As more and more people move to our coastal regions, human actions—how we live, work, and play—can have a significant impact on natural resources. As a result, coastal resource management can often be more about influencing the choices of the people who live along and visit our nation's coastline than about managing the actual resources.
People base their decisions and actions on innumerable factors, including such sensitive topics as religion, philosophy, politics, and family psychology. Influencing people's uses of resources can be a time consuming and demanding approach. Social scientists tell us, however, that integrating human behavior in identifying problems and solutions in some cases will have a better long-term success rate.
In the cover story of this edition of Coastal Services, you'll read how one researcher tapped into the strong religious faith of watermen on Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay to help establish a community-based environmental stewardship initiative. As a result of the initiative, the island is being cleaned up and maintained, alternative economic opportunities are being explored, and partnerships have been established with environmental professionals.
The NOAA Coastal Services Center continues to strive to keep the Center's products and services relevant to the needs of the nation's coastal resource managers. To do this, we secure information from a variety of sources, including the Coastal Resource Management Survey (see story), as well as conduct internal reviews to gauge how well our programs and operations are meeting customer needs.
A recent evaluation of one of our remote sensing programs included an independent blue ribbon panel review and a formal survey of user perspectives of the program. Positive organizational changes are being made as a result of this intensive evaluation. You can access a summary of this evaluation, entitled "Coastal Change Analysis Program Effectiveness Review," at www.csc.noaa.gov/text/ccap_review.pdf (requires a plug-in such as Adobe® Reader® to view).
We look forward to working with you to provide relevant and useful information and products in the coming year.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
