Great Lakes Navigation and Marine Infrastructure for Oil Spill Planning

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data from 2019 characterizes human-use resources for oil spill sensitivity in the Straits of Mackinac. The geodatabase contains vector polygons, lines, and points representing ferry routes, boat ramps, marinas, ports, lock and dams, anchorages, and access sites. It is part of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data for the Great Lakes region.

Use Cases

• Modeling potential oil spill impacts on ferry routes and ports based on the described navigation features.
• Planning coastal access and emergency response based on the locations of boat ramps, marinas, and anchorages.
• Assessing infrastructure vulnerability for lock and dams within the study area for risk management.

Strengths

• Data is structured within a geodatabase with separate attribute tables (SOC_DAT, SOURCES) for detailed metadata.
• Covers a specific 2019 study area including the Straits of Mackinac and portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
• Part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill planning.

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.
• Primary file format is listed as PDF, which may not be the native spatial data format.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely collected and compiled for environmental sensitivity mapping.

Time Range

2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:30:26.476302; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Lakes - Straits of Mackinac, including nearby portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and adjacent lands and waters in northern Michigan.