Coastal Services Center

Florida Sea Grant and the Florida Marine Research Institute entered into a cooperative agreement with the NOAA Coastal Services Center to develop a geographic information system (GIS)-based manatee protection decision and education support system (MPDESS. The support system promoted public awareness of efforts to recover and protect manatee populations and will assist in the evaluation of existing and proposed manatee protection zones in Florida's boating regions. MPDESS contains relevant GIS data themes and information modules that integrates with educational components to present the management, legal and regulatory framework; explain the decision process; and outline the implications of alternative management scenarios. This project focused on the Tampa Bay area as the pilot study region.

NOAA Coastal Services Center's Role

The NOAA Coastal Services Center assisted in the development of educational components, participated in training and feedback workshops, and provided programming support.

Grantee Overview

The University of Florida, Gainesville, is a major public, comprehensive, land-grant research university established in 1905. The state's oldest, largest, and most comprehensive institution, the University of Florida is among the nation's most academically diverse public universities. Florida has a long history of established programs in international education, research, and service. It is one of only 17 public land-grant universities that belong to the Association of American Universities. Florida has 16 colleges and more than 100 research, service, and education centers, bureaus, and institutes. More than 100 undergraduate majors are offered. The Graduate School coordinates almost 200 graduate programs, with professional degree programs including dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine.

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