Note: Working Group and Subcommittee Charter Updates

The primary mission of the Marine and Coastal Spatial Data (MCSD) Subcommittee is to develop and promote the Marine and Coastal NSDI. The vision of the Marine and Coastal NSDI is that current and accurate geospatial coastal and ocean data will be readily available to contribute locally, nationally, and globally to economic growth, environmental quality and stability, and social progress. The subcommittee is chaired by the NOAA Geospatial Information Officer. Learn more

For the past 5 years, the subcommittee has worked in an integrated manner, seeking critical partnerships with other Federal, State, and local governments, as well as interagency and multisector activities in the marine and coastal environment focusing on spatial data. These activities include the National Ocean Council and the ocean.data.gov data portal, the Integrated Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping, and the Integrated Ocean Observing System, to name a few key initiatives. Since the marine and coastal geospatial community is broad and diverse, the FGDC’s MCSD Subcommittee seeks leveraging ongoing activities in other sectors.

Recent accomplishments

FY 2015 Accomplishments

The subcommittee’s accomplishments for 2015 include the following:

  •  Supported the implementation of the NGDA Management Plan by reviewing and updating NGDA Dataset baseline inventory for the Water – Oceans and Coasts Theme and registering the Theme’s NGDA Datasets in the Data.gov and Geoplatform.gov catalog, and updated the Water – Oceans and Coasts Theme pages on Geoplatform.gov.
  • A Federal mandate under the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act of 2009 established the requirement to “coordinate and leverage ocean and coastal mapping efforts to improve access to existing data and efficiently collect future data.” The Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping has developed a National Coastal Mapping Strategy to meet this mandate. This group helped the Geospatial Platform management team to expand the functionality of the Geospatial Marketplace to meet similar requirements for the coastal and ocean mapping community.
  • Continued to support and grow the Marine Planning Portal Network (MPPN); through a combination of a listserv, webinar series, and informational resources, it serves as one of the main conduits for communication between State, regional, and national portals, applications, and planning efforts. The MPPN continues to grow and now has 110 listserv members.
  • The NOAA’s NGS is collecting aerial oblique imagery prior to natural disaster events (that is, hurricanes, tornadoes, oil spills, and so forth) to aid emergency and coastal managers with the information they need to develop recovery strategies, facilitate search-and-rescue efforts, identify hazards to navigation and hazardous materials spills, locate errant vessels, and provide documentation necessary for damage assessment through the comparison of before-and-after imagery. Additionally, oblique imagery allows determination of the extent of the damage inflicted by the storms and comparison of this storm’s forecast models to actual damage to the ground. The NGS’ oblique imagery is available online and employs a front-end Web page that quickly provides imagery with coordinate attributes for the public and allows downloadable imagery. The National Digital Orthoimagery Program Subcommittee also supports this effort.
  • Updates to the MarineCadastre.gov Web site were released that includes a new National Viewer, updates to the Data Registry, and a refreshed look and feel to the entire Web site. The project developed or maintained 57 data layers over the course of the year. The project team from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and NOAA continued strong, tightly integrated relationships with regions that are actively engaged in marine planning, specifically the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and West Coast. The site also has an active social media component through Facebook and Twitter.

Activity Reports

The Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee provides progress reports to the FGDC Coordination Group. These reports contain the most current updates on the activities of the subcommittee.

All updates

Resources