Completed Projects
Alaska Safe Navigation Project
This project provided navigation information for southeastern Alaskan waters. The Center provided software programming support to develop an automatically generated Web page that can be printed out and used as a tool for safe navigation. The information provided in these reports includes marine weather forecasts, a local notice to mariners, and commercial fishing information.
Coastal Management Fellowship
A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on a project entitled “Development of an Ecological Characterization of the Kachemak Bay Watershed.” The project involved the synthesis of information detailing physical processes, biological systems, and human uses of the bay and its watershed. The final product is used to promote ecosystem-based land-use decisions and practices based on sound ecological information.
Coastal Permitters Workshop
This three-day workshop was conducted for rural coastal district representatives and state permitters working in western and northern Alaska. The workshop focused on how these managers could better use the consistency review process to more successfully address their concerns regarding land and water use issues. Rural coastal districts have a formal participating role in the state consistency review of permit applications for coastal development projects.
CZMA Bibliographies
The Center's library has cataloged NOAA's Coastal Zone Information Center collection, produced by state coastal management programs under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). This collection contains documents that span a number of coastal topics and includes brochures, management plans, and legislative information. A bibliography of this information for the State of Alaska will be available beginning in 2003.
Kachemak Bay Ecological Characterization
The Kachemak Bay Ecological Characterization (KBEC) is an interdisciplinary synthesis of information about the bay’s ecosystem and the communities that depend on it. By integrating existing information and developing geographic information system (GIS) management tools, KBEC is assisting research efforts and promoting an ecosystem approach towards managing and using Kachemak Bay’s natural resources. Alaska Department of Fish and Game developed KBEC through a cooperative agreement with the NOAA Coastal Services Center.
Needs Assessment Training
p> Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) served as a local host for this workshop. Participants in the two-day training included staff from NERR sites, Sea Grant, the National Estuary Program, state coastal management programs, and other local partners. The goals of this training program are to familiarize participants with terminology, tools, and methods and to help them understand how and when to use needs assessments.
OPIS Alaska
This proposed information system will allow increased access to ocean, coastal, and watershed information for Alaska to a variety of stakeholders, including state, local and tribal agencies, policy makers, nongovernmental organizations, and the public. The proposed geographic information system (GIS)-based application is modeled after the Ocean Planning Information System (OPIS), developed by the Center and its partners for the southeastern U.S.
Permit Tracking System
This project develops a database for the North Slope Borough permitting department that interacts with the tax assessing and geographic information system (GIS) databases to track permitting. Ultimately, non-sensitive or non-confidential information will be available via the Internet.
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.
Yakutat Bay Land Cover and Change Data
This project mapped terrestrial land cover in coastal watershed environments and identified changes in these areas that occurred between 1986 and 1993. 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.
Yakutat Bay Region, Alaska, Land Cover and Change CD-ROM
The Center developed this CD-ROM to provide coastal resource managers with satellite-derived land cover data and other spatial data layers in a user-friendly, cross-platform interface. This type of interface, along with all the data, allows for enhanced analysis that is useful in addressing issues concerning fisheries practices throughout the study region. The impetus for this project was intense interest by federal, state, and local fisheries biologists, who are studying the potential impacts of movement of the Hubbard Glacier on important salmon fisheries in the Yakutat area. Satellite imagery acquired in 1993 was compared to imagery acquired in 1986 to map changes in land cover over the seven-year period.
