This project has advanced the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) from the review draft stage to the final draft stage of the FGDC Standard Approval Process. NatureServe coordinated the process by working with NOAA, and members of the CMECS Implementation Group (IG) and the CMECS Working Group (WG) to address public and peer review comments, solve technical issues that arose from the comments, and revise the CMECS standard to reflect the suggestions made during the public review process. During this project NatureServe, the IG, and the WG revised the CMECS structure and content to incorporate reviewer comments (over 800 suggestions from more than 31 agencies/ individuals) into the Standard. They completed the revision of the CMECS framework and made all necessary changes and additions to the units in each of the five components. Changes reflect specific suggestions from reviewers. They addressed all reviewer comments, and formally documented our responses. A completed standard and responses to comments were delivered to FGDC in January, 2012. As part of their outreach strategy they gave presentations on CMECS at Coastal GeoTools Conference (March 2011), Coastal Zone Conference (July, 2011), and EMECS conference, August, 2011). They also completed a set of webinar materials on CMECS and presented them to the California State Coastal Conservancy and the Ecosystem Based Tools Network.
Project Introduction Slides (PDF)
Contacts:
Kathleen L. Goodin, Deputy Director Conservation Science Division,
Director Marine Program
703-908-1883
kathy_goodin@natureserve.org
David Pasco, Science Operations Manager
703-908-1884
david_pasco@natureserve.org