Map of the Month: NOAA Environmental Sensitivity Index Maps
The Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) is NOAA’s online mapping tool that integrates both static and real-time data, enabling users to quickly and securely access, analyze, and display spatial data. The "Map of the Month" series highlights unique maps from throughout ERMA's use and history.
At the end of 2020, NOAA hosted a virtual workshop focused on defining what the next generation of Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps should or could look like in a resource constrained environment. Shown in this map are the locations of NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program Cases in Tampa Bay along with ESI shoreline, vegetation habitat, and benthic habitat.
ESI data contains a wealth of information that can be leveraged for planning, response, and restoration activities. The outcomes from the virtual workshop will make NOAA ESI data valuable for years to come by streamlining the data collection process as well as focusing on what is important to Natural Resource Advisors.
Visit the Gulf of Mexico ERMA to explore the ESI maps and case locations.
This Map of the Month is brought to you by Jay Coady from OR&R's Assessment and Restoration Division Spatial Data Branch.