IMPLEMENTATION OF A MARINE DATA MODEL FOR A REGIONAL GEOLOGIC FRAMEWORK STUDY: GEOINFORMATICS FOR RESEARCHERS, MANAGERS, STUDENTS AND THE PUBLIC

As part of the second phase of the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium--USGS South Carolina Coastal Erosion Program, an integrated, intra- and internet accessible geographic information system (GIS) has been implemented within South Carolina to expedite data sharing and analysis between investigators, coastal managers, and the general public. We have chosen the commercial ESRI suite of software (ArcGIS, ArcSDE, ArcIMS) for a majority of the GIS functionality, and have begun to use the Marine Data Model standard to store our feature and raster datasets in a flexible but structured framework where data behaviors and rules may be applied. Data collected through the cooperative partners and stored in the geodatabase covers a ~100 km section of northeastern South Carolina coastline from ~10-km offshore to ~10-km inland and include aerial photographs, historical charts, historic shorelines, erosion rates, coastal risk maps, beach profile data, core data (vibracores, geoprobes, rotosonic, rotary, and other published cores), bottom sediment grab data, diver observations, side scan sonar mosaics, seismic tracklines and shot points, geophysical profile data (chirp subbottom and ground penetrating radar), topographic and bathymetric digital elevation models, and previously published geologic maps. In addition to the existing geologic framework data, offshore hydrologic data currently being collected will be integrated into the system. The direct benefits of this type of data infrastructure are a centralized maintenance and broad distribution to the investigators and end users, aiding in the visualization and analysis of large and diverse data sets from multiple investigators and programs, allowing for decision making by coastal managers, providing awareness to the general public, and creating web-based active learning exercises for the classroom. The functionality provided by the geodatabase and specifically the Marine Data Model have contributed to the overall goals of more clearly understanding the influences of the geologic framework on coastal erosion and evolution.