Lake Erie 2022 ESI: Socioeconomic Human-Use Resources

Lake Erie and adjacent U.S. coastal lands in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York are covered by this geospatial dataset. It contains vector polygons and points representing socioeconomic human-use resources, specifically National Register of Historic Places sites, beaches, and heliports. The data is part of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) for the Lake Erie system, produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Use Cases

• Modeling potential oil spill impacts on beaches and recreational areas.
• Assessing cultural resource vulnerability by mapping historical sites.
• Planning emergency response logistics by identifying heliport locations.
• Integrating human-use data with biological and shoreline sensitivity layers for comprehensive environmental risk assessment.

Strengths

• Data is part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill sensitivity.
• Includes related stand-alone attribute tables (SOC_DAT, SOURCES) for detailed object type and source information.
• Covers the entire U.S. portion of Lake Erie, from the Michigan/Ohio border to the New York/Canada border.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary file format listed is PDF, which may not be the native spatial data format, potentially complicating direct GIS use.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:28:20.340145; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United States portion of Lake Erie, covering coastal portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.