Best Practices for Mission Applications

EcoSpatial Information Database for the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf

—Lonnie Hearne, AMEC Earth & Environmental

The Department of Interior/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement is managing an innovative program to assemble the body of ecological knowledge for the Atlantic OCS. A bibliographic search identified over 30,000 potentially relevant ecological documents. These were prioritized to identify items for acquisition and geospatial characterization. Priority documents have been incorporated into a geodatabase that provides access both geographically and semantically for use in NEPA assessment of off-shore energy leasing. The system provides access to data previously not readily available to BOEMRE scientists. One significant finding was the need for a detailed scientific protocol to identify and acquire data. The importance of ensuring a robust geospatial data structure required enhancement of the Esri ArcMarine data model to support the ecological project nature and expansion requirements. This presentation will discuss processes and issues for detailed scientific ecological search and evaluation, geospatial characterization and development of the database and applications.