Shallow benthic habitats of San Francisco Bay, California CMECS substrate component

This dataset has been developed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management (OCM) as a collaborative and cooperative project with the California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) on behalf of the Ocean Protection Council (OPC) to collect and delineate habitat data in the San Francisco Bay area. Data is intended for use in coastal management decision making, including applications such as sea level rise. The mission of the Center is to support the environmental, social, and economic well-being of the coast by linking people, information, and technology.

Original contact information:

Contact Org: NOAA Office for Coastal Management

Phone: (843)740-1202

Email: coastal.info@noaa.gov

San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary in California and represents a significant resource for the Central California region. This dataset is intended to support the local coastal zone managers in their decision-making processes. This project will assist with the subtidal habitat goals for the long-term management of the bay.

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The primary project area is the San Francisco Bay area. The total area is estimated to cover approximately 930 sq mi of intertidal and subtidal lands. The area for which habitat delineations was required ranges from the upper limit of the intertidal zone to the point at which an image signature of the bottom is no longer visible due to depth or turbidity. In the San Francisco Bay system this depth is generally approximately -2 meters. A summary report (SF_Bay_Benthic_Mapping_Final_Report.pdf) describes the methods, source data, and process by which Dewberry generated the original benthic cover data set.

NOAA is in no way condoning or endorsing the application of this data for any given purpose. It is the sole responsibility of the user to determine whether or not the data is suitable for the intended purpose. It is also the obligation of the user to apply the data in an appropriate and conscientious manner. NOAA provides no warranty,nor accepts any liability occurring from any incomplete,incorrect, or misleading data, or from any incorrect, incomplete, or misleading use of the data. Much of the data is based on and maintained with ARC/GIS software developed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). In addition, much of the information presented uses conventions and terms popularized by ARC/GIS and its user community. NOAA in no way represents the interests of ESRI, nor acts as agents for them.

None

Acknowledgment of Dewberry would be appreciated in products derived from this data.

Attribute accuracy was tested by visual comparison of the aerial photographs to ensure consistency with the classification system and photo signatures. Groundtruthing was also performed to aid in delineation and classification of photo signatures. Due to the long period between when the source imagery was collected (2011) and when the mapping was conducted (2013) a traditional thematic accuracy assessment was not possible. Rather, field information was used to compare features visible in the map with conditions during 2013. A field validation was also conducted by NOAA in November 2014. Between 2013 and 2014 571 points were observed in the field by Dewberry and over 118 by NOAA. A field verification report (Dewberry_Field_Report.pdf) describes the methods for obtaining field observations, information about the landscape, and distributions of points.

The spatial accuracy of the georeferenced imagery is 2 meters or better at the 95% confidence level as computed in accordance with the FGDC National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy (NSSDA).

For this project the minimum mapping unit (MMU) for the Base product shall be 100 square meters (10 meters x 10 meters). The identification and ranking of co-occurring elements was made based on the percent of spatial coverage within the polygon or MMU. The primary project area is the San Francisco Bay area. The total area is estimated to cover approximately 930 sq mi of intertidal and subtidal lands. The area for which habitat delineations was required ranges from the upper limit of the intertidal zone to the point at which an image signature of the bottom is no longer visible due to depth or turbidity. In the San Francisco Bay system this depth is generally approximately -2 meters. The principle source imagery for this project was the ADS-40 multispectral data collected between 2009 and 2011 as part of an earlier California Coastal Conservancy project. This imagery has a 0.3 meter spatial resolution, an 8-bit dynamic range and contains four spectral bands (B, G, R, Nir). The imagery has a spatial accuracy of +/- 2 meters at the CE 90 confidence level. Although tidal levels vary between flight lines, all data was collected within +/- 1 hour of mean low water. The data are available for review and download via the Digital Coast (https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/highresortho) .

Polygon topology present. All polygons were tested for closure and no dangles, slivers, or superfluous pseudo nodes exist. Every polygon has a label, there are no multiple labels within polygons, there are no contiguous polygons with the same label.