Ongoing Projects

Nationwide Projects

CAMMP
Characterization/Restoration of a Northeastern U.S. Watershed
Coastal GeoTools 2001 Conference
Coastal Management for Practitioners
Coastal Ocean Habitat Project
Coastal Techniques Web Site
Coastal Zone '01
Communities and Their Development
Coral Reef Conference Planning
Coastal Zone Information Center Collection
Estuarine Habitat Project
Harmful Algal Bloom Forecasting
Living on the Coast: Guidelines to Healthier Building Practices
Marine Spill Analysis System (MSAS) Enhancement
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML) LabNet System Development
National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) Coastal Training Initiative
Landsat TM Shoreline Characterization
Ocean Color Applications Project
Program Managers' Meeting 2000
Sea Grant-CZM Activities Directory
Sea Grant Network Liaison and Support of Network Initiatives
Shoreline Data Development
Tools and Guidelines for Environmental Characterizations and Habitat Restoration
Topographic Change Mapping

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CAMMP
The Coastal and Marine Management Program (CAMMP) is a system that state coastal regulatory programs and National Estuarine Research Reserves can use to comply with NOAA's reporting requirements and apply for grants online. The Center is assisting NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and Special Projects Office with this effort.

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Characterization/Restoration of a Northeastern U.S. Watershed
The goal of this project is to help coastal resource managers develop the information, tools, and partnerships needed for watershed and habitat restoration planning. The actual location and project cooperator will be chosen through a competitive process. This is the Center's fifth characterization/ restoration project.

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Coastal GeoTools 2001 Conference
This conference is for people interested in increasing their awareness and understanding of geospatial data, tools, and technology applications. The utility of existing tools will be discussed, as well as the predicted developments and impacts this technology will play in assisting the coastal resource manager. The Coastal GeoTools conference series began in 1999. This is the second conference, and like the first, will be held in Charleston, SC.

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Coastal Management for Practitioners
This training will increase the knowledge and skill base of coastal resource management professionals through a course that addresses the core competencies and knowledge of this profession. Commonly known as CZ 101, the training will be disseminated through a series of face-to-face training sessions and the Internet.

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Coastal Ocean Habitat Project
This project uses new remote sensing techniques and data types to provide information on water column characteristics (biological, optical, and physical variables) and their trends for the ocean, large embayments, estuaries, and major river outflow regions along the U.S. coastal zone. This information reveals event-specific, seasonal, and long-term trends. The Coastal Ocean Habitat Project operates as the retrospective data product generation sector for the Center and supports real-time satellite imagery acquisitions.

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Coastal Techniques Web Site
A coastal management technique is any method, process, activity, procedure, or tool that improves coastal decision making. This Web site is designed to be a gateway to information about coastal management tools and techniques. The site has two primary components: an index of coastal zone management sites, and a specialized, Web-based discussion group where individuals can discuss their experiences about management tools.

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Coastal Zone '01
Held every two years in various coastal locations, this conference is the largest meeting of coastal resource managers in the world. Coastal Zone '01 will be held in Cleveland in July. The Center is leading the coordinated efforts of the many agencies, individuals, and private organizations that are necessary to produce a conference of this magnitude successfully.

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Communities and Their Development
Communities struggle with managing multiple uses and priorities among issues such as urban port and harbor redevelopment, recreation and tourism, and public access. Strategies for managing growth involve urban design and comprehensive planning. To examine these issues, the Center proposes to establish a joint position with the Environmental Protection Agency to work on smart growth, and a mid-term Sea Grant initiative focused on waterfront development.

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Coral Reef Conference Planning
The Center's Coastal Learning Services is working with NESDIS and non-governmental agencies to put together this major international conference. The Center's role includes, but is not limited to, conference planning, date and site selection, planning committee selection, program formatting, and achieving specific overall goals and objectives for the conference. This conference will be held in the summer of 2001.

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Estuarine Habitat Project
High spatial resolution, low-cost methods of determining water quality within coastal areas using remote sensing is the focus of this project. Potential new technologies developed in partnership with NASA include the ability to make salinity determinations using reflected GPS signals.

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Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Forecasts Project
Using aircraft, buoys, and satellites, this work group is integrating data for development of HAB forecasting systems. Long-term goals include the incorporation of numerical models with real-time data streams.

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Living on the Coast: Guidelines to Healthier Building Practices
While many land-use tools are available to planners, there are no comprehensive design and development guidelines targeted specifically for coastal areas. This project integrates existing tools with a set of principles created to guide development of coastal areas. Coastal resource managers and planners will be able to select and adapt measures that are appropriate for their locality.

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Marine Spill Analysis System (MSAS) Enhancement
This GIS-based tool, developed in Florida, has proven itself when it comes to oil spills, and has wide applicability to other coastal states. MSAS is now on a CD-ROM for the purpose of introducing other coastal resource managers to the concept. Interested parties are asked to contact the Center to explore the possibility of broadening the use of the product and upgrading several features.

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National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)
The Center supports the NSDI through many programs and initiatives. Center staff are active on a number of Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) subcommittees, chair the Bathymetric subcommittee, participate in the development of framework data, and help build standards. The Center has completed two projects that were funded by the FGDC and received funding for the Don't Duck Metadata program. The Center employs a full-time metadata specialist who ensures the Center's data follows FGDC standards, and trains the Center's partners in creating FGDC-compliant metadata. Selected by the FGDC to help develop a national curriculum for metadata, the Center supports both a Clearinghouse gateway and node. Center staff have participated in both the National GeoData Forum and the Southeast Regional Framework Workshop.

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National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML) LabNet System Development
The Center is providing technical expertise and software development for the NAML LabNet system. LabNet will permit users to locate, retrieve, view, and manipulate data from participating marine laboratories. The system is based on FGDC standards, which allow laboratories to be simultaneously part of NSDI data sharing initiatives and LabNet.

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National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) Coastal Training Initiative
The Reserves are proposing a national initiative to develop coastal training opportunities at each Reserve to enhance the NERRs' capacity to deliver technical training services to the coastal management community within their representative region. As one of the key partners, the Center will help implement the technical training portion of the plan.

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Landsat TM Shoreline Characterization
Satellite imagery will be acquired and processed to determine the high-water shoreline and adjacent land cover characteristics for 10 coastal sites around the country. Areas of approximately 10 miles in length and 3 miles inland will be assessed for each of the study areas. The Center's beach mapping data will be compared to the satellite data to reveal the accuracy of the beach mapping (LIDAR) methodology.

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Ocean Color Applications Project
Center staff working on this project are developing processing and classification techniques to evaluate coastal water quality, and biological and geologic variables based on remote sensing data from satellite or aircraft.

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Program Managers' Meeting 2000
This annual meeting of the nation's coastal resource managers is an important place to share ideas, renew partnerships, and gain new information. The Center provided program formatting and conference management assistance for this meeting.

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Sea Grant-CZM Activities Directory
This national directory of Sea Grant's coastal management activities will promote the collaboration of activities among the Center, Sea Grant, and the coastal resource management community.

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Sea Grant Network Liaison and Support of Network Initiatives
The Center directly and indirectly supports the national Sea Grant network on a variety of projects. These include projects addressing coastal habitat restoration, aquatic nuisance species, nonpoint source pollution, and coastal natural hazards. The Center serves on Sea Grant's National NEMO (Nonpoint Source Pollution for Municipal Officials) Network Interagency Work Group, and provides GIS training, access to geospatial data, and technical support to this group. In the future, the Center may serve the NEMO network members with further assistance and support.

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Shoreline Data Development
The Center was awarded a NESDIS Environment Data Rescue Program grant to rescue NOAA's historical shoreline maps and create digital GIS-compatible files that will be made accessible via the Internet. The Center is working jointly with NESDIS on this project. The goal is to convert 14,000 topographic manuscripts (T-sheets) during the five-year project beginning in the year 2000.

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Tools and Guidelines for Environmental Characterizations and Habitat Restoration
The goal of this project is to develop GIS-based tools for evaluating the quantity and quality of coastal habitats. Three principal products will be produced: completion of the SC-CREWS model for assessing the functions of wetlands; development of models for siting habitat restoration projects; and preparation of guidelines and "lessons learned" from development of environmental characterizations.

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Topographic Change Mapping
The Coastal Topographic Mapping project is collecting, processing, and distributing high-resolution topographic and other spatial data sets in response to the coastal resource manager's need for accurate, timely information on beach and dune field topography. The data collection and analysis is done in partnership with two federal agencies, the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA. The establishment of a protocol for operational airborne laser topographic mapping is a component of this project.