Political and Jurisdictional Boundaries for the Great Lakes Straits of Mackinac

A geospatial dataset from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contains vector polygons representing political and jurisdictional areas for the Great Lakes - Straits of Mackinac study area. The data characterize the marine and coastal environments by their sensitivity to spilled oil and include information for human-use resources. It covers the Straits of Mackinac, nearby portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and adjacent lands and waters in northern Michigan.

Use Cases

• Mapping jurisdictional boundaries for emergency response planning based on listed political divisions.
• Analyzing the overlap of sensitive habitats with administrative areas for environmental impact assessments.
• Integrating human-use resource data with political boundaries for coastal management studies.

Strengths

• Data is part of a structured Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) geodatabase designed for integration with related tables.
• Covers a specific, defined study area including the Straits of Mackinac and adjacent Great Lakes waters.
• Includes multiple jurisdictional layers such as Army Corps divisions, Coast Guard sectors, and tribal lands.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific study area.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:22:01.701372; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Lakes - Straits of Mackinac study area, including portions of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and northern Michigan.