Bob Erickson, Principal Scientist Attends NOAA MMC WorkshopFebruary 3, 2011 – Boston, Massachusetts – ESS Group, Inc. Principal Scientist Bob Erickson participated in the Multipurpose Marine Cadastre (MMC) Focus Workshop at NOAA’s Coastal Service Center (CSC) in Charleston, South Carolina. The MMC is a joint effort between Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and NOAA CSC to develop a GIS-based marine information system for U.S. waters. The MMC includes legal, physical, ecological, and cultural information that can be used primarily for identifying potential offshore renewable energy sites and coastal and marine spatial planning. 
The one-and-a-half-day focus group workshop included invitees from federal agencies (BOEMRE, NOAA Fisheries Service, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Navy, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Coast Guard, US Fish & Wildlife Service and National Park Service); state agencies (MA, MD, NC, OR, SC); NGOs (Ecotrust, MA Ocean Partnership, The Nature Conservancy and Ocean Conservancy); and industry representatives.
The MMC workshop focused on the following objectives: - Increasing understanding of how the MMC is being applied;
- Assessing the usability of the tool;
- Assessing the need for additional functionality in the MMC;
- Assessing the need for data, maps, and geospatial models to support offshore renewable energy development and regional coastal and marine spatial ; and
- Increasing understanding of how the MMC could be used in the future.
Erickson commented, “The workshop provided a great opportunity to provide feedback directly to the MMC developers on the utility, functionality and data requirements necessary for the siting, conceptual design, field surveys, environmental analysis, and permitting stage of wind energy development.” For more information on ESS GIS and ocean planning services, please visit essgroup.com. |
