Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

This data set contains vector polygons representing management boundaries for: artifical reefs, management areas, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) lands, parks, and National Wildlife Refuges in Delaware/New Jersey/Pennsylvania.

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: SOCECON Lines, Points, and MGT Polygons.

This reflects the extent of all land and water features included in the overall Delaware Bay (Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) 2014 ESI study region. The bounding box for this particular feature class may vary depending on occurrences identified and mapped.

Process Steps:

• 2014-03-01 00:00:00 - The mapping extent was dependent upon information availability and location of mapped coastal habitats and shorelines. The main sources of data used to depict human-use resources for this data layer were digital data sets provided by the following agencies: 1) Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Artificial Reef Program; 2) New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Division of Fish and Wildlife (F&W) Artificial Reef Program; 3) Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences; 4) NOAA NMFS Office of Protected Resources and Office of Sustainable Fisheries; 5) NJDEP DFW Bureaus of Marine Fisheries and Shellfisheries; 6) DNREC Division of Parks and Recreation; 7) The Nature Conservancy (TNC); 8) Delaware State Parks; 9) NJ Parks and Forestry; 10) PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; and 11) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Artificial Reef: Locations of artificial reefs were mapped in Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Artificial reef data for DE was provided by DNREC\x92s Artificial Reef Program. Artificial reef data for NJ was provided by NJDEP DFW\x92s Artificial Reef Program. Management Area: \x91Management Areas\x92 in this ESI Atlas include state-managed: Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), Natural Areas, Preserves, Wildlife Areas, some beaches, Reserves, DE impoundments, and NJ shellfish leases. The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Carl H. Shuster, Jr. Horseshoe Crab Reserve, a habitat area of particular concern for sandbar shark and the North Atlantic Right Whale seasonal management area are also included. Nature Conservancy: Boundaries of The Nature Conservancy properties were provided by TNC. Parks: State park boundaries were provided by Delaware State Parks, NJ Parks and Forestry, and PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Recreational Fishing: Recreational fishing locations were provided by NJDEP DFW Bureau of Marine Fisheries and DNREC. Wildlife Refuges: Six wildlife refuges fall within the Area of Interest (AOI): 1) Bombay Hook NWR (DE); 2) Cape May NWR (NJ); 3) Edwin B. Forsythe NWR (NJ); 4) John Heinz NWR Tinicum (PA); 5) Prime Hook NWR (DE); and 6)Supawna Meadows NWR (NJ). Locations of National Wildlife Refuges were provided by the USFWS. The above digital and/or hardcopy sources were compiled by the project biologist to create the MGT data layer. 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 1:45,000 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 MGT 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).