program. One of the barriers to coastal management in the Pacific is that technically trained staff, especially those with geographic information system (GIS) experience, cannot be recruited or retained. The goal of the program is to place technically trained students with Pacific Island coastal programs for two years to work on coastal management activities.
Pacific Services Center
The beginnings of a NOAA Ocean Service (NOS) Pacific Services Center, located in Hawaii, took place in 2001. The office, which is directed by a small core staff from NOS, works to bring more NOS services to the Pacific Islands. One of the concerns this office works with islanders to address is the myriad of issues surrounding the increasing cruise and commerce shipping industry.
Protected Areas GIS (PAGIS)
The PAGIS project brought compatible geographic information systems (GIS), geographic data management, and Internet capabilities to each of the nation’s 25 Estuarine Research Reserves and 13 Marine Sanctuaries. Through PAGIS, the reserves and sanctuaries also developed advanced data sets, underwent extensive training, and found innovative ways to make the most effective use of their new data and technological capabilities.
Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Module, Maui
This module builds upon the methodology developed by the Center in the Community Vulnerability Assessment Tool CD-ROM. The framework for a generic Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Module (RVAM) was developed to operate within various models of urban growth developed by Prescott College and NASA. RVAM functions as a planning tool to assist local decision makers in assessing a community’s social, environmental, and economic vulnerability to natural disasters, and allows planners to test a variety of policy alternatives to improve the resilience of a community to these hazards. The Center and the Prescott College/NASA partnership utilized growth and hazard scenarios for Maui County, Hawaii, to develop the RVAM.
Safe Navigation
The Pacific Services Center, along with the NOAA Coastal Services Center, is working to assist the Pacific Island region on maritime and shipping issues of critical importance. These issues include increased vessel traffic, out-of-date nearshore data and information, the need for updated nautical charts, environmental implications from groundings, and the accuracy of geospatial positioning for the islands and their coastal environments.
Wai’anae Ecological Characterization
The Wai'anae Ecological Characterization project is developing information, data, and GIS-based tools for examining the effects of land use on coral communities and other living resources. A specific focus of the characterization is the effect of land use on sediment erodibility and discharges into coastal waters. The products of the characterization will be a CD-ROM, paper maps, and a Web site. The project is led by the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program and includes numerous state and local partners.
