Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

These data provide a baseline inventory of submerged aquatic vegetation within Long Island's South Shore bays. The data were derived from conventional-color metric film diapositives obtained in June 2002 from the New York Department of State's Division of Coastal Resources. Benthic classifications follow the System for Classification of Habitats in Estuarine and Marine Environments (SCHEME). The study area spans approximately 443 square kilometers, extending from the west end of Long Beach Island in Nassau County eastward to Heady Creek at the east end of Shinnecock Bay in Suffolk County.

The creation of this baseline inventory was a critical need identified in the Comprehensive Management Plan for the Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve. Established following the state legislature's passage of the Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve Act in 1993, the management plan aimed to protect and improve the estuary's ecosystem, enhance public access, and support sustainable economic activities. Ultimately, the goal was to sustain existing high-quality habitats and restore degraded areas to support the productivity of commercially and ecologically important estuarine species. The management plan also mandated a long-term monitoring program to evaluate progress toward estuarine resource improvement goals, building upon this foundational benthic habitat data.

The layers available within the data download include biotic, geoform, and substrate.

Partners: New York Department of State's Division of Coastal Resources

Process Steps:

• 2002-06-01 00:00:00 - Two hundred conventional-color metric film diapositives (1:20,000 scale) for Long Island, New York were collected. Photographs were taken at low tide and during times that the growth stage of the SAV allowed for clear identification. Care was taken to minimize the effects of turbidity, sun glint, wind, and haze on the photos.
• 2002-08-01 00:00:00 - During August 2002, NOAA staff collected 95 field observations throughout the study area and this information was incorporated into the data. In June 2003, after reviewing the photography, questionable areas were visited by contract staff and the findings were subsequently applied. The map layers provided delineated polygons and lines representing benthic habitat data. Each polygon feature was given a 1,2,3 or 4 digit number representing 11 habitats.
• 2003-12-31 00:00:00 - Aerial Photography provided by the Division of Coastal Resources were scanned at a resolution of 15 microns. Ground control points were collected primarily from NYSDS 2-foot orthophotos. Additional control points were collected from USGS DOQQs, where coverage from the primary source was lacking. All elevations were derived from USGS digital elevation models. A bundle block adjustment was performed using Albany and exterior orientation parameters were calculated. Boeing/Autometric's Softplotter was used to orthorectify the photos. The images were then dodged and mosaicked using Z/I's Orthopro. No additional color-balancing was performed as the mosaic's intended purpose was the delineation of benthic habitats. The mosaic was then output into 1,000 by 1,000-meter tiles with a 0.5-meter pixel resolution. The naming convention uses the first 3 numbers of the UTM x coordinate followed by the first 4 numbers in the UTM y coordinate of the southwest corner. Stereo digital images were created and the habitat features were interpreted and digitized on screen using softplotter microstation resulting in accurate and efficient 3D extraction of the data. Habitats were delineated with a high level of detail with the minimum mapping unit (MMU) being 0.01 hectares (approximately 10 by 10 meters).The digitized polygons had the following specifications: Vertex Distance less than 1.0 meter, Node Snap Distance less than 4.0 meters, and Arc Snap Distance less than 4.0 meters.
• 2015-01-01 00:00:00 - The data were converted from a single ESRI polygon data set classified according to the System for Classifying Habitats in Estuarine and Marine Environments (SCHEME) to the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) 2012 format. This produced separate biotic, geoform, and substrate feature layers from the original input benthic habitat dataset. Each of the three feature layers contain respective CMECS biotic, geoform, and substrate component attributes where an "Equal" or "Nearly Equal" SCHEME value was present in the original data. Polygons for which no biotic, geoform, or substrate information was present have been removed. No other changes to the original polygon boundaries or any other alterations of the original SCHEME data were made during this process.
• 2025-08-01 00:00:00 - Standardized common design elements, cleaned up field content, repaired geometry, and projected to NAD83.