California Ocean Uses Atlas: Industrial sector

This dataset is a result of the California Ocean Uses Atlas Project: a collaboration between NOAA's National Marine Protected Areas Center and Marine Conservation Biology Institute. The Project was designed to enhance ocean management through geospatial data on the full range of significant human uses of California's ocean environment from the shoreline to the 200 nm EEZ boundary. Data was gathered from regional ocean experts and users through participatory GIS methods. For more information on the project scope, background and related data products, please visit www.mpa.gov.

The California Ocean Uses Atlas Project fills a critical information gap in ocean management by providing an unprecedented, comprehensive, consistent and spatially explicit picture of human uses for management agencies, policy makers and stakeholders interested in sound and equitable ocean governance. Using participatory GIS concepts and applications, the Atlas Project generated spatial data and map products illustrating patterns, intensity, and temporal changes in a wide range of human uses in three broad categories of use: (i) fishing, (ii) non-consumptive, and (iii) industrial activities. The resulting datasets depict patterns of ocean use on a broad scale appropriate for a variety of ocean planning and management needs. This dataset contains the industrial activities, and is part of the larger California Ocean Uses Atlas database.

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The Industrial sector contains 7 ocean uses: -Aquaculture: includes net pens and shellfish; excludes onshore facilities linked to offshore operations; -Military operations: includes test ranges, war games, acoustic arrays, ship and submarine maneuvers, restricted areas, and munitions disposal; excludes war-time operations; -Mining and mineral extraction: includes sand and gravel, seabed mining, dredging; excludes energy production and beach renourishment; -Offshore alternative energy: includes wave, current, tidal, wind, solar, and associated infrastructure (cables and moorings); excludes oil, gas, and LNG activities; -Offshore oil and gas: includes exploration, production, transportation of gas or oil, LNG, fuel terminals, pipelines, tankers, and seismic air gun exploration; excludes alternative energy operations; -Shipping: includes ships, large commercial vessels, shipping routes and channels including maintenance, and ferries; excludes cruise ships, oil and LNG tankers; -Underwater cables: includes ocean observing and telecommunications; excludes cables associated with utilities and energy transmission, lost fishing gear; For all uses mapped in this sector, the use footprint and dominant use areas are included in the dataset. The use footprint (aka the Maximum Footprint of Use) includes all areas in which the use is known to occur with some regularity, regardless of frequency or intensity. The dominant use areas include areas where the use is most commonly pursued and are defined as areas within the general use footprint that are routinely used by most users most of the time. Future use areas are also included for certain uses where participants anticipated an increase in spatial extent or intensity. Future use areas reflect an anticipated significant and disproportionate (relative to other areas) change in patterns of use through either a lateral expansion of a dominant use area or an increase in intensity of use, or both in the foreseeable future but within the next ten years. "Offshore Alternative Energy" is handled slightly differently, as there are no active alternative energy facilities in California as of 2009. Instead of "footprint" or "dominant", the use is labeled as either "potential future footprint" or "potential future dominant". These are based on ocean conditions and proposed permits.

For more information on use definitions and types, see the readme document within the geodatabase or visit https://coast.noaa.gov/arcgis/rest/services/MarineCadastre/OceanUsesCalifornia/MapServer.

Atlas data describe broad uses of the ocean, and are not intended to be used for navigational purposes or provide information on regulations affecting human activities.

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Atlas data describe broad uses of the ocean, and are not intended to be used for navigational purposes or provide information on regulations affecting human activities.

Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.6.1500

Attribute accuracy was maintained by comparing data before and after each process step, and by comparing final product to source data.

Workshops were conducted at a maximum scale of 1:250,000. During post processing, original workshop polygons were aggregated to an ordered one nautical mile grid, so exact use locations within each block are not discernible. Data are intended to portray broad patterns for each use at a comparable scale to inform ocean management but are not intended for navigation or enforcement purposes.

Certain uses in the Industrial sector relied on existing authoritative GIS data to augment the workshop-collected data. Offshore alternative energy, underwater cables, military operations, and shipping all relied on existing data to some extent. The original list of industrial ocean uses to be mapped in the workshop process included cruise ship activities, but due to lack of existing data and insufficient expert knowledge of these use patterns, data were not collected for this use and have not been included in this dataset. In 3 of the 4 regional atlas workshops, an attempt was made to map uses of the ocean by tribal peoples. Two distinct approaches were taken. First, we mapped tribal activities taking place within the existing range of ocean uses addressed by the Atlas project (e.g. tribal pursuit of benthic fishing with fixed gear; beach use by tribal peoples). Most of the resulting tribal use patterns fell within either the general maximum footprint or the dominant use area drawn for those uses by other non-tribal participants and are thus not represented as uniquely tribal activities. Second, we attempted to map distinctly tribal use areas tied to specific geographic locations of special cultural, spiritual or historical significance. Although some tribal participants provided relevant information, not all tribal interests were represented in each workshop and some participants were reluctant to portray use patterns of other tribes. As a result, the resulting maps of tribal activity patterns may depict an incomplete or misleading picture of the full spectrum of tribal uses of the ocean in each region. Consequently, in order to avoid misinterpretation of the tribal use patterns, and to maintain data consistency and integrity throughout the Atlas maps, the tribal use data are not explicitly depicted in the public release of the atlas data or map products. They will, however, be provided to the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and to the tribal participants for their use, with appropriate explanatory information about their content and limitations. For additional information on the tribal ocean use data, please contact the MPA Center.

Logical consistency was maintained by comparing data before and after each process step, and by comparing final product to source data.