Current Projects
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)
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)
West Coast Ecosystem-Based Management Network
A number of programs are working to implement ecosystem-based management principles. The first steps toward this goal include identifying organizations with similar goals and issues, and identifying ways in which these organizations can work together. A pilot project along the West Coast will be used to address needs in this region and develop similar proposals for the rest of the nation’s coast. Support by the NOAA Coastal Services Center will include finding appropriate partners, helping to build a collaborative network among these participants, scoping common issues, and identifying existing tools, information, and research, including social science information, available to meet these needs. (2008-2010)
Elwha Watershed Information Resource
Two dams constructed on the Elwha River have blocked the passage of anadromous fish since 1911. The National Park Service will remove these dams in 2009. The Elwha Watershed Information Resource website provides a clearinghouse of spatial data and other information to support the future management of this watershed after dam removal, promoting its ecological recovery and guiding the future use of the recovered watershed. (2005-2008)
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)
Elwha Watershed Information Resource
Two dams constructed on the Elwha River in the early 1900s will be removed in 2009. Through a cooperative agreement with the NOAA Coastal Services Center and in partnership with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the University of Idaho will develop a Web site including narrative, spatial data, and other information to describe past and current conditions in the Elwha Watershed. This information will help support the river’s ecological recovery, guide the future use of the recovered watershed, and describe the management setting within which the recovery efforts will occur. Efforts will also include creation of a sociocultural database of images and stories of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. (2005-2007)
Resource Managers and the Restoration Community Web site
The NOAA Coastal Services Center is partnering with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center to design and develop a Web site that provides the latest data and information on land use change in the Pacific Northwest and its impacts on Coho salmon populations. The Web site aims to provide information that can influence resource management decision making and help guide restoration planning efforts. (2005-2008)
Social Assessment Technical Assistance
State and local officials are getting new tools and information resources to help them address the human dimensions of coastal management. The goal is to identify human dimensions data gaps and develop social science approaches and tools to support ecosystem-based management and planning efforts. (ongoing)
Coastal Storms Program Protecting Communities in the Pacific Northwest
The Coastal Storms Program, a cross-NOAA program, is developing tools and models and launching new oceanic and atmospheric observation platforms along the coastal region of the Columbia River Watershed in Oregon and Washington. The new tools and information include ecological assessments of aquatic impacts from stormwater runoff, near-shore wave models, a coastal inundation tool, a Columbia River circulation model, a new buoy, and water level gauges. Together, these tools will benefit communities and emergency managers by equipping them to better prepare for, and mitigate the effects of, coastal hazards. (2004-2007)
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)
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)
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.
Completed Projects
Coastal Management Fellowship
A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Washington State Department of Ecology on a project entitled “Coastal Research and Local Decisions: Building the Bridge for Improved Coastal Hazard Management.” The goal of this project was to develop and provide an information base for reducing the hazards associated with coastal development. Through the project, an erosion hazard monitoring program and a coastal hazards database were created. The project also facilitated local education outreach and the integration of existing information management systems.
Coastal Management Fellowship
A Coastal Management Fellow worked with the Washington Department of Ecology on a project entitled “Washington State Coastal Atlas: A Digital Tool for Improved Shoreline Management.” The primary goal of the project was to provide convenient access to high quality coastal information through the development of a coastal atlas. The fellow evaluated potential models for a statewide coastal information system, assessed the data needs of the coastal community, and assisted in designing a coastal atlas. The atlas effectively uses geographic information system (GIS) and Internet technologies and is able to accommodate new or updated shoreline data.
Columbia River Estuary Land Cover and Change Data
This project mapped terrestrial land cover in coastal watershed environments and identified changes in these areas that occurred between 1989 and 1992. 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.
Columbia River Estuary Land Cover and Change Data CD-ROM
This land cover classification and change detection analysis for the Columbia River includes the coastal drainage area from Willapa Bay, Washington, south to Tillamook Bay, Oregon. In 1992, the Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) entered into a cooperative project with the Columbia River Estuary Study Task Force (CREST), the National Marine Fisheries Service Point Adams Field Station (Hammond, Oregon), and the State of Washington Department of Natural Resources to perform this work, which followed the C-CAP methods. CREST is a bi-state council of local governments providing coastal and estuarine planning services in the Columbia River estuary region. Members include cities, counties, and port districts in Washington and Oregon.
Community-Based Habitat Restoration
NOAA’s community-based restoration program helps community groups restore marine and estuarine habitat by providing funds and technical expertise. The NOAA Fisheries Service leads the program. The Center has been a program partner since fiscal year 2001 and has co-funded several projects, including the restoration of eelgrass beds in Port Townsend.
Coastal Washington Land Cover and Change Data
This project is mapping terrestrial land cover in coastal watershed environments and identifying changes in these areas. The project relies on satellite multispectral imagery as the primary information source. These data will be used to distinguish major land cover classes, and previous images will be studied to locate areas that changed over time. For this project, the data will be acquired according to the Center’s Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) methods.
National Estuarine Research Reserve System Data Rescue
This project was designed to provide state coastal zone management programs with access to an integrated data-sharing system. Data formerly in a hard copy format were digitized, with priority 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.
North Puget Sound Ecological Characterization
The North Puget Sound ecological characterization is an interdisciplinary synthesis of information about the sound’s ecosystem and the communities that depend on it. By integrating existing information and developing geographic information system (GIS) management tools, the characterization will assist research efforts and promote an ecosystem approach towards managing and using North Puget Sound’s natural resources. The Northwest Indian College developed the characterization through a cooperative agreement with the NOAA Coastal Services Center.
Northwest Fisheries Science Center Collaboration
The Center is working with the National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) to develop a salmon data-management system for the Pacific Northwest. The goal of this project is to provide and maintain corporate data, metadata, applications, and project management services for research scientists and external constituents.
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.
Protecting Our Ports and Harbors (POPAH)
The goal of this project was to increase the resilience of ports, harbors, and their surrounding communities to earthquake and tsunami hazards in the Pacific Northwest. A demonstration project was undertaken to develop, test, and evaluate various strategies and trade-offs to increase the resiliency of lifelines, infrastructure, and facilities in and around ports and harbors. The Center continues developing an educationally based Internet site about tsunamis and works with local stakeholders and the Oregon Sea Grant to acquire data to be used for local risk assessments and a regional risk atlas.
Public Issues and Conflict Management Training
The Washington Sea Grant Program served as the local host for this three-day training. Participants included regional Sea Grant staff and city, county, and state agency partners. The training built skills in collaborative processes, meeting management, and media relations.
Remote Sensing Data Acquisition
This project provides remotely sensed coastal data products obtained through contracts with private industry. All data products meet Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata standards and are freely available to federal, state, and local coastal resource managers. To date, these funds have focused on coastal land cover development, coastal topography, and submerged aquatic vegetation.
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.
San Juan Archipelago Mapping
This study of the San Juan Archipelago is determining the best ways to obtain high-resolution, multibeam bathymetric and backscatter data, side-scan sonographs, and seismic-reflection profiles that can be used to improve navigation charts, characterize essential fish habitat, and map faults and potential landslides that may be geohazards to both Canada and the U.S. These data are used to produce maps and spatial databases that can support NOAA navigational charting efforts, characterizations of marine habitats, and delineations of submarine geology and geohazards. The NOAA Coastal Services Center is working with the San Jose State University Foundation to help develop digital data sets that will be available on NOAA Web sites.
Topographic Change Mapping
High-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) measurements of coastal beach
topography were made during 1998. These measurements can be used for beach change studies
and are available to the public. A CD-ROM, Topographic LIDAR: The Northwest Project,
discussing the management uses of this data was released in 2001. In the summer of 2002,
topographic data were again collected to assess the effects of accretion in this area.
Willapa Bay, Benthic Data
The Center partnered with the Columbia River Estuary Study Task Force, the University of Oregon, and Sound Vessels Inc. to map submerged aquatic vegetation in Willapa Bay. A principal issue in this project is the spread of the exotic estuarine emergent Spartina alterniflora into previously unvegetated intertidal mudflats, oyster bed, and seagrass habitats. Aerial photography, towed underwater videography, and airborne video were used to accomplish the mapping.
