Introduction: Charles B. Chesnutt, USACE HQ (Washington D.C.)

Presentations: (Partial notes)

Jackie Hand, USACE Philadelphia: Corps has large volume of data, over time has amassed perhaps 5000-10000 cores; those before 1996 are largely undigitized. Some samples have been transferred to the University of Delaware, Newark (core repository). Samples range from Manasquan to Delaware-Maryland area, including Delaware bays and Delaware River. Oceanfront from S. New Jersey to Cape May and Delaware River accounts for large proportion. Samples may be accompanied by biological, seismic, sidescan sonar and magnetometer data, but some are not precisely located. Biological data collection began in 1980’s.

Teresa Kennedy: C.O.A.S.T. Affiliated with Clean Ocean Trust of NY and NJ Organization is engaged with development and dissemination of information related to coastal environments in the NY and New Jersey areas.

John Rowland: MMS Herndon. Much of data in MMS web site and database are project data, rather than spatial. Much information has been generated by cooperative agreements with states and state agencies in the past six years. MMS is interested in organization of information related to sediments in spatial format with metadata. Maps generated in 1987 by Roger Amato are planned to be digitized by Denver MMS office. MMS Open-File Report of 1993(?) 1:1 million map of surficial sediment distribution, integrating state & USGS data.

Recommends attention to EPA Green book. Inventory for characterizing sediments and environments. New England Governors conference cooperative study of sand deposits in New England, available for borrow sites found resources becoming scarcer.

Joan Pope: Many Corps data are collected for highly specific purposes, often at a fine grid. Some broader data sets are available from regional data. Much would be gained by capturing metadata. This would permit prioritization of data workup. Bathymetric surveys are generally conducted twice per year. [Section missing].

Lynn Bocamazo: NY District has 40 reports on sediments since 1950; many reports respond to specific need, e.g. navigation channels, "KBK rock layers" and other specific needs, "that inlet and that locality".

Many coastal bathymetric profiles are available. Supports usefulness of metadata files. Some purposes may encourage "coarser approach for time comparisons". Fire Island –Montauk Point. 2132 offshore borrow areas. Utilize inland sources wherever available. Environmental impact statement for project; 2-step process: characterize condition and do impact analysis. A current GIS emphasis is overlaying coastal and physical information and biological information, another is GIS study of 12 borrow areas in S. Long Island sound. Essential fish habitats, sediment characterization. Monitoring along NJ shore, Asbury Park to connect with Philadelphia District studies. SAIC CD ROM, and DANY database.

Roselle Henn: Environmental studies, USACE NY District. Environmental Impact studies along Atlantic Coast of N. (Atlantic Coast of NY Monitoring Program). Coastal View. Studies have used Leatherman’s historical shorelines to assess changes. Mark Ravens 1996 air photos demonstrate significant changes in shorelines due to natural and anthropogenic influences.

Wayne Wilmot: Coastal Center, NOAA NESDIS NODC, Silver Spring; NGDC, Boulder is also part of NESDIS national data center. Its role is concentrated on ocean data gathering. The Coastal data development center has 5 million physical oceanographic data profiles, with 120,000 identified for the NY Bight area. Coastal Center has links with other national data centers in Korea, Taiwan. See also GODAR, Global Ocean Data Archeology for oceanographic data resources. Silver Spring seeks organizational ties with USGS, USACE, and FEMA to build coastal data bank 2 years from now. NOAA is building portals to distributed databases. Marine fisheries data is distributed in local fisheries labs around the country. NOAA contributes to university data centers. Assured archival is sought through converting paper to digital information.

Metadata is established at new Trent Lott Coastal Data Center, Bay St. Louis, MI. This has a sea and air data budget of $4 million. "Multiple levels of metadata granularity" are envisaged. GODAR Global Ocean Data Acheology is a very large oceanographic data resource. NODC. Russian and former Soviet bloc oceanographers are contributing.

Andy Morang. Points out Corps Standard metadata form on web server Corpsgeo1 (?) (Nancy Blyler). Each new Corps of Engineers contract must file metadata with report (since 1997-8). Discussion of SHOAL server; problem of dead links. Many coastal bathymetric profiles along Long Island South coast (150?); Develop software to support district activities, e.g. BMAP Beach Morphology and Analysis Package. Tools for computing volume between limits, special attention to Shinnecock Inlet. [Bocamazo?] 1500-1600 profile lines, large numbers of high-quality aerial photographs, not photogrammetrically corrected but some ground control; these could be used for mapping studies.

Charles Chesnutt. National Shoreline study; national coastal data bank. Agencies must work together to integrate data and avoid duplication of what others have done or can do. For the Corps the old pattern of 10 years’ design and construction is gone. Now reconnaissance to sand on the beach must be completed in 4 years.

Maureen Kenny. Activity areas: oceanographic real-time systems, such as tides in NY area, water level stations, benchmarks, hydrographic surveys & digital bathymetry, historical map and chart collection (scanned and digitized), city plans; beach impacts, pollution outputs; software; package for tides and currents for oil spills, port system.

Frank Manheim: Compiling comprehensive Atlantic Margin sediment database; prototype design and preliminary loading of relational database in ACCESS just out, functionality being tested, and data dictionary in revision. Data resources for NY Bight include older legacy data, newer vibracores taken by Bill Schwab and Marilyn ten Brink. Butman gave presentation of geophysical studies (swath mapping & sidescan sonar) at Philadelphia meeting. Prepared to cooperate with other organizations in retrieving and organizing available sediment data.

Comment on persons & individuals knowledgeable but not present: Bill Kelly, NY Geological Survey; NYGS will contribute analog data and newly collected digital data, EPA National Estuary and other programs, Region I (Douglas Pabst);. NY State Dept. of State, Div.Coastal Resources and Waterfront Revitalization.

Tony Paulson: Sandy Hook Laboratories, NOAA, NMFS. James J. Howard Habitat Lab. During 80’s and 90’s was concerned with contaminant effects, with special emphasis on organics (PCB congeners, others), and dispersion of sludge as a consequence of storms. Now Sandy Hook lab is mainly concerned with aquaculture. The Magnuson Fisheries Act provided that any federal project should include assessment of effects on fish habitat. NMFS provides advisory input to Corps of Engineers. Programs cannot be stopped because of fish issues, but Corps must respond in writing. Lab is concerned with ecosystem effects of fishing. Much interest in offshore dumping 1986-90. Continue to collect samples at NY dumpsites.

Points out extensive data assembled on Apex data for MARMAP study; 168 stations in 4-5 year period reinvestigated, Hatteras to Canada. Most of these were in Apex. Most of the 20 projects and PI’s long gone, but reports remain valuable.

1. Need to continue to build metadata file. Assemble at preliminary level, not details.
2. Need for resources and program, as well as cooperation with other organizations to permit Corps districts to utilize archival resources and build more comprehensive databases and interpretive and predictive capabilities.
3. Develop cooperative programs and pursue NY-NJ Demonstration project.
4. Data gatherers regroup in six months.
5. Focus on future

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• NOAA NODC (comprehensive: e.g. 10,000 ST profiles NY_NJ)
• NOAA Coast Survey (extensive)
• USGS sediment database preliminary
• USGS Geophysical surveys and maps
• USGS NY Bight Holocene/Pleistocene draft maps
• NOAA NMFS / Sandy Hook
• USACE WES Monitoring Study
• Rutgers: seafloor monitoring observations
• N.J. Geological Survey: under DEP review (stimulated by Demo project)
• Hudson River Foundation library and database holdings: verbal
• SUNY Stonybrook: Masters theses, reports require inventorying
• USACE NY and Philadelphia: Inventory issue addressed – 5-10,000 vibracores (?)

Metadata inventory proposed for circulation and review in 3 months

• Sediment database, NY-NJ: USGS with USACE, NJ Geological Survey, N.Y. Geological Survey, other partners (?)
• Cooperative bathymetric map: NOAA, USACE, USGS; (Kenny, Morang, Manheim), to include USACE detailed beach-coast profiles and resolution of datum problem.
• USACE Demo project implementation
• Other common-deadline products possible (end of Fiscal 2001); MMS digitization of Amato maps; NODC products
• NMFS Woods Hole data rescue project (cooperative with USGS database) announced.

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http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/buslinks/geo-gis/index.htm   - Geospatial Data and Systems Activities in the New York District, USACE.

ftp://spo.nos.noaa.gov/datasets/CADS/GIS_Files/ShapeFiles/bathy/matl_points/  - NOAA Site for digital downloads of coastline, bathymetric and other files including southern LI and other coastal areas within NY Bight area

http://seaserver.nos.noaa.gov/  - a server providing a gateway to NOAA NOS maps, shoreline and estuarine bathymetry files, which include data pertinent to the NY Bight region