Data Management Plan

These data represent the extent of the nation's coastal zone, as defined by the individual states and territories under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (CZMA). The CZMA was established to preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, to restore or enhance the resources of the nation's coastal zone. The zone generally extends seaward to the boundary of the Submerged Lands Act. The zone extends inland from the shorelines only to the extent necessary to control shorelands that have a direct and significant impact on coastal waters. Lands held in trust by the Federal Government have been included in this boundary unless otherwise noted, as accurately representing these could be erroneous. State jurisdiction extends to 3nm, except for Texas, Puerto Rico and Florida's Gulf coast extends to 9nm. Great Lakes states have jurisdiction to the international boundary with Canada. CZMA applies in EEZ through federal consistency. This boundary is unofficial. For precise, regulatory boundaries, please contact the state or territorial coastal program office.

Process Steps:

• 2018-07-01 00:00:00 - To account for federal consistency rules, added geography to account for 200NM Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundary: 1. Using the National Environmental Policy Act boundary which has the EEZ represented, union data to CZMA data created in above processing step. 2. Explode features from multipart to singlepart. 3. Copy all EEZ features adjoining the CZMA boundary (around Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii) into CZMA data. 4. Add "Notes" field. 5. For Notes field for EEZ features, calculate fields to add this note: "Applies to Exclusive Economic Zone through federal consistency pursuant to NOAA's CZMA regulations at 15 C.F.R. Part 930." 6. Display geometry for CZMA features as a solid fill with no outline, display geometry for the EEZ features as an empty fill with a solid outline. Create layer file. 7. Check geometry and project data into WGS 1984 Auxiliary Sphere
• 2018-06-01 00:00:00 - 1) Download data from each state source 2) Project all shapefiles into NAD 83 and import into a file geodatabase 3) The following state coastal zones include the entire state: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii and Rhode Island 4) The following state coastal zones include a 3 nautical mile buffer: CNMI, Guam, USVI (the download files for American Samoa and Hawaii include this in the download) 5) Puerto Rico’s coastal zone includes a 9 nautical mile buffer 6) For all other states, merge into a single feature class 7) Union this feature class with no gaps allowed and review all features to delete any slivers in the data and merge overlapping areas 8) For features on the east coast, west coast and Gulf of Mexico extend the areas to the accompanying SLA boundary and clip any area beyond 9) For features on the Great Lakes, extend the areas to the USA/Canada border and clip any area beyond 10) Merge all feature classes into a single layer and explode any multipart features 11) Delete all superfluous fields 12) Check geometry and project data into WGS 1984 Auxiliary Sphere
• 2022-08-01 00:00:00 - Removed the counties of Lewis, Cowlitz, Clark, and Skamania in Washington state. Removed the counties of Stone and Pearl River in Mississippi. Coincidence with the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) along the entirety of coast from Maine to Florida to Texas was rebuilt. Machias Seal Island modified to be coincident with the EEZ. Removed that portion of the U.S. Virgin Islands that extended (eastward) beyond the EEZ. Corrected an inconsistency in the geometry on the east point of the Island of Vieques. Removed federal consistency 'donut' features over Frenchcap Cay rock (southeast of St. Thomas, USVI) and Boon Island Ledge area (southeast coast of Maine) that had no equivalent submerged lands geometry. Manually modified small extents of the state jurisdiction portions (to be coincident with the Submerged Lands Act) in Maine, Texas, California, and Washington state. Changed the original 'Notes' field to "CZMADomain" and set values to either 'coastal zone' or 'federal consistency'.