Assessment of Existing Information for Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP)

The ACFHP database consist of three primary data tables, joined within SQL Server, a relational DBMS: 1. The Bibliographic table provides information on over 500 selected documents and data sources on Atlantic coastal fish species and habitats. 2. The Assessment table provides information on habitat condition indicators, threats, and conservation actions. 3. The Geospatial table provides location references for information recorded in the Bibliography and Assessment tables. In addition, a separate table enables the many-to-many relationship between bibliographic entries and locations.

The Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Database provides the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP) with the capability to review and summarize existing information on Indicators, Threats, and Conservation Actions, to inform strategic conservation planning for estuarine and marine coastal waters and watersheds. It can also be used for other purposes, including the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) 2010 Assessment.

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Online Linkage to NCCOS project homepage, which provides links for Tech. Memo. pdf, and web query tools.

The ACFHP Database contains three primary tables: Bibliographic, Assessment, and Geospatial. The Bibliographic and Assessment tables are joined via a unique identifier for each Bibliographic entry. The Assessment and Geospatial tables are joined via a unique identifier for each entry in the Geospatial table. The Bibliographic and Geospatial tables are joined via a many-to-many relationship table.

Fields within the Bibliographic, Assessment, and Geospatial Tables are described as attributes within the Detailed Descriptions for each Entity.

These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by NOAA, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by NOAA as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by NOAA in the use of these data or related materials.

Hardcopy tech memo or other documentation, or custom spreadsheet versions of data are available upon request from: David Moe Nelson NOAA N/SCI-1 1305 East-West Hwy, 9th Floor Silver Spring MD 20910 phone 301-713-3028 x154 email david.moe.nelson@noaa.gov; Tech. Memo. pdf, and bibliographic and assessment information may be downladed directly from the homepage at the URL provided. Electronic spreadsheet versions may be requested from: David Moe Nelson NOAA N/SCI1 1305 East-West Hwy, 9th Floor Silver Spring MD 20910 phone 301-713-3028 x154 email david.moe.nelson@noaa.gov; go to http://www8.nos.noaa.gov/bhv/spatbibindex.html . The links to the left launch these three query modules: Bibliographic Query - using a set of sequential parameters in pull-down menus, this query generates a list of documents and data sources pertaining to a particular water body. Output includes standard bibliographic information such as Title, Year, Authors, Organization, and Publication Info - as well as Habitat Type, Information Type, and Web Location (if an item is available, a "Click Here" link is provided). Assessment Query generates a list of indicators (measures of habitat condition), threats (or stressors), and/or actions (conservation recommendations), for a specified waterbody or watershed, with sources cited. Geospatial Query provides a GoogleMaps interface to launch a query of either the bibliographic or assessment information.;

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Data tables were developed in Microsoft Excel, and ported to SQL Server for web development. Spatial framework was developed in ArcGIS, and exported to GoogleMaps for web development.

The Bibliographic Table records standard bibliographic information for over 500 reference documents and data sets, along with spatial footprint (state, waterbody, etc.), web availability, and species and habitat types covered. The Assessment Table records relavent information on habitat condition indicators, threats, and conservation actions from sources identified in the Bibliographic table. Information is recorded strictly "as reported", it is intended to accurately reflect the content of the source documents, but therefore is only as accurate as those source documents. The Geospatial Table contains commonly-accepted names and general locations of coastal and estuarine waterbodies and watersheds, and are presumed to be accurate. | Quantitative Value: attribute values as reported from source documents | Quantitative Test Explanation: no testing of attribute accuracy

Locations are identified by a defined set of place names, roughly to the precision of an individual estuary (e.g. Chincoteague Bay) or watershed (e.g. USGS HUC-8). To represent these place names as points, centroids were taken of their polygons.; Quantitative Value: 10000.0 meters, Test that produced the value: Locations are identified by a defined set of place names, roughly to the precision of an individual estuary (e.g. Chincoteague Bay) or watershed (e.g. USGS HUC-8).

The project team reviewed 500+ documents and data sets to contribute to the ACFHP Assessment of Existing Information. The selected sources are considered to be a representative sample, but by no means an exhaustive inventory of all potentially relavent source documents.

Documents such as Habitat Assessments and Conservation Plans were carefully reviewed, and policy-relevant habitat assessment information (indicators, threats, and actions) was recorded "as reported" in a separate table, linked via waterbody number and reference number.