St. Marys River 2021 ESI: Parks and Managed Areas for Oil Spill Sensitivity

A geospatial dataset from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) containing vector polygons for parks and managed areas within the Great Lakes St. Marys River System. The data characterizes human-use resources for environmental sensitivity to oil spills, covering the river from near Monocle Lake to the headwaters of Lake Huron. It is part of a larger Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) study for the region.

Use Cases

• Map protected area boundaries for oil spill response planning based on the listed parks and managed areas.
• Analyze spatial distribution of human-use resources for environmental risk assessment based on the ESI framework.
• Integrate park and management area polygons with biological and shoreline data for comprehensive sensitivity modeling as described in the ESI components.

Strengths

• Data is part of a standardized NOAA Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill planning.
• Includes specific resource types: National Forests, management areas, Nature Conservancy properties, and state parks.
• Spatial data is designed to be used with related stand-alone attribute tables (SOC_DAT, SOURCES) for detailed metadata.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in PDF format, which is non-standard for geospatial analysis and may require conversion.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely compiled from federal, state, and non-profit (e.g., Nature Conservancy) land management records.

Time Range

Data represents a 2021 ESI study; specific temporal coverage of source records is unknown.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 22:26:09.160890; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Lakes St. Marys River System, from near Monocle Lake and Iroquois Island to the headwaters of Lake Huron.