Olympic Coast Seafloor Ecological Marine Unit Mapping

Esri Ocean Forum

November, 2017

Kathy GoodinRegan SmythMary Harkness

The Need

• Coastal Treaty Tribes in WA co-manage marine resources off the Olympic Peninsula.

• They need consistent spatial data products to support:– Determining Essential Fish Habitat– Improving Ecosystem Based Management– Support Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning

• Information available for defining marine habitat and ecosystem value was inadequate for their management needs.

• Needed a way to standardize and aggregate existing data

Objectives

• Bring existing spatial habitat information into a common framework

• Provide consistent nomenclature for the units

• Create seafloor maps and spatial data products

Source DataSurficial Geological Habitat (SGH) shapefile

Chris Goldfinger Oregon State University Active Tectonics and Seafloor Mapping Lab

Data from 19 sources using multiple methods multi-beam sonar side scan sonar sediment grab samples core samples seismic reflection profiles still and video images

4 Different Classifications Sediment particle size: Folk

(1954) and Wentworth (1922). Geomorphological characters:

Greene et al. (1999) Physiographic Habitat Type:

based on NOAA Essential Fish Habitat types (2005) OSU’s Habitat Type:

Combination of substrate and bottom structure characteristics

Biog

eogr

aphi

cSe

ttin

g

Aquatic Setting

Ecological Marine Units

Geomorphic & structural character of coast or seafloor

BioticComponent

(BC)

Water Column

Component(WC)

SubstrateComponent

(SC)

Geoform Component

(GC)

Structure and features of water column

Assemblages of benthicand suspended/floating organisms

Character & composition of surface and near-surface substrates

Components

Mod

ifier

s

Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS)

Sand Substrate

Beach Geoform

Sand Beach EMUwww.cmecscatalog.org

Methods:Crosswalking

Solutions

• Identified Synonymy: “Gully” = “Channel”

• Create Equivalencies: “Gravel” = “Granule + Pebble”

• Create Co-Occurring Elements:“Cobbley Boulder”= “Boulder/Cobble”

• Create Provisional Units: “Continental Slope (mass wasting zone)”

Situations

• Source unit concept matches but names differ

• Source unit concept is broader than CMECS units

• Source unit concept is finer than CMECS units

• There is no equivalent source unit in CMECS

Document the messiness by assigning confidence measures

Methods: Spatial Data

• Applied CMECS unit attributes to SGH Shapefile

• Derived raster from SGH shapefile using feature to raster conversion tools in ArcGIS 10.3.1 at 30 m resolution

• End Products: CMECS Compliant Geoform, Substrate and EMU maps

Lessons Learned

• CMECS provided a useful tool for standardizing existing spatial habitat data– It would be easier if data were attributed to

CMECS from the start• Having pre-aggregated data was a huge benefit

– It would be better if data producers could contribute directly to an aggregated data set

– Esri’s new ArcGIS Hub has promise for making aggregating and sharing data easier.

Resources

Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission• Story Map: http://nwifc.org/• Interactive Map Tool: http://geo.nwifc.org/ocean/

CMECS Unit Catalog: www.cmecscatalog.orgWebsite: https://ocs-iocm-web-ocs-iocm-dev.azurewebsites.net/index.html