Coastal Services Center

Current Projects

Regional Coastal Water Quality

Coastal water quality and nonpoint source pollution are high-priority watershed issues for coastal communities. A needs assessment will be undertaken in the Northeast region to determine how state coastal water quality data and protocols can be better coordinated, displayed, and used for management decision-making. Regional staff members for the NOAA Coastal Services Center will identify local partners that can benefit from the training programs and tools sponsored by the Center for improving water quality. (ongoing)

Understanding Coastal Resource Management Resilience Needs in the Northeast

Members of the coastal resource management community have begun to identify coastal hazards and prioritize their needs for improving or maintaining resilience in their communities. Armed with this information, the NOAA Coastal Services Center is inventorying and evaluating relevant management mechanisms, policies, and regulatory tools at the state and regional level to gain a better sense of how to assist these communities in their efforts. The results will be a regional approach to resilience that will resonate with the many partners engaged in this critical coastal management issue in the Northeast. (ongoing)

Needs Assessment and Social Science Tools Coordination and Technical Assistance

Surveys, needs assessments, and other social science-related tools are useful in gathering information and making informed decisions about coastal issues. The NOAA Coastal Services Center provides coastal managers and communities with technical assistance in the use of social science tools. Projects include assessing NOAA Coastal Services Center customer needs, at a regional level, for becoming resilient to natural hazards in the Northeast, looking at the impacts of climate change on the West Coast, and meeting the needs of the Pacific Island communities. This project provides technical assistance with survey design and analysis, and for the facilitation of meetings, workshops, and stakeholder engagement in projects across the country. Products will include the development of an economics primer and other guidance documents. (ongoing)

National Estuarine Research Reserve Social Science Fellowships

This fellowship program brings social science skills to the nation’s National Estuarine Research Reserves. The NOAA Coastal Services Center provides training and technical assistance consultation to fellows and participating research reserves on an as-needed basis. (ongoing)

Coastal Management Fellowship

Assistance was provided to these states through the Coastal Management Fellowship program. Postgraduate students selected as fellows receive professional, on-the-job education and training, while the states receive specific technical assistance for their coastal regulatory programs. Fellows spend two years at the host agency working on substantive state-level coastal issues that pertain to federal management policies and regulations. All states with federally approved coastal zone management programs, as well as states developing such programs for approval, are eligible to submit a project proposal to receive a fellow. (ongoing)

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. (2008)

Coastal Zone Conference

The Coastal Zone conference series is the largest and best-known international and interdisciplinary conference for coastal resource managers. Coastal Zone 09, to be held July 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts, will be the 16th installment of the biennial conference. Since 2000, the Center has served as the conference executive secretariat, coordinating the conference logistics, technical program, federal sponsors, and local planning. Input and participation from the local and national coastal resource management community help in shaping overall conference themes and issue areas. (2009)

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. (ongoing)

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. (ongoing)

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)

Understanding Coastal Resource Management

The Center will work with other parts of NOAA to evaluate the ability of Northeast and West Coast communities to identify and address the issue of hazard resilience. By synthesizing the regional results of the Section 309 Assessments and Strategies, and evaluating relevant management and policy tools at the state and regional level, the organization will gain a better sense of how to assist the coastal resource management community in building capacity to address hazard resilience. Recommendations from this assessment will be used to plan future work in the area. (ongoing)

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)

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)

Regional Ocean Governance Support

Regional ocean governance is a strategy for managing ocean and coastal resources in a more holistic ecosystem-based manner. Operating across local, state, and federal jurisdictional boundaries, the process is coordinated by regional ocean governing bodies, providing the framework, mechanisms, and incentives that state and federal agencies need to coordinate their management efforts. The NOAA Coastal Services Center offers support for two regional ocean governing bodies: the Northeast Regional Ocean Council and the West Coast Governor's Agreement on Ocean Health. (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.

Literature Review of the U.S. Northeast Coastal Community: Management of Coastal Ecosystems and Natural Hazards

This literature review focuses on needs in the Northeast region that are associated with ecosystem-based management and resilience to coastal hazards. The review serves as a foundational component of a greater needs assessment effort within the region. The needs assessment will confirm priority regional needs and will outline the services and types of expertise available from the Center and other NOAA programs and offices.
Northeast Literature Review (PDF)

Completed Projects

Aquaculture GIS

This project demonstrates how geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial modeling can be applied to marine aquaculture site analysis. The initial phase of the project focused on developing data and tools for aquaculture siting. State and federal “georegulations” were created to use GIS to display the locations of jurisdictional or regulatory boundaries relevant to aquaculture. A customized tool also allows users to access legislative summaries, contact information, forms, and fee structures that apply within these regions. The project also created a statewide shellfish habitat suitability data layer that will be used to expedite the aquaculture permitting process in Massachusetts, and it created a detailed report documenting potential applications of GIS technology for the aquaculture community.

Atlantic Coast, Benthic Data

The Center partnered with the Wetlands Conservancy branch of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Program to create a composite baseline map of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in 1996. The data are being used primarily for shellfish lease management and dredge and fill permit evaluation.

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.

Cape Cod SAV Change Detection

The Center partnered with the Wetlands Conservancy branch of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to document changes in submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) along Cape Cod between 1996 and 2000.

Coastal Management Fellowship

A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Agency to develop a database on habitat and species restoration projects in the Gulf of Maine. The database was developed to create an information exchange vehicle for managers, scientists, and consultants, and to document past, present, and potential restoration projects.

Coastal Management Fellowship

A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Program to develop an adaptive special area management planning model for the Parker River/Essex Bay coastal Area of Critical Environment Control. This was accomplished by the development of regional planning strategies and by increasing local support through public participation.

Coastal Management Fellowship

A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Program on a project entitled “Management of Environment Impacts of Personal Watercraft: Pleasant Bay, Cape Cod, Pilot Project.” The purpose of the project was to develop sound and scientifically based resource policy to effectively manage personal watercraft use in Massachusetts’ coastal waters.

Coastal Management Fellowship

A Coastal Management Fellow is working with the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management on a project entitled "Marine Habitat Mapping Strategy." The goal of the project is to link resource managers with marine habitat data to help develop coastal management policies and incorporate them into regulatory decisions. The fellow is developing a coordinated and comprehensive strategy for seafloor characterization and mapping in Massachusetts' waters and is providing coastal resource managers with tools and information necessary to use seafloor characterization data to improve management of marine habitat.

Coastal Structures Inventory of Cape Cod

The Center is helping to develop a georeferenced, pre-storm inventory of structures on the coast to improve state and local governments' ability to make rapid and accurate storm-related permitting decisions. The project provides a comprehensive storm-planning and response system and includes tools for viewing photographs and information on coastal structures. The system builds on the Massachusetts Ocean Resource Information System and is modeled after the South Carolina Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management post-hurricane recovery project.

Massachusetts Land Cover and Change Data

This project mapped terrestrial land cover in coastal watershed environments and identified changes in these areas that occurred between 1991 and 1997. The project relied on satellite multispectral imagery as the primary information source. These data were used to distinguish major land cover classes, and previous images were studied to locate areas that changed over time. For this project, the data were acquired according to the Center’s Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) methods.

Needs Assessment Training

Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) served as the local host for a two-day workshop that focused on methods and tools to assess the needs of a target audience. Participants included representatives from regional NERRs, Sea Grant, state coastal programs, National Marine Sanctuaries, and other local partners. Networking and resource sharing opportunities were additional benefits of this workshop.

Nonpoint Pollution Reduction in Waquoit Bay

The Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office and Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) developed indices of actual and potential ecological damage from nonpoint source pollutants, applied those indices throughout the Waquoit Bay watershed, and transferred results of their study to local managers through a workshop. This work was funded by a grant from the Center.

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.

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 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sea Grant College Program served as the local host for this three-day workshop, which taught skills in meeting management and planning, collaborative processes and decision making, and media relations. Participants included staff members from the MIT Sea Grant College Program, coastal zone management program, New England Fisheries Management Council, National Marine Fisheries Service, the New England Aquarium, and other state agencies and organizations.

Topographic Change Mapping

High-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) measurements of coastal beach topography were made during 1998 and 2000. These measurements can be used for beach change studies and are available to the public.

Wellfleet Harbor Mapping Project

Funding for this project supports a temporary staff position to create an electronic database containing the location of natural and man-made features in Wellfleet Harbor. Ultimately, this database will be used to generate maps in a geographic information system (GIS) that will be used for managing harbor resources and will form the foundation of a comprehensive GIS database.