The California Coastal Records Project is being undertaken by Gabrielle Adelman and Kenneth Adelman to create an aerial photographic survey of the California Coast. The related Web site lets users locate and view spectacular photographs of a large percentage of the entire California coastline taken from a helicopter. Visitors can find photographs by clicking on the map of the coast, inputting a...
The Coastal and Marine Geology Program Web site of the US Geological Survey is a clearinghouse of coastal related information and scientific research. Visitors will find a link to the monthly newsletter "Sound Waves;" information on topics of study such as corals, pollution, erosion, and sonar mapping; and goals and plans for the program.
The General Land Office of Texas, the state's oldest agency, strives to balance economic development with preservation of its natural resources. The Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Program of the agency has an interesting Web site with information about the state's shorelines and its continuous efforts to slow erosion and maintain its beaches. Although many of the links on the page are about...
The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) (described in the January 17, 1997 Scout Report) provides online images of US Northeast and Southeast Atlantic Coastal Relief Models. The Coastal Relief Gridded database "provides the first comprehensive view of the US Coastal Zone; one that extends from the coastal state boundaries to as far offshore as the NOS hydrographic data will support a...
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently released this report on the condition of coastal ecosystems. The report combines data from a variety of government agencies conducting ongoing monitoring to "present a broad baseline picture of the condition of coastal waters." The report finds that the "[o]verall condition of the nation's estuaries was fair based on seven basic indicators...
Established in 1972 through the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR) is a network of protected areas representing different types of estuaries and biogeographic regions. Operated by coastal states with input from local communities and regional groups, NERR studies address coastal watershed management issues. The homepage provides an overview of...
Established in 1972 through the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR) is a network of protected areas representing different types of estuaries and biogeographic regions. Operated by coastal states with input from local communities and regional groups, NERR studies address coastal watershed management issues. For reserve data and data on water...
The mission of the NOAA Library and Information Services is to ensure the delivery of scientific, technical, and legislative information to users, including NOAA staff, the general public, academia, industry, and other government agencies. The library's Historical Maps and Charts Web site contains over 20,000 maps and charts from the late 1700s to the present, some of the nation's earliest...
As Americans head for the beach, the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) issues its twelfth annual report on the status of beach and recreational water quality. Entitled Testing the Waters, the report offers readers a fifty-fifty appraisal of the nation's lake and ocean recreational beach sites. That is, while water quality overall is indeed improving in the United States, beach water quality...