Georgia 2015 ESI: Parks and Managed Areas for Oil Spill Sensitivity

Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data characterize Georgia's marine and coastal environments by their sensitivity to spilled oil. This specific dataset from NOAA contains vector polygons and points depicting parks, managed areas, sanctuaries, and military zones as part of the human-use resources component. The data were last updated on the platform in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling potential oil spill impacts on recreational and protected areas based on the listed park and sanctuary boundaries.
• Planning coastal zone management strategies based on the inventory of military areas, wildlife refuges, and NERRs.
• Integrating human-use resource layers with biological and shoreline data for comprehensive environmental risk assessment.

Strengths

• Data is part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill planning.
• Includes multiple feature types (polygons and points) for different managed area categories.
• Sourced from the authoritative National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary data format is PDF, which is non-standard for geospatial vector analysis and requires conversion.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely compiled for the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) mapping program.

Time Range

Referenced year is 2015.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:26:24.020037; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Georgia, USA, and its coastal zone.