Coastal Services Center

Regional Projects

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

Organizations involved in this four-year cooperative agreement are studying the physical, socioeconomic, and ecosystem impacts of sea-level variability and change. These organizations are also developing 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.

Coastal and Marine Habitat Classification and Assessment

This classification standard is an ecosystem-oriented framework for the identification, inventorying, and description of coastal and marine habitats and biodiversity. The 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 regions and the nation. The focus for 2008 included 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.

Community Assessment and Resilience Planning

Making communities more resilient in the face of hazards is an important goal of the Center. Initial efforts are focused in the Gulf of Mexico to better understand what makes communities resilient. Activities include the development of resilience measurement indicators, community-based self-assessment and resilience planning tools, educational and outreach materials, and partnership building and collaboration.

Geospatial Collaboration with the National Weather Service

The Center partners with the National Weather Service to improve the geospatial display and delivery of products and services related to weather, water, and climate. As part of this project, 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 in development.

Gulf Coast Services Center Coordination

The NOAA Gulf Coast Services Center brings NOAA products and services to the Gulf region, including technical expertise, financial assistance, training, and capacity building. 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. Priority areas include hazards and coastal storms, integrated ocean observing systems, mapping and change analysis, community resilience, and outreach, education, and training of coastal managers.

Gulf of Mexico Alliance Support

The Gulf of Mexico Alliance is a partnership of the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The goal is to enhance the environmental and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico through regional collaboration. The Gulf states' "Governors' Action Plan for Healthy and Resilient Coasts" challenges the alliance to make tangible progress 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.

Handbook on Mitigating Coastal Hazards

The Association of State Floodplain Managers, with funding and assistance by the Center, has completed an on-line handbook, No Adverse Impact in the Coastal Zone. The "no adverse impact" principle holds that the actions of a community or property owner should not adversely impact other people or the coastal resource. A final version of the handbook with photographs, case studies, and updated and new content is available. Trainings for No Adverse Impact have been offered many times in the several of the Gulf states.
www.floods.org/NoAdverseImpact/coastal.asp

Harmful Algal Blooms

The Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin helps officials decide where to focus their sampling efforts and prepare for these blooms. The information is e-mailed twice a week to registered users, and a public advisory is posted on the website. Current activities are focused on updating the data display system to provide information on the location, extent, and potential impacts of blooms. (The Center works in partnership with many organizations to produce the bulletin.) The bulletin covers Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/habf/

HURREVAC Storm-Surge Guidance Aids Evacuation Plans

A software module enables emergency managers and other officials to view storm-surge guidance up to 24 hours before projected landfall of a tropical cyclone. An added option helps viewers consider hypothetical storm-surge scenarios. The Center and the National Weather Service collaborated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on this module, which includes the five Gulf states. It is available on HURREVAC, a decision-support tool used by more than 6,000 government officials.
www.hurrevac.com

Hurricane Evacuation Tool Template

This template makes it easy for emergency managers or other coastal officials to provide the public with hurricane evacuation zones of the five Gulf states. Coastal professionals can use the template with local data to develop a similar mapping application for their communities.
www.csc.noaa.gov/hez_tool/

Legislative Atlas Features Georegulations for Five Gulf States

All five Gulf states now have legislative summaries and associated georegulations available on the Legislative Atlas website. The information is used by coastal officials to assess gaps and overlaps in the regulatory framework and support marine spatial planning decisions. The Center, in partnership with PhotoScience, Inc., has worked closely with state representatives to collect this information.
www.csc.noaa.gov/legislativeatlas/

On-line Flood Inundation Maps

The Center is working with the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide on-line access to flood severity maps for 20 locations in the Gulf of Mexico states. These maps, based on high-resolution digital elevation data and hydraulic modeling, contain visual and interactive information on the extent and severity of floods, thereby assisting local officials and emergency managers in making evacuation and road closure decisions.

NOAA Regional Collaboration Support

NOAA is furthering its commitment to provide relevant products and services to the nation. The Center has one or more members on five of the eight regional teams (Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic, Pacific, Western, and Southeast and Caribbean), 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).

Pre- and Post-Katrina Land Cover Data

Land cover and change information for portions of the Gulf of Mexico region before, and after, Hurricane Katrina are available. The data sets can serve as aids in assessing wetland recovery and other storm impacts.
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover/

"Roadmap" Highlights Resources for Seamless Elevation Models

Modeling sea level rise, hurricane flooding, and tsunami inundation requires an elevation surface map that combines land elevation with seafloor data. This on-line series of documents and maps streamlines the process of creating a highly accurate, seamless topobathy model of the coastal margin. The series provides an index to existing publicly available data, introduces options for data manipulation, and illustrates applications of a topobathy surface. Data for the Gulf of Mexico are now available.
www.flmapr.org

Report on Gulf Region Economy

Two NOAA economists co-authored "Hurricane Damage to the Ocean Economy in the U.S. Gulf Region in 2005," which received the Lawrence Klein Award recognizing the best articles in the Monthly Labor Review, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/08/contents.htm

Storm Surge Grid Catalog for the Gulf of Mexico

Many comprehensive studies of storm surge are available that provide a wealth of unstructured storm surge grid products. The NOAA Coastal Storms Program is working with the Northern Gulf Institute to convene a group of surge modelers and managers to develop a unified surge grid catalog for the Gulf. Such a tool will result in more accurate, faster, and cheaper surge analyses in the future.

Alabama

Coastal Elevation Mapping

The Center works with state and local officials to collect and distribute high-resolution topographic and bathymetric data sets. The Center worked with the private sector to acquire new light detection and ranging (lidar) data for coastal management applications such as the analysis of storm surge and storm inundation, erosion, and habitat mapping. The Center also worked with state and federal partners to share costs and find multiple uses for coastal lidar data sets.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/tcm/

Coastal and Marine Habitat Classification and Assessment

This classification standard is an ecosystem-oriented framework for the identification, inventorying, and description of coastal and marine habitats and biodiversity. The 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 regions and the nation. 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.

Coastal Services Magazine

This bimonthly trade publication focuses on efforts by local, state, and nonprofit organizations to address coastal issues. Recent articles featuring programs from Alabama include

• Alabama Watercraft Regulation Quieting User Conflicts – July/Aug 2000
• Recognizing Clean Water Guardians in Alabama – September/October 2002
• Forget Diamonds—Alabama Residents Say "I Love You" with a Tree – January/February 2005
• Habitat Restoration: The Silver Lining in Alabama's Hurricane Recovery – July/August 2005
• Taking Grasses to Classes in Alabama – September/October 2005
• Special Hurricane Edition – May/June 2006
www.csc.noaa.gov/magazine/

Community Resilience Coordination

To increase the hazard resilience of coastal communities, the Center is implementing several initiatives, including coordinating resilience panels for major conferences with the Association of State Floodplain Managers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Nature Conservancy, and the American Meteorological Society. Activities also include the funding and coordination of partner efforts, such as the Mobile Chamber of Commerce and resilience pilot projects in Texas and Louisiana. The Center is helping these communities develop resilience plans and resilience indices that will allow progress to be measured over time.

Forecasts Include Karenia brevis in Alabama

Information on the harmful algal bloom Karenia brevis in areas of Alabama has been added to regular bulletins of the NOAA Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Forecasting System. This information was obtained through samples collected by the Alabama Department of Public Health. The Center and other project partners worked with the State of Alabama to ensure that the data are provided in a usable format.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/habf/

Habitat Planner Attracts Regional Interest

This GIS-based tool helps users prioritize areas for conservation, restoration, and planning actions. An upcoming regional developmental pilot and demonstration of the tool will be in the Mobile Bay region.
www.csc.noaa.gov/hpp/

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 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.
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover/

Legislative Atlas

The Center—along with Photo Science, Inc., the National Sea Grant Law Center, and local partners—developed the Legislative Atlas. This Web-based tool allows users to visualize the location of selected coastal and ocean laws for the continental U.S. and state laws for the Gulf of Mexico region. The tool provides a foundation for coordinated ecosystem-based approaches to coastal management.
www.csc.noaa.gov/legislativeatlas/

Mobile Regional and Resilience Planning

Public-sector stakeholders in Alabama are partnering to improve the future resilience of the environment, economy, transportation, and other factors. Partners include representatives of municipal and county government, the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission, the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, and the Alabama Department of Transportation. The Mobile Chamber of Commerce is the host for the project. Other key partners in addition to the Center are the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, Sanborn Consulting, and Michael Gallis and Associates.

Partnerships for Habitat Conservation: Mobile Bay

A new pilot project under NOAA Fisheries' Cooperative Habitat Protection Partnerships program in Mobile Bay, Alabama, is a joint effort of the Center, The Nature Conservancy, and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (NEP). The pilot project focuses on updating the Mobile Bay NEP's local acquisition and restoration priorities plan by incorporating new habitat and land use data, information on long-term stressors, interactive GIS functionality, regional planning considerations, and a range of implementation strategies.

Planning Initiative for Dauphin Island, Alabama

The coastal town of Dauphin Island, Alabama, developed a strategic plan for sustaining economic and natural systems. Center personnel helped define policy needs, map desired land uses, and create drawings of potential mixed-use developments. Other entities contributing to the planning process included the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Resilience Planning in the Gulf of Mexico

At workshops in Biloxi, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, and Panama City Beach and Tampa, Florida, the Center led a session soliciting feedback on potential revisions to the community resilience portion of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) Governors' Action Plan. Other attendees included local leaders, planners, engineers, real estate professionals, community groups, and state and federal partners. The workshop is part of an ongoing effort to engage stakeholders in a unified fashion as recommended by the NOAA Science Advisory Board.

Topographic and Bathymetric Applications

The Center provides information about the availability of topographic and bathymetric data sets and assists coastal managers in working with these sets—particularly in relation to storm surge and inundation modeling. The current focus of this project is on developing a data inventory for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia and guidance documents describing the coastal management applications of topography and bathymetry.
www.csc.noaa.gov/topobathy/

Training

The Center provides training to the coastal resource managers of the nation in three focus areas: geospatial technology, coastal management, and building process skills. Training can take place at the Center's training facility for some courses but most often is taken to coastal managers in the field. Recent courses delivered to programs in Alabama include

• Introduction to ArcGIS
• Coastal Applications of ArcGIS
• Managing Visitor Use in Coastal and Marine Protected Areas
www.csc.noaa.gov/bins/resources/training.html

Florida

Apalachicola Oyster Habitat Mapping

Accurate, up-to-date maps of oyster distributions and bathymetry were developed for Apalachicola Bay. Data collection involved 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 collaborated on this effort.
www.csc.noaa.gov/benthic/funding/active.htm

Benthic Habitat Mapping and Classification

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) provides a consistent and universally applicable coastal habitat inventory system. A demonstration mapping project was undertaken in Florida and Texas to test the system and provide maps to the region.

Coastal Elevation Mapping

The Center works with state and local officials to collect and distribute high-resolution topographic and bathymetric data sets. The Center worked with the private sector to acquire new light detection and ranging (lidar) data for coastal management applications such as the analysis of storm surge and storm inundation, erosion, and habitat mapping. The Center also worked with state and federal partners to share costs and find multiple uses for coastal lidar data sets.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/tcm/

Coastal Management Fellowship

The NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship matches postgraduate students with state coastal zone programs to work on two-year projects proposed by the state. The Florida Coastal Management Program has hosted two fellows:

• 1996 to 1998: To develop criteria for approval of local government hazard mitigation and redevelopment policies for the local comprehensive planning process.
• 2000 to 2002: To implement the second phase of Florida's BlueWays initiative, an effort to promote adaptive coastal management.
www.csc.noaa.gov/cms/fellows.html

Coastal Services Magazine

This bimonthly trade publication focuses on efforts by local, state, and nonprofit organizations to address coastal issues. Recent articles featuring programs from Florida include

• Coastal Decision-Makers Workshop Goes Nationwide – August/September 1998
• Controlling Summer's Biggest Pest Impacts Florida Reserve – May/June 1999
• Florida GIS Speeds Oil Spill Response – July/August 1999
• Special Y2K edition – January/February 2000
• Signs Improve Access to Florida Beaches – March/April 2000
• Coastal Catastrophes: What Managers are doing to Prepare for the Next Big Storm – Sept/Oct 2000 (Cover)
• Careless Drivers Damaging Marine Habitat in Florida Sanctuary – September/October 2001
• Special Edition – March/April 2002
• No-Take Zones: Balancing the Use of the Marine Environment in the Florida Keys – November/December 2002 (Cover)
• Tracking Down a Killer in Florida's Waters – March/April 2003
• Water Woes: Florida Tries Drinking from the Sea – May/June 2003 (Cover)
• Helping Indian River Citrus Growers Put the Squeeze on Runoff – March/April 2005
• Special Hurricane Edition – May/June 2006
• Coral Bleaching: The Impact of Rising Sea Temperatures on Florida Keys' Reefs – September/October 2007 (Cover)
• State Money Helping Homeowners Prepare for Hurricanes in Florida – January/February 2008
• Workshop Leads to Local Red Tide Data Collection in Florida – March/April 2008
www.csc.noaa.gov/magazine/

Forecasts Include Karenia brevis in Northwest Florida

Information on the harmful algal bloom Karenia brevis in areas of Northwest Florida was added to regular bulletins of the NOAA Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Forecasting System. The Center and other project partners worked together to ensure that the data are provided in a usable format.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/habf/

Florida Manatee Protection Tool

The Manatee Awareness and Protection Resource (MAPR), a Web-based tool, features educational and geographic modules that delineate manatee protection zones in Florida. In addition, MAPR's GIS format enables users to view and overlay data concerning manatee-protection regulations, environmental factors, and human use of marine resources. Florida Sea Grant and the Center developed this tool.
www.flmapr.org

Florida Topography/Bathymetry Data

Lidar-derived topography and bathymetry data covering a large section of Florida's western coast are available for download. This data set, collected in May and June 2006, spans Pasco County to Collier County and covers the immediate coastal and offshore area to a depth of approximately 30 feet. The data were collected by the Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise, which is a joint program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Naval Oceanographic Office, and NOAA.
www.csc.noaa.gov/ldart/

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 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.
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover/

Legislative Atlas

The Center—along with Photo Science, Inc., the National Sea Grant Law Center, and local partners—developed the Legislative Atlas. This Web-based tool allows users to visualize the location of selected coastal and ocean laws for the continental U.S. and state laws for the Gulf of Mexico region. The tool provides a foundation for coordinated ecosystem-based approaches to coastal management.
www.csc.noaa.gov/legislativeatlas/

Lidar Data Accessible via Retrieval Tool

Expanded information on Florida can be obtained via the Lidar Data Retrieval Tool, a product of the Center. Data sets provided by the Southwest Florida Water Management District are now included. A separate 2006 lidar data set of Volusia County includes the famed Daytona Beach coastline and Daytona International Speedway, which was provided by the Volusia County Public Works Department.
www.csc.noaa.gov/ldart/

Resilience Planning in the Gulf of Mexico

At workshops in Biloxi, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, and Panama City Beach and Tampa, Florida, the Center led a session soliciting feedback on potential revisions to the community resilience portion of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) Governors' Action Plan. Other attendees included local leaders, planners, engineers, real estate professionals, community groups, and state and federal partners. The workshop is part of an ongoing effort to engage stakeholders in a unified fashion as recommended by the NOAA Science Advisory Board.

Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tool

Using the Community Vulnerability Assessment Tool methodology and interactive mapping, this effort helped determine the locations of vulnerable people, property, and natural resources within Brevard and Volusia Counties, Florida, and provided information for increasing flood protection and reducing flood risk and insurance premiums. Storm surge animations depict projected inundation from hurricanes and tropical storms for popular locations within their communities.
www.csc.noaa.gov/rvat/

Social Assessment Technical Assistance

This project documents cultural and historical sites and practices related to traditional lifestyles and identifies social and cultural factors that influence community support for coastal conservation. The project includes developing characterizations describing reciprocal relationships between communities and natural resources in Humboldt Bay, California, and Carabelle, Florida.

Socioeconomic Maps for Florida Report

The Center produced a series of maps for a report, "Florida Oceans and Coastal Economies," illustrating demographic and economic trends in the state since 1990. Maps can be viewed by selecting "Florida Economic Maps" under the "Quick Links" heading.
www.floridaoceanscouncil.org

Topographic and Bathymetric Applications

The Center provides information about the availability of topographic and bathymetric data sets and assists coastal managers in working with these sets—particularly in relation to storm surge and inundation modeling. The current focus of this project is on developing a data inventory for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia and guidance documents describing the coastal management applications of topography and bathymetry.
www.csc.noaa.gov/topobathy/

Training

The Center provides training to the coastal resource managers of the nation in three focus areas: geospatial technology, coastal management, and building process skills. Training can take place at the Center's training facility for some courses but most often is taken to coastal managers in the field. Recent courses delivered to programs in Florida include

• Coastal Applications of ArcGIS
• Coastal Community Planning and Development
• Conservation Data Documentation
• Coastal Inundation Mapping
• Introduction to ArcGIS
• Project Design and Evaluation
• Public Issues and Conflict Management
• Remote Sensing for Spatial Analysts
www.csc.noaa.gov/bins/resources/training.html

Louisiana

Coastal Elevation Mapping

The Center works with state and local officials to collect and distribute high-resolution topographic and bathymetric data sets. The Center worked with the private sector to acquire new light detection and ranging (lidar) data for coastal management applications such as the analysis of storm surge and storm inundation, erosion, and habitat mapping. The Center also worked with state and federal partners to share costs and find multiple uses for coastal lidar data sets.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/tcm/

Community Resilience Coordination

To increase the hazard resilience of coastal communities, the Center is implementing several initiatives, including coordinating resilience panels for major conferences with the Association of State Floodplain Managers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Nature Conservancy, and the American Meteorological Society. Activities also include the funding and coordination of partner efforts, such as the Mobile Chamber of Commerce and resilience pilot projects in Texas and Louisiana. The Center is helping these communities develop resilience plans and resilience indices that will allow progress to be measured over time.

Coastal Services Magazine

This bimonthly trade publication focuses on efforts by local, state, and nonprofit organizations to address coastal issues. Recent articles featuring programs from Louisiana include

• Federal Program Pumps Funds into Wetland Restoration – May/June 1998
• Christmas Trees Help Louisiana Stop Erosion – November/December 1998
• Louisiana Takes Vegetation Planting Program to the People – November/December 1999
• Special Y2K edition – Jan/Feb 2000
• Louisiana Program Works to Keep Oil Rigs as Reefs – January/February 2001
• Educating America About Louisiana's Wetlands – May/June 2003
• The Dead Zone: The Struggle to Breathe Life into the Gulf of Mexico – May/June 2005 (Cover)
• Special Hurricane Edition – May/June 2006
www.csc.noaa.gov/magazine/

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 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.
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover/

Legislative Atlas

The Center—along with Photo Science, Inc., the National Sea Grant Law Center, and local partners—developed the Legislative Atlas. This Web-based tool allows users to visualize the location of selected coastal and ocean laws for the continental U.S. and state laws for the Gulf of Mexico region. The tool provides a foundation for coordinated ecosystem-based approaches to coastal management.
www.csc.noaa.gov/legislativeatlas/

Resilience Project in Grand Bayou, Louisiana

Center staff members worked with officials from Grand Bayou, Louisiana, an area hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, to learn about the community's history and culture and engage residents in a participatory mapping exercise. The resulting brochure tells the community's story and documents its physical and societal challenges. In addition, the Center is working with the University of New Orleans Center for Hazards Assessment Response and Technology on a post-disaster resilience case study of Grand Bayou.

"Saving Our Coast" Website

A website hosted by New Orleans TV station Fox 8 provides environmental information aimed at helping the Gulf region repair and restore coastal wetlands and barrier islands. Many NOAA products and services are featured on the site. The Center partnered with Storm Center Communications Inc. in this effort.
wvue.iewatershed.com

Topographic and Bathymetric Applications

The Center provides information about the availability of topographic and bathymetric data sets and assists coastal managers in working with these sets—particularly in relation to storm surge and inundation modeling. The current focus of this project is on developing a data inventory for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia and guidance documents describing the coastal management applications of topography and bathymetry.
www.csc.noaa.gov/topobathy/

Mississippi

Coastal Elevation Mapping

The Center works with state and local officials to collect and distribute high-resolution topographic and bathymetric data sets. The Center worked with the private sector to acquire new light detection and ranging (lidar) data for coastal management applications such as the analysis of storm surge and storm inundation, erosion, and habitat mapping. The Center also worked with state and federal partners to share costs and find multiple uses for coastal lidar data sets.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/tcm/

Coastal Services Magazine

This bimonthly trade publication focuses on efforts by local, state, and nonprofit organizations to address coastal issues. Recent articles featuring programs from Mississippi include

• Gambling with the Environment? Casinos Change the Coastal Management Game – January/February 1999 (Cover)
• Special Y2K edition – January/February 2000
• Mississippi Brings Technology Tools to Coastal Planners – May/June 2001
• Special Edition – March/April 2002
• Power Tools: Racing to Manage Storm Water Runoff on Mississippi's Coast – March/April 2004
• Mississippi's "Nest in Peace" Interrupted by Katrina – November/December 2005
• Special Hurricane Edition – May/June 2006
• Coastal Managers Lay Foundation for Rebuilding Mississippi's Coast – July/Aug 2006
• Helping Oyster Harvesters While Collecting Data in Mississippi – January/February 2007
• Ten Years of Smart Growth in Mississippi - November/December 2008
www.csc.noaaa.gov/magazine/

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 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.
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover/

Legislative Atlas

The Center—along with Photo Science, Inc., the National Sea Grant Law Center, and local partners—developed the Legislative Atlas. This Web-based tool allows users to visualize the location of selected coastal and ocean laws for the continental U.S. and state laws for the Gulf of Mexico region. The tool provides a foundation for coordinated ecosystem-based approaches to coastal management.
www.csc.noaa.gov/legislativeatlas/

Maps Aid Mississippi Recovery Effort

A series of topographic maps helped property owners in Mississippi Gulf Coast counties rebuild to safer elevations. The new flood maps were created through a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NOAA. NOAA provided the digital elevation models through lidar data collection. The Center partnered with private industry to acquire high-resolution topographic elevation data for portions of the Gulf Coast region.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/

Resilience Planning in the Gulf of Mexico

At workshops in Biloxi, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, and Panama City Beach and Tampa, Florida, the Center led a session soliciting feedback on potential revisions to the community resilience portion of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) Governors' Action Plan. Other attendees included local leaders, planners, engineers, real estate professionals, community groups, and state and federal partners. The workshop is part of an ongoing effort to engage stakeholders in a unified fashion as recommended by the NOAA Science Advisory Board.

Topographic and Bathymetric Applications

The Center provides information about the availability of topographic and bathymetric data sets and assists coastal managers in working with these sets—particularly in relation to storm surge and inundation modeling. The current focus of this project is on developing a data inventory for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia and guidance documents describing the coastal management applications of topography and bathymetry.
www.csc.noaa.gov/topobathy/

Training

The Center provides training to the coastal resource managers of the nation in three focus areas: geospatial technology, coastal management, and building process skills. Training can take place at the Center's training facility for some courses but most often is taken to coastal managers in the field. Recent courses delivered to programs in Mississippi include

• Coastal Applications of ArcGIS
• Coastal Inundation Mapping
• Introduction to ArcGIS
• Project Design and Evaluation
• Public Issues and Conflict Management
www.csc.noaa.gov/bins/resources/training.html

Texas

Benthic Habitat Mapping and Classification

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) provides a consistent and universally applicable coastal habitat inventory system. A demonstration mapping project was undertaken in Florida and Texas to test the system and provide maps to the region.

Coastal Elevation Mapping

The Center works with state and local officials to collect and distribute high-resolution topographic and bathymetric data sets. The Center worked with the private sector to acquire new light detection and ranging (lidar) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR) data for coastal management applications such as the analysis of storm surge and storm inundation, erosion, and habitat mapping. The Center also worked with state and federal partners to share costs and find multiple uses for coastal lidar and IfSAR data sets.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/tcm/

Coastal Services Magazine

This bimonthly trade publication focuses on efforts by local, state, and nonprofit organizations to address coastal issues. Recent articles featuring programs from Texas include

• Toxic Tides: Planning Is Coastal Managers' Best Prevention – July/August 1999 (Cover)
• Special Y2K edition – January/February 2000
• Visitors Flock to Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail – May/June 2000
• Texas Sanctuary Diving into Education Workshops – March/April 2001
• Volunteers Scour Texas' Coast for Abandoned Crab Traps – January/February 2003
• Keeping Oil and Water from Mixing in Texas – November/December 2004
• Treating Stormwater with an Inner-City Wetland in Texas – March/April 2006
• Special Hurricane Edition – May/June 2006
• Offshore Wind Energy: Texas and Massachusetts Rush to Be First – May/June 2007 (Cover)
• Public Use: Texas Works to Protect Rights and Beaches – November/December 2007 (Cover)
www.csc.noaa.gov/magazine/

Community Resilience Coordination

To increase the hazard resilience of coastal communities, the Center is implementing several initiatives, including coordinating resilience panels for major conferences with the Association of State Floodplain Managers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Nature Conservancy, and the American Meteorological Society. Activities also include the funding and coordination of partner efforts, such as the Mobile Chamber of Commerce and resilience pilot projects in Texas and Louisiana. The Center is helping these communities develop resilience plans and resilience indices that will allow progress to be measured over time.

Inundation Maps Now Available for Portions of Southeast Texas

The National Weather Service and the Center have added new inundation maps to the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service Web portal for five locations in the Houston and Galveston area of Southeast Texas. Inundation maps provide information on the spatial extent and depth of floodwaters in the vicinity of river forecast locations. These maps, when combined with river observations and weather forecasts, enhance communications, mitigate the impacts of flooding, and build more resilient communities.
www.nws.noaa.gov/ahps/inundation.php

Journal Article on Texas Mapping Project

A benthic habitat mapping project along the Texas portion of the Gulf Coast was the cover story in the August 2007 issue of the Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing journal. The article describes how the Texas Seagrass Monitoring Program is being used to locate and protect seagrass beds. To support this program, the Center collaborated with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas A&M University Center for Coastal Studies.
www.asprs.org/publications/pers/

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 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.
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover/

Legislative Atlas

The Center—along with Photo Science, Inc., the National Sea Grant Law Center, and local partners—developed the Legislative Atlas. This Web-based tool allows users to visualize the location of selected coastal and ocean laws for the continental U.S. and state laws for the Gulf of Mexico region. The tool provides a foundation for coordinated ecosystem-based approaches to coastal management.
www.csc.noaa.gov/legislativeatlas/

Social Science Plan for Coastal Texas

The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), with assistance from the Center and others, developed a social science plan of action for the Texas Coastal Bend region. Center staff members facilitated discussion during the planning process.

Texas Forecasts of Harmful Algal Blooms

NOAA and partners from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are now providing twice-weekly forecasts on harmful algal blooms (HABs) along the coast of Texas. The HAB Forecasting System relies on satellite imagery, real-time and forecast winds, and field samples of the dinoflagellate Karenia brevis to provide information on the location, extent, and movement of HABs.
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/habf/

Texas Maps Assess Marine Health

Analyses of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) provide clues to the overall health of marine habitats. As part of Texas' Seagrass Monitoring Program, SAV and other shallow-water benthic habitats were recently mapped for portions of the Coastal Bend area. The Center worked with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas A&M University Center for Coastal Studies, and private-sector vendors to conduct mapping and to serve the data via the Center's website.
www.csc.noaa.gov/benthic/data/gulf/bend.htm

Texas Benthic Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Mapping

The Texas benthic mapping project is a cooperative effort to map SAV and other habitats in the Coastal Bend region. This project is the first large-scale effort in which digital camera imagery and semi-automated image processing techniques are used. The primary application of the project is to support the newly adopted Texas Seagrass Monitoring Plan.
www.csc.noaa.gov/benthic/funding/active.htm

Topographic and Bathymetric Applications

The Center provides information about the availability of topographic and bathymetric data sets and assists coastal managers in working with these sets—particularly in relation to storm surge and inundation modeling. The current focus of this project is on developing a data inventory for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia and guidance documents describing the coastal management applications of topography and bathymetry.
www.csc.noaa.gov/topobathy/