In collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the NROC Coastal Hazards Resilience Committee, and other partners, the Northeast Ocean Data Portal team launched a new category and datasets in the Data Explorer related to coastal resilience.
The new category, named Coastal Resilience & Sand, contains subcategories for Water Levels, Sand & Sediment Management, and will soon include a subcategory called Living Shorelines. Because of their relevance to navigational safety, several of the new and updated layers are also listed in the Data Explorer under Marine Transportation > Navigation.
Within the Sand & Sediment Management subcategory, new datasets have been added:
Beneficial Use Sites
These data are being integrated into the Portal from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New England District Beneficial Use Planning Tool developed by the Disposal Area Monitoring System (DAMOS) Program. The data and Tool facilitate the identification of beneficial use opportunities for dredged material in New England. Portal users can activate a layer that displays the locations and types of beneficial uses of dredged material and visit the Tool to view summaries and statistics associated with beneficial use sites in the region.
National Channel Framework
Derived from the Army Corps of Engineers Regional Sediment Management platform, the National Channel Framework is a database providing information about congressionally authorized navigation channels maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Details include reaches, channel areas, quarters, centerlines, and stationing.
National Sediment Management Framework Borrow Areas and Placement Areas
Also derived from the Army Corps of Engineers Regional Sediment Management platform, these layers show the operational status of placement and borrow areas managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The new datasets join a collection of data that were previously available on the Portal from sources including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NOAA Office for Coastal Management, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which have been reorganized under Coastal Resilience & Sand > Sand & Sediment Management:
- Atlantic OCS Aliquots with Sand Resources (BOEM)
- BOEM MMIS – Sand Resources
- BOEM MMIS – Marine Minerals Shore Study Areas
- Ocean Disposal Sites (NOAA, EPA, USACE)
Under the new Coastal Resilience & Sand > Water Levels subcategory, Portal users can find several layers derived from the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS), a two-year initiative of the USACE to help address coastal storm and flood risk to vulnerable populations, systems, and infrastructure affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. These data were previously listed in the Physical Oceanography category in the Data Explorer. In the near future, new layers will be added to the Water Levels subcategory that relate to a water level data visualization tool being developed by NROC’s Coastal Hazards Resilience Committee.
A future Coastal Resilience & Sand > Living Shorelines subcategory, to be built out by the NROC Coastal Hazards Resilience Committee, will display living shorelines projects in the northeast and highlight state and federal resources that practitioners could use for more information about living shoreline projects. Expect future layers showing current living shorelines projects, featured projects to highlight various living shorelines approaches, and resources for practitioners such as monitoring guidance and state-based tools for siting projects.
Finally, with these updates and revisions, the Northeast Ocean Data Portal is retiring the Restoration data category and theme map which now contains outdated information about restoration project sites in the region.
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