Data Management Plan

This data set contains vector polygons depicting locations of management areas, military installations, Nature Conservancy properties, National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERR), National parks, state parks, state protection areas, and wildlife refuges. Vector points are used to represent National Guard units in Chesapeake Bay and the Outer Coasts of Maryland and Virginia.

As a whole, the ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil, and include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources. The entirety of the ESI Human-Use data layers consists of: PARKS-MANAGED AREAS Polygons, Points; NAVIGATION-MARINE Polygons, Points, Lines; POLITICAL-JURISDICTIONAL Polygons, Points, Lines; RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Polygons, Points; SOCECON Polygons, Points, Lines; and NATURAL HAZARD Polygons.

This reflects the extent of all land and water features included in the overall Chesapeake Bay and Outer Coasts of Maryland and Virginia 2016 ESI study region. The bounding box for this particular feature class may vary depending on occurrences identified and mapped.

Process Steps:

• 2016-09-01 00:00:00 - This atlas is the second edition of two separate first edition atlases, Virginia (2005, #25) and Maryland (2007, #47). Management areas in this atlas include wildlife management areas, nature preserves, and conservation areas and were provided by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (VADCR), Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), and Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Military installation data was provided by the U.S. Census Bureau\x92s MAF/TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) geographic database. Boundaries of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) properties were obtained from TNC lands database. National park boundaries were provided by the National Park Service (NPS). State park boundaries were provided by Maryland DNR and VADCR. Areas that receive varied levels of state protection (state protected areas) were provided by VADCR, Maryland DNR, and NOAA\x92s U.S. Marine Protected Areas Boundaries Inventory. Twenty-one National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) fall within this atlas. Locations of NWRs were provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Army National Guard Units were provided by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) through ArcGIS Online. The above digital and/or hardcopy sources were compiled by the project biologist to create the MANAGED_POLY and MANAGED_POINTS data layers. Depending on the type of source data, three general approaches are used for compiling the data layer: 1) information gathered during initial interviews and from hardcopy sources are compiled onto U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000 topographic quadrangles and digitized; 2) hardcopy maps are digitized at their source scale; 3) digital data layers are evaluated and used "as is" or integrated with the hardcopy data sources. See the Lineage section for additional information on the type of source data for this data layer. The ESI, biology, and human-use data are compiled into the standard ESI digital data format. A second set of interviews with participating resource experts are conducted to review the compiled data. If necessary, edits to the MANAGED_POLY data layer are made based on the recommendations of the resource experts, and final hardcopy maps and digital data are created.

Data can be accessed by downloading the zipped ArcGIS geodatabase from the Download URL (see Distribution Information). Questions can be directed to the ESI Program Manager (Point Of Contact).