Leveraging your GIS as a Collaborative Platform

Working Toward a Multipurpose Marine Cadastre

—Daniel Martin, NOAA

The Multipurpose Marine Cadastre (MMC) is a collaborative geospatial information system to improve place-based planning in the outer continental shelf and state waters of the U.S. It provides authoritative geospatial data and tools to scientists, planners, and industry and policy makers. The marine cadastral database defines the geographic limits, usage, rights, restrictions, and responsibilities for marine areas. The MMC also contains regional-scale data to support energy siting, aquaculture, submerged lands leasing, marine conservation and other coastal and marine spatial planning topics that span state and federal jurisdictions. The systems architecture is based on a highly decentralized network of federal data providers and a rapidly growing collection of regional and state collaborators. Building capacity of the regional partners is a high priority to the project as well as moving towards a model of promoting common data services, shared infrastructure and portfolio management at the national level. NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement lead the effort, organize the underlying framework, provide data, and initiate partnerships with data providers and users. Users include the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement's Alternative Energy Program, private sector partners, and the broader coastal and marine resource management community. The project provides a spatial data framework for supporting the new National Ocean Council and the Executive Order for the Stewardship of Our Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes.