Lake Michigan Parks and Managed Areas for Environmental Sensitivity Mapping

This data set contains human-use or management resource data for National Forests, Management Areas, Marine Sanctuaries, Nature Conservancy Lands, National Parks, State Parks, and National Wildlife Refuges in Lake Michigan. Vector polygons in this data set represent park or managed area features. It comprises a portion of the ESI (Environmental Sensitivity Index) data for Lake Michigan, characterizing marine and coastal environments by their sensitivity to spilled oil.

Use Cases

• Mapping sensitive coastal resources for oil spill contingency planning based on the ESI framework.
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of protected areas for conservation planning based on the listed park and refuge types.
• Integrating human-use resource layers with biological data for environmental impact assessments based on the relational data tables mentioned.

Strengths

• Data is part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill planning.
• Covers multiple types of managed areas including National Parks, State Parks, and Wildlife Refuges in the Lake Michigan region.

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 Lake Michigan focus.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:21:04.474949; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Lake Michigan