Coastal Services Center

Current Projects

Gulf of Mexico Alliance Support

The Gulf of Mexico Alliance is a partnership of the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, with the goal of enhancing the environmental and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico through significant increases in regional collaboration. The five U.S. Gulf state governors released the “Governors’ Action Plan for Healthy and Resilient Coasts” in March 2006. The action plan challenges the new alliance partnership to make tangible progress over the next 36 months on targeted, regionally significant actions, setting the foundation for an effective long-term partnership that will culminate in a healthier Gulf of Mexico ecosystem and economy. (ongoing0

Gulf Coast Services Center Coordination

A full range of intensive NOAA services is needed in the Gulf Coast, hence the creation of the regional office of the NOAA Coastal Services Center, the NOAA Gulf Coast Services Center. While the office is small, staff members reach throughout NOAA and other agencies to bring to the Gulf the products and services most needed. The vision for the Gulf Coast Services Center is to provide technical expertise, financial assistance, training, and capacity building to local and state coastal resource and emergency management agencies. (ongoing)

Efforts include implementation of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance’s “Governors’ Action Plan for Healthy and Resilient Coasts,” providing support to the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System, and collaborating closely on projects with the proposed Northern Gulf of Mexico Cooperative Institute. High-priority management and administration issues for the Gulf include hazards and coastal storms, integrated ocean observing systems, mapping and change analysis, community resilience, and outreach, education, and training of coastal managers.

Climate Demonstration Project

While climate is an important factor for all coastal communities, coastal officials often don’t know where to access climate information or how to incorporate this information into their decision-making processes. Two pilot websites were developed for the Southeast to address this issue—one for recreation and tourism (www.cormp.org/climate/) and another for recreational and commercial fishing (www.coastalclimate.org). The content and utility of these sites will be reviewed in 2008, as well as the possibility of a pilot project for Pacific shellfish growers (www.nanoos-shellfish.org). (2005-2009)

Coastal and Marine Habitat Classification and Assessment

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard is an ecosystem-oriented framework for the identification, inventorying, and description of coastal and marine habitats and biodiversity. This structure provides a way to synthesize data so that habitats can be characterized and reported in a standard way, and data and information can be aggregated and evaluated across regional and national landscapes and seascapes. This effort will result in an analytical tool that provides managers with essential knowledge of habitat type and location, and access to habitat data sources. The focus for 2008 includes a habitat data inventory for the Gulf of Mexico, a seagrass status and trends report for Alabama, and additional sediment analyses data and classification within the Gulf of Mexico. (ongoing)

Collaboration with NOAA Fisheries

The NOAA Coastal Services Center and NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation (OHC) partner to help coastal managers and communities implement ecosystem-based management practices for coastal habitat conservation and restoration. Technical support and seed funding may be provided to support practitioners and professionals in collaborative habitat restoration and conservation planning. In 2008, the Center and OHC are hosting a workshop on barrier removal to achieve tidal hydrology restoration in the Southeast region. It will provide an opportunity for the restoration community to share lessons learned. From this workshop, technical guidance will be developed to enhance tidal hydrology restoration. (ongoing)

Geospatial Collaboration with the National Weather Service

The NOAA Coastal Services Center partners with the National Weather Service (NWS) to improve the geospatial display and delivery of products and services related to weather, water, and climate. The focus for 2008 includes inland flood severity mapping, geospatial technical support to the National Hurricane Center, technical support to the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, techniques to serve NWS data in geographic information system (GIS) formats for easier customer access and use, and new tools and education for local emergency management personnel. The flood-severity-inundation map libraries will be implemented and available for 35 Gulf Coast regions and 17 locations in North Carolina, with additional pilot locations being developed. (2008 update)

Coastal Inundation Project

Coastal managers have expressed needs for more information about inundation: what it is, what can cause it, where and when it might be an issue, and how to better interpret available models and maps. The Center’s Coastal Inundation Project is working toward addressing those needs by developing an inundation primer, by working with the inundation modeling community on improving communications, and by developing example visualizations of inundation model results to help managers better understand and convey the impacts of coastal inundation. (2005-2009)

Harmful Algal Blooms

The Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin helps coastal resource managers decide where to focus their sampling efforts and prepare for these blooms. The information is e-mailed twice a week to registered users with natural resource management responsibilities, and a public advisory is posted on the website. Activities in 2008 are focused on updating the data display system to allow visualization of satellite imagery, field observations, autonomous underwater vehicle data, and wind and current data from buoys. These data will be used to provide information on the location, extent, and potential for development, movement, or health impacts of blooms. (The Center works in partnership with many organizations to produce the bulletin.) The bulletin covers Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. (2008 update)

Apalachicola Oyster Habitat Mapping

Accurate, up-to-date maps of oyster distributions and bathymetry now being developed for Apalachicola Bay data collection involve side-scan sonar, interferometric swath bathymetry, seismic profiling, underwater videography, and bottom sampling. The Apalachicola Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Center are collaborating on this effort. Visit www.csc.noaa.gov/benthic/funding/active.htm. (2005-2007)

Benthic Habitat Mapping and Classification

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) provides a consistent and universally applicable coastal habitat inventory system. This project will link CMECS to ongoing mapping efforts in an effort to evaluate its usefulness as an analytical tool in establishing a habitat baseline and monitoring ecosystem changes. Mapping projects for 2007 in Texas and Florida include developing a “crosswalk” that will demonstrate where specific habitat types would reside within the CMECS framework. Similar activities may be developed in Rhode Island and California. (ongoing)

Integrated Ocean Observing System Applications

The NOAA Coastal Services Center is working with data providers to ensure that ocean data is available and useful to the widest possible audience. This project involves four efforts that use ocean observing system data: the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Larvae Tracker (CBOLT), the Oregon Coastal Inundation Tool, the harmful algal bloom bulletin, and the coastal climatology project. These tools and their development will be shared with others in the hope of increasing the use of ocean data throughout the coastal zone. (2006-2008)

Topographic Change Mapping

High-resolution topographic and bathymetric data sets are being collected to fill the need of the coastal resource management community for accurate, timely information in the coastal regions. The project acquires and distributes airborne-derived topographic and bathymetric data (including seamless topo/bathy data), derived information products, and analysis tools for constituents of the Center. Visit www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/tcm/. (ongoing)

Climate and Weather Impacts on Society and the Environment 2 (CWISE2)

Organizations involved in this four-year cooperative agreement will study the physical, socioeconomic, and ecosystem impacts of sea-level variability and change. These organizations will also develop decision-support resources to help communities from Texas to Maryland increase resilience to impacts of erosion and inundation in a scenario of sea-level change. (2007)

Climate Demonstration Projects

Two pilot coastal climatology Web sites have been developed: one for recreation and tourism (www.cormp.org/climate) and one for recreational and commercial fishing (www.coastalclimate.org). Efforts will focus on outreach for these sites, including examples explaining how the sites can be used by their respective audiences based on client needs. (2005-2007)

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)

Geospatial Support to National Weather Service (NWS)

The NOAA Coastal Services Center is providing expertise to the National Weather Service primarily in the field of geospatial technology and is helping NWS provide new products to the Center’s primary constituency, the coastal resource managers of the nation. Products and services include flood severity mapping, hurricane forecast products, decision-support tools, and general geospatial technical support to the NWS. (ongoing)

Harmful Algal Blooms

Harmful algal blooms are responsible for serious public health problems and shellfish harvesting closures in the Gulf of Mexico every year. Satellite imagery, field observations, and buoy data are used to provide information on the location, extent, and potential for bloom development or movement. The resulting Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin helps coastal resource managers decide where to focus sampling efforts and prepare for these blooms. Public advisories are also posted in the bulletin. Visit www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/habf/. (ongoing)

Nonpoint Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool (N-SPECT) Applications

N-SPECT is a GIS-based tool that allows users to input various development scenarios and predict impacts to water quality. Staff is working with coastal resource managers in these states to implement this technology. Visit http://www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/cwq/nspect.html. (ongoing)

Storm Surge Product Development

A recent needs assessment focused on the need for tools and information to help coastal communities prepare for and learn about storm surge. Numerous activities are being undertaken to address this need. The NOAA Coastal Services Center is playing an important role by providing users with hazards information, hazards visualization and forecasting enhancements, mitigation strategies, and information about risk-wise behavior. (2005-2008)

NOAA Regional Collaboration Support

NOAA is furthering its commitment to providing relevant products and services to the nation. The NOAA Coastal Services Center has one or more members on five of the eight regional teams (Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic, Pacific, Western, and Southeast and Carribean) developed to keep attuned to customer needs and deliver applicable NOAA products and services. The Center also serves on two of NOAA's four priority area task teams (hazard-resilient communities, and outreach and communications). (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.

Apalachicola Bay Benthic Characterization

The Center and the Apalachicola Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve used sediment profiling imagery (SPI), traditional benthic sampling, and single-beam acoustic sensing (RoxAnn) to map turbid water habitats in the bay. These maps are integrated with information about key physical processes, such as freshwater inflows, salinity distribution, and sediment transport, to establish baseline conditions. This information was gathered prior to expected changes in salinity and hydrodynamics from proposed upstream water flow modifications within the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin.

Beach Nourishment on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the U.S.

This project helps state and local governments along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. make informed decisions about the nourishment of beaches by consolidating the best scientific and technical information and tools for evaluating and understanding beach nourishment into one source. This resource is a user-friendly Web site that includes relevant information and tools from the fields of coastal geology, engineering, economics, law and policy, and the biological sciences.

Coastal Management Fellowship

A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Florida Coastal Management Program to improve hazard mitigation and redevelopment policies at the local level. This project provided local governments with the best available knowledge about hazards, risks, and vulnerability to ensure fact-based policy development.

Coastal Management Fellowship

A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Florida Coastal Management Program on a project entitled “An Evaluation of Management and Human Use Concerns in Coastal/Marine Ecosystems: A Contribution to Adaptive Coastal Management.” The project focused on implementation of the second phase of the Florida Coastal Management Program’s BlueWays initiative, an effort to promote adaptive coastal management.

Coastal Ocean Habitat: Florida Bay

Satellite observations of turbidity from 1985 to 1998 are available on CD-ROM. These images are used to characterize water clarity in Florida Bay where seagrass die-offs are common.

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 Reef Medics program in southern Florida and a mangrove wetlands restoration project in eastern Florida.

Dry Tortugas, Essential Fish Habitat

This baseline information on benthic habitats and processes is being used to evaluate the success of various management approaches. The Dry Tortugas project was conducted in cooperation with the National Ocean Service’s Beaufort Lab, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and Florida International University.

Ecological Characterization of the Rookery Bay NERR

The characterization of the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary synthesis of current and historical information about this area, both environmental and cultural. The final product, a CD-ROM and Internet site, integrates geographic information system (GIS) data and information about key landscape processes. The Rookery Bay NERR developed the characterization through a cooperative agreement with the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

Estero Bay, Benthic Data

This project documented the current benthic habitats of Estero Bay in this fast-growing area of southwest Florida. Aerial photography flown during 1999 was compared with an earlier photo data set to identify the changes that have taken place. The South Florida Water Management District and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission were directly funded to complete this project.

Estuarine Habitat Project

The Estuarine Habitat project investigated remote sensing and modeling approaches for studying oceanic and terrestrial processes. This project focused on building new, useful methodologies and applications to aid coastal managers in assessing estuarine habitat quality.

Extension and Capacity-Building for the St. Johns Watershed, CSI Pilot

The overall purpose of this pilot project for the Coastal Storms Initiative (CSI) is to assist local and state officials in improving decision-making regarding coastal storm impacts. This effort is a compilation of nine projects that address specific hazards-related issues. Taken together, the projects result in a large suite of new and improved tools, data, information, forecast models, and training for the coastal communities in the pilot study area. Partners for the project are the Florida Sea Grant Extension, Florida Coastal Zone Management, the National Weather Service Regional Office, and the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

Florida Bay Benthic Data

Significant losses of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) meadows occurred in Florida Bay during the late 1980s. This study was initiated to provide a comprehensive benthic habitat map of Florida Bay so that future gains or losses of SAV could be documented and monitored. The project was directly funded by NOAA and accomplished by the Florida Marine Research Institute and the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

Harmful Algal Bloom Project

This project is developing information systems to help coastal resource managers control shellfish harvesting closures and issue public health alerts. A harmful algal bloom e-mail bulletin and a near real-time information system on the Internet are available to managers.

Hurricane Storm Surge Visualization

As part of the Coastal Storms Initiative, the Center is developing a risk and vulnerability assessment of the St. Johns River area using a three-dimensional visualization model to display predicted storm surge levels for various hurricane categories.

Indian River Lagoon Benthic Data

Seagrass is used as an indicator of overall water quality, so water quality management practices are designed to support healthy seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon. For this project, seagrass beds were mapped from 1996 aerial photography.

Marine Spill Analysis System

This multiagency effort worked to pool resources and expertise to highlight a geographic information system (GIS) to be used by the marine spill and resource management community. The Marine Spill Analysis System (MSAS) is a specialized ArcView® GIS application that allows managers, biologists, and technicians to load, view, analyze, and publish spatial data sets that are unique to coastal and marine management and protection scenarios. Specialized tools have been created that allow users to study or respond to a spill, such as oil or gasoline, “from cradle to grave.”

National Estuarine Research Reserve System Data Rescue

Data formerly in a hard copy format were digitized for this project. Priority was given to those data sets in danger of immediate loss due to media deterioration. Rescued data sets are accessible through the Internet via a geographic information system, and selected data and metadata were published on a CD-ROM.

Needs Assessment Training

Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) served as local host to a workshop entitled “How to Conduct a Training Needs Assessment.” Participants in the two-day training included staff from the NERR system, Sea Grant, the National Estuary Program, National Marine Sanctuaries, and the Florida Coastal Management Program, as well as local partners. The participants learned about the methodology and tools available to assess the needs of their target audiences.

New Technologies for Emergency Response

Center staff collaborated with researchers from the Florida Marine Research Institute to test a new system for field data collection and response. This project, funded by NOAA’s High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program, addressed the need of NOAA and other agencies to rapidly gather, integrate, and disseminate information about impacted areas after disasters such as oil spills and hurricanes. The system featured lightweight computers equipped with geographic information system (GIS) software, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, a wireless local area network (WLAN), and video cameras. The project was awarded the Best Use of Leading Edge Technologies award from HPCC at the NOAATech 2000 workshop.

Ocean Color Applications Project

Through this project, processing and classification techniques were developed to evaluate coastal water quality and biological and geologic variables based on remote sensing data from satellite or aircraft. Data on the bio-optical characteristics of diverse U.S. coastal waters were collected. These data are used to validate satellite measurements used for ocean color data products.

Ocean Planning Information System (OPIS)

OPIS is the first system to provide the coastal management community in the southeastern U.S. with access to regional georeferenced spatial data and legal information. Major features of the OPIS Web site include an interactive mapping application, marine and coastal spatial data, data and metadata download tools, Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata, and legislative summary pages, all designed to support regional ocean management. In 2001, OPIS received a Hammer Award, a vice-presidential acknowledgment of projects and people that help government operate more efficiently and effectively.

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.

Public Issues and Conflict Management

The Florida Sea Grant College Program hosted a three-day Public Issues and Conflict Management workshop in April 2001. Aimed at Sea Grant extension agents and coastal resource managers, the workshop was designed to build skills in public issues management, including meeting management and planning, collaborative processes and decision making, and media relations.

Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tools

As part of the NOAA Coastal Storms Initiative, the Center is developing risk and vulnerability assessment tools for the Florida and Pacific Northwest pilot projects. Local planners within the St. Johns River Watershed in Florida and the Columbia River Watershed in Washington and Oregon use this information to develop coastal hazard mitigation strategies. This project helps protect coastal communities from storm impacts by providing new and improved hazard and weather-related services and data.

Shoreline Data Rescue

GIS-compatible shoreline data sets that include high-resolution contemporary and historic shorelines are available from the Center’s Web site. The source of the historic shoreline data is NOAA t-sheet charts dating from the 1800s. This information is most frequently used to measure shoreline change.

Southeast Coast and Ocean Margin Program (SEACOM)

The Center is leading an effort to enhance understanding of the significant natural resources in the South Atlantic Bight, a region extending from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, out to the edge of the continental margin. The program is investigating significant natural resource areas, compiling this information into a spatial data framework, and working to inform and educate the public about the importance of discovery and management of these resources. The long-term goal is to provide an information foundation that allows managers to maintain economic vitality in the region while sustaining natural resources for future generations.

Topographic Change Mapping

High-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) measurements of coastal beach topography were made during 1998 and 1999. These measurements can be used for beach change studies and are available to the public.

Tortugas

The Center provided facilitation services to the Tortugas 2000 Working Group for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Center staff designed and facilitated a series of meetings that focused on identifying significant concerns and key interests related to establishing an ecological reserve in the Tortugas area and on developing criteria to be used in evaluating various boundary options for the reserve.

West Continental Shelf, Essential Fish Habitat

This cooperative project examined the nature, distribution, and function of deepwater seagrasses off the west coast of Florida, which represents one of the most extensive seagrass resources in the United States. Towed videography, single-beam acoustics, dive observation, stable-isotope analysis, and benthic sampling were some of the analyses used in this project.