Data Management Plan

The feature classes ESIL and ESIP contain vector lines and polygons representing shorelines and intertidal habitats of Great Lakes - St. Clair / Detroit River System in southeastern Michigan, classified by their susceptibility to oiling. The Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) classification system, developed by NOAA, considers several natural and biological factors including relative exposure to wave and tidal energy, shoreline slope, substrate type and biological productivity and sensitivity.

The study area includes a small portion of southern Lake Huron at its outlet, the St. Clair River (which flows out of Lake Huron), Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River (which flows into Lake Erie), a small portion of western Lake Erie, and adjacent lands and waters.

As a whole, the ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil, and includes information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources.

Bounding box for the St. Clair - Detroit River System area of interest in southeastern Michigan.

Lineage Statement:
Sources and Process Steps cited below in this metadata record include those used for two distinct areas of the Great Lakes: the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan, and the St. Clair / Detroit River System in southeastern Michigan. This is because these two study areas were initially combined into a single ArcGIS geodatabase, before being separated for publication. As a final procedural step to prepare the geodatabases for publication, the spatial data data corresponding to each respective area were clipped in ArcGIS according to the two distinct geographic study areas.

Process Steps:

• 2019-09-23 00:00:00 - The Great Lakes Mackinac and St. Clair-Detroit River system shorelines in the area of interest (RPI 2018-2019) for the ESIL dataset were derived from the integration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Continually Updated Shoreline Product (CUSP, 2006-2007) and National Shoreline composite (2011); the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) high resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD, 2011-2016); the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) dataset (1975-2013); the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources dataset (1998-2018) and manual digitization at 1:4,000 from BING Bird’s Eye and Aerial imagery (2012-2019), ESRI Basemap World Imagery (2010-2017), and Google Earth aerial imagery (2014-2018). The most recent shoreline was utilized where available. The intertidal shoreline habitats were classified based on the USFWS NWI wetland polygons and low- altitude oblique and nadir aerial imagery from: BING Bird’s Eye, BING Aerial, ESRI Basemap, and Google Earth, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) oblique imagery, Marinas.com imagery, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Land Use data.
• 2019-09-23 00:00:00 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) data for Mackinac and St. Clair-Detroit River System from 2013 was used as the primary data source in the area of interest (RPI 2018-2019) for the HYDROP dataset. NWI attribute definitions were crosswalked to the standard ESI polygonal ranking. Data from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources from 1998-2018 was used to supplement the NWI in the area of the Walpole Island marsh complex. Where appropriate, edits or additions to the digital NWI polygon spatial extent and/or coding were dependent upon the image based ESI classification. Intertidal habitats were classified based on the USFWS NWI wetland polygons and low- altitude oblique and nadir aerial imagery from: BING Bird’s Eye, BING Aerial, ESRI Basemap, and Google Earth, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) oblique imagery, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Land Use data.
• 2019-09-23 00:00:00 - Depending on the type of source data, three general approaches are used for compiling these data layers: 1) hardcopy maps are digitized at their source scale; 2) digital data layers are evaluated and used "as is" or integrated with the hardcopy data sources; and 3) overflight changes are digitized from the scanned and registered hardcopy field maps or aerial photography. After the initial shoreline classification, these data are edgematched and checked for logical consistency errors. Review maps are plotted at 1:50,000 scale for verification of polygonal and linear attributes. 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 ESIL and ESIP data layers are made based on the recommendations of the resource experts, and final hardcopy maps and digital data are created.
• 2020-09-30 00:00:00 - Sources and Process Steps cited above in this metadata record include those used for two distinct areas of the Great Lakes: the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan, and the St. Clair / Detroit River System in southeastern Michigan. This is because these two study areas were initially combined into a single ArcGIS geodatabase, before being separated for publication. As a final procedural step to prepare the geodatabases for publication, the spatial data data corresponding to each respective area were clipped in ArcGIS according to the two distinct geographic study areas.

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).