Chesapeake Bay 2016 ESI SOCECON: Human-Use Resources for Oil Spill Sensitivity

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) created this 2016 Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) dataset for the Chesapeake Bay and the Outer Coasts of Maryland and Virginia. It contains vector polygons, lines, and points depicting human-use resources like historical sites, pipelines, airports, and beaches. The data characterize the marine and coastal environments by their sensitivity to spilled oil.

Use Cases

• Modeling potential oil spill impacts on coastal infrastructure based on pipeline and bridge locations.
• Assessing cultural resource vulnerability based on historical site and beach locations.
• Planning emergency response routes based on transportation features like airports, heliports, and rail routes.
• Integrating human-use data with biological and shoreline habitat layers for comprehensive environmental sensitivity analysis.

Strengths

• Data is part of a structured ESI framework characterizing three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources.
• Covers a specific geographic area: Chesapeake Bay and the Outer Coasts of Maryland and Virginia.
• Includes multiple vector data types (polygons, lines, points) for diverse feature representation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from 2016; freshness should be verified for current applications.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely compiled from various administrative and survey sources for the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI).

Time Range

2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:25:21.513959; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Chesapeake Bay and the Outer Coasts of Maryland and Virginia, USA.