Abstract

As coastal populations and associated impacts increase, timely access to ocean and coastal data and information for the support of resource management decision-making is becoming ever more vital. In 1997, the Resources Agency of California highlighted the importance of improving ocean resource information exchange in its comprehensive ocean strategy, California's Ocean Resources: An Agenda for the Future, (Ocean Agenda) at the international conference, California and the World Ocean '97, (CWO '97) in San Diego, California. This and many other recommendations included in the Ocean Agenda were acted upon when Governor Pete Wilson signed 15 ocean and coastal bills into law and issued Executive Order W-162-97 which, among other provisions, required the establishment of an ocean information system. Funds appropriated by the Legislature were then used to develop the California Ocean and Coastal Environmental Access Network (Cal OCEAN), a first-ever comprehensive online ocean resource information system for the State of California.

Current issues and associated biological, physical, and legal information and links to further resources are assembled and displayed under the guidance of ocean and coastal resource experts. While the information system is designed to support ocean and coastal resource management decision-making at the state and local level, it is equally useful for informing a wide audience consisting of educators, students, and the general public. Cal OCEAN is a tool that provides an overview of available information as well as a framework upon which information exchange and analysis can more effectively develop in the next century.

Purpose

The Cal OCEAN Web will inventory and make accessible useful and necessary information for resource management decision-making and provide a framework upon which more information exchange can continue to develop.

General Description

Cal OCEAN is a Web-based application for discovery and access to ocean and coastal data and information from a wide variety of sources and in a range of types and formats. Current issues and associated biological, physical, and legal information and links to further resources are assembled and displayed with the help of ocean and coastal resource experts for an audience consisting of resource managers, educators, students and the general public.

Data and Information Resources

Cal OCEAN offers, or will offer, access to the following information themes for the California coastline:

• Inventory of water quality monitoring projects, the stations they operate and the parameters measured
• Coastal hazards data catalog
• Catalog of habitat assessments
• Coastal habitat types and locations
• Marine managed areas, types and locations
• Information on oil & gas facilities, marine terminals, ports, faults, stormdrain outfalls, desalination facitilites and power plants
• Wetlands and fisheries information
• Coastal management support documents and programs
• Coastline, highways, cities and rivers
• Ocean and coastal resource management organizations

User Interface Features

Cal OCEAN offers browsing and searching by theme and geographic area in an intuitive user interface. Themes are presented in a hierarchical set of linked keywords. A clickable map depicting California's coastal geographic regions will offer the user an opportunity to view locations of important features as well as to query the data catalogs and websites for information relevent to a specific region.

Technical Methods

Cal OCEAN takes advantage of innovative information sharing techniques and software developed by the California Environmental Resources Evaluaton System (CERES) and its partners.

The California Environmental Information Catalog, a searchable directory of information resources, provides the database structure and data entry forms for many of the information resources identified as relevent for inclusion in Cal OCEAN, including the Coastal Hazard Catalog and program-level descriptions from the statewide coastal water-quality monitoring inventory. Thematic keyword searching and browsing are enhanced by the use of an environmental keyword thesaurus and associated software being developed at CERES. Geographic queries and spatial data display and integration are accomplished using GIS-to-web interaction technology. Materials archived at Berkeley Digital Library and in the webs of participating and other ocean and coastal resource organizations are made readily available through customized search interfaces and in the browsing hierarchy.

Webmaster: calocean@resources.ca.gov

This file last modified on: Tuesday, January 24, 2006.
Document URL: http://ceres.ca.gov/ocean/abstract.html
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