Data Management Plan

The Coastal Use Mapping Project is designed to collect critical information on human activities in and near the St. Thomas East End Reserves (STEER). The project purpose is to improve understanding of the spatial range and intensity of key human activities and uses in this region in order to better inform resource management. Workshops were held on St. Thomas where the public, scientists, and stakeholders were invited to participate in creating maps of ocean uses

for the STEER.

Process Steps:

• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - Data were digitized by workshop participant groups in Bolongo Bay, US Virgin Islands.
• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - Data from each group were reviewed following the workshop to: a. Detail any instructions from participants to add/remove areas in post-processing b. Review GIS technician and facilitator workshop notes for any relevant data editing comments c. Discuss any areas that might require special attention or follow up.
• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - Data were processed by Project GIS Specialist to clean artifacts created during the live, participatory mapping process.
• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - All polygons were clipped to the project boundary to remove land and any marine areas outside the scope of the workshop.
• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - Use-specific procedures were performed based on participant input. This involved adding or removing areas as instructed by workshop participants based on certain depths or distances from shore.
• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - A spatial join analysis was run for each use using 50 meter squared microblocks as the zonal layer to determine the number of groups that identified a use in each grid cell.
• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - Data normalized for each use. For the footprint, an analysis cell with any number greater than 0 became a 1. For dominant, if the number of workshop groups who mapped a cell as dominant was at or greater than 50% of the groups who mapped that use, the value became a 1. All other cells became a 0, so that the final field values are binary (1= Yes, 0 = No)
• 2012-05-01 00:00:00 - Processed data was analyzed for completeness and consistency. Uses that seemed inconsistent or incomplete were marked for further investigation.
• 2012-10-30 00:00:00 - A follow-up meeting with workshop participants was held for comment on preliminary results. Participant inputs were recorded for future edits.
• 2012-11-13 00:00:00 - Final edits were made to dataset based on participant response.