Description: Secretary Salazar announced the Department of the Interior's "Smart from the Start" initiative on November 23, 2010. As part of this initiative, a critical element is the identification of Wind Energy Areas (WEA) on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the Atlantic coast. WEAs are offshore locations that appear most suitable for wind energy development. Secretary Salazar identified the WEAs on February 7, 2011 in a joint announcement with Secretary Chu of the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the National Strategic Work Plan for Offshore Wind. Data has been and will continue to be collected for these high priority areas to inform government and industry assessments and planning, allowing a more efficient process for permitting and siting responsible development. Requests for Interest (RFIs) and Calls for Information have been or will be issued for these new WEAs to support lease sale environmental assessments. The data was developed within the U.S. Government; no proprietary rights may be attached to them nor may they be sold to the U.S. Government as part of any procurement of ADP products or services.
Description: This data set contains OCS block outlines in ESRI Arc/Info export and Arc/View shape file formats for the MMS Atlantic Region. OCS blocks are used to define small geographic areas within an Official Protraction Diagram (OPD) for leasing and administrative purposes. These blocks have been clipped along the Submerged Lands Act (SLA) boundary and along lines contained in the Continental Shelf Boundaries (CSB) GIS data files. Because GIS projection and topology functions can change or generalize coordinates, these GIS files are NOT an OFFICIAL record for the exact OCS block boundaries. Only the paper document or a digital image of it serve as OFFICIAL records. The data was developed within the U.S. Government; no proprietary rights may be attached to them nor may they be sold to the U.S. Government as part of any procurement of ADP products or services.
Description: The NOAA Coastal Services Center's Marine Jurisdiction dataset was created to assist in marine spatial planning and offshore alternative energy sitting. This is a composite dataset derived from a collection of authoritative marine boundary data provided by the DIO Minerals Management Service and the NOAA Office of Coast Survey. NOT LEGALLY BINDING. This dataset is not an authoritative data source for marine boundaries, please see the Minerals Management Service and NOAA Office of Coast Survey for authoritative data and more comprehensive use constraints.
Description: This data layer contains waterbird density blocks extracted from the Minerals Management Service's Mid-Atlantic Waterbird Data Beta Version 1.0. This application is based on their Marine Mammal and Seabird Computer Database Analysis System (MMS-CDAS). The origin of the underlying data is a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service aerial survey conducted between December, 2001 and March, 2003. The source data were collected on-transect (120m width, 60 m each side) for transects conducted in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, in Delaware Bay, and in offshore waters from the beach outward. Aerial surveys of waterbirds were flown to at least 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) offshore from northern New Jersey to the Virginia / North Carolina border. All waterbird species in the USFWS database from winter surveys only were exported to density blocks. Information in the MMS application suggests the winter surveys only are valid for calculating densities because they were flown on specific transects. The spatial extent of the database (and thus of this data set) is from the Virginia/North Carolina border to the Hudson Canyon (including Delaware Bay and the lowest part of Chesapeake Bay).
Description: The purpose of creating this file was to use MesoMap to create high-resolution wind maps of the state and to provide wind resource data in a format enabling the assessment of potential wind development sites in a GIS. By combining a sophisticated numerical weather model capable of simulating large-scale wind patterns with a microscale wind flow model responsive to local terrain and surface conditions, they enable the mapping of wind resources with much greater accuracy than has been possible in the past. In addition, they do not require surface wind data to make accurate predictions. While on-site measurements will be required to confirm the predicted wind resource at any particular location, mesoscale-microscale modeling can greatly reduce the time and cost required to identify and evaluate potential wind project sites. This map was created by AWS Truepower, LLC using the MesoMap system and historical weather data. Although it is believed to represent an accurate overall picture of the wind energy resource, estimates at any location should be confirmed by measurement.
Description: These digital data files are records of salt marsh location and extent as defined by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) program. In coastal Maryland these data were extracted from data mapped by Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) using Maryland's Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quads. The wetlands were photo interpreted from the photography flown for the Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quads. These were flown over a period from 1988 to 1995. Outside of coastal Maryland these data were compiled by The Nature Conservancy from other National Wetlands Inventory data developed by USFWS.