Data Management Plan

These data represent the location of Danger Zones and Restricted Areas within coastal and marine waters, as outlined by the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the Raster Navigational Charts (RNC). The CFR defines a Danger Zone as, "A defined water area (or areas) used for target practice, bombing, rocket firing or other especially hazardous operations, normally for the armed forces. The danger zones may be closed to the public on a full-time or intermittent basis, as stated in the regulations." The CFR defines a Restricted Area as, "A defined water area for the purpose of prohibiting or limiting public access to the area. Restricted areas generally provide security for Government property and/or protection to the public from the risks of damage or injury arising from the Government's use of that area." Other features in this dataset include: Danger Area, Missile Testing Area, Naval Operations Area, Prohibited Area, Restricted Airspace, Test Area, and Torpedo Testing Area. Authoritative information relating to these data may be found in Title 33, Chapter II of the CFR (Part 334).

Process Steps:

• 2014-01-01 00:00:00 - 1. Acquired list of Danger Zones and Restricted Areas (DZRAs) from the CFR (Title 33, Chapter 2, Volume 3, Section 334). 2. Created labeled points in ArcMap (XY tool) based on CFR coordinates. Converted these points (graphics) to features, per CFR feature (DRAWING...CONVERT GRAPHICS TO FEATURES). 3. If points projected in NAD83 appeared to be off significantly compared to the RNCs, the points were projected to determine the intended coordinate system. (The CFR did not explicitly provide the datum, but for a couple features.) 4. For features in which no coordinate system could be identified, Global Mapper was used to project the points in the intended coordinate system, and export them as NAD83. This yielded results that placed the coordinates in significantly closer proximity to that of the charted feature. (It was determined to be a bug with Esri's NADCON transformation.) 5. Created a new polygon feature class to generate geometry from the points. 6. Added necessary fields to feature class (populated as necessary during creation of features). 7. Within the new polygon feature class, used a) point features (coordinates) generated, b) CFR language, c) Raster Nautical Charts (RNCs), and d) shorelines to create geometry. 8. Populated any remaining attributes after geometry was completed. 9. Created metadata. 10. Cross-referenced RNCs to check geometry and reconciled any differences between CFR and RNC where necessary.
• 2015-06-01 00:00:00 - 1. Acquired current national geometry from internal directory. 2. Created new geometry for select features, derived from the Code of Federal Regulations (2014), the Raster Navigational Charts, and data provided by NASA for areas off the coast of Virginia. Features were created using language and coordinates from the CFR or geometry from the RNC, then made coincident with the shoreline. The two areas provided by NASA were not made coincident with the shoreline. 3. Populated attribute fields for new features.
• 2016-01-01 00:00:00 - 1. Acquired latest version of the Danger Zone and Restricted Areas from MarineCadastre.gov data registry. 2. Acquired the latest version (2015) of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). 3. Based on differences between the 2012 and 2015 Code of Federal Regulations, created geometry for new features and removed expired features. New features were made coincident with the NOAA 1:80,000 shoreline. 4. Populated attribute fields for new and existing features, based on 2015 CFR.
• 2017-01-01 00:00:00 - 1. Acquired latest version of the Danger Zone and Restricted Areas from the MarineCadastre.gov data registry. 2. Acquired the latest version (2017) of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). 3. Performed a 1:1 inspection of every feature in the published data set, with those features found on the Raster Nautical Charts. For features that varied noticeably from the nautical charts, language and coordinates from the latest CFR (2017) were used to confirm if the geometry was correct. For the few that were noted as deviating from both the RNC features and CFR descriptions, new geometry was created to update the data set. Also, geometry for new features found in the RNCs or 2017 CFR was created and added to the data set. Attributes were updated accordingly. 4. Changed symbology to more closely resemble the Raster Navigational Charts.
• 2022-10-01 00:00:00 - 1. Acquired latest version of the Danger Zone and Restricted Areas from the MarineCadastre.gov data registry. 2. Acquired the latest version (2022) of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). 3. Performed a 1:1 inspection of every feature in the published data set, with those features found in the CFR, to confirm which features should be removed or added. 4. The geometry for some circular features in the previous data set were corrected and Repair Geometry was run. 5. Attributes were updated accordingly and special characters were removed.