EcoGIS project: Ecosystem Approaches to Management

For those interested in ecosystem-based management and fisheries management take a look at the EcoGIS project at NOAA.

The EcoGIS project is a component of the Ecosystem Pilot Projects funded by Congress in FY04. The project was launched with the Workshop on GIS Tools Supporting Ecosystem Approaches to Management, held September 8-10, 2004 in Charleston, S.C. The result of this workshop was a summary document that outlines the basic science and management mapping needs for ecosystem approaches to management.

By considering the priority issues confronting managers and scientists, the EcoGIS team has developed a set of questions to focus the direction of tool development. For example: Given an area of interest, how much and what types of critical or essential fish habitat are present? What fisheries catch and effort statistics are available in the area of interest? How have fishing fleets been displaced in response to environmental or regulatory changes? Can fishing effort be summarized by underlying habitats or other features? Where are interactions between fisheries occurring?

These are just a few of the considerations of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. Following the completion of EcoGIS’s pilot phase in September 2006, project staff will begin to incorporate additional analyses to cover a greater spectrum of the needs of managers and scientists. In the future, we envision EcoGIS to be an ecosystem management decision support system that incorporates ecosystem models, considers external influences such as changes in ocean currents or temperature, and factors in human activities in other sectors such as shipping, aquaculture, ecotourism, and oil and gas exploration/extraction.

Data management and framework activities external to the EcoGIS project are very important to the future success of EcoGIS. We are following closely the development of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), marine framework data standards through the FGDC Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee, and the Enterprise GIS Architecture for NOAA.

Through September 2006, the EcoGIS team will be developing prototype tools to address the priority needs described above. Initially, the prototype will focus on a few locations in New England and South Atlantic waters that provide the best available data, but the tools developed will be portable to other waters of the country given sufficient data resources. The EcoGIS team will also be writing a blueprint for the future of EcoGIS that incorporates new science and considers evolving ocean governance structures and observation systems.

Webpage: http://www.st.nmfs.gov/ecogis/about.htm

I hope this is of your interest. Regards,

Jorge Brenner