Refugio Oil Spill Intertidal Exposure Zones for California Coast

NOAA's dataset contains geospatial polygons representing intertidal zones impacted by the 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill in California. The polygons are classified into High, Medium A, Medium B, and Low oil exposure levels based on data collected for the Natural Resource Damage Assessment. The layer was updated in 2018 and is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Mapping oil contamination severity across coastal habitats based on the defined exposure zones.
• Assessing environmental damage for Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) based on the collected impact data.
• Modeling habitat recovery timelines based on the level of oil exposure classification.
• Supporting coastal zone management and mitigation planning based on the geospatial hazard data.

Strengths

• Data is directly tied to a specific, documented environmental event (2015 Refugio Beach oil spill).
• Polygons are classified into four distinct oil exposure levels (High, Medium A, Medium B, Low).
• Produced by an authoritative source (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

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/temporal bias inherent to a single spill event.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Data and information collected to support the Refugio Beach Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA).

Time Range

Related to the 2015 spill; data layer updated in 2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:20:01.399768; freshness should be verified

Geography

Santa Barbara County, California, near Refugio State Beach and the Pacific Ocean.