Data Management Plan

The feature classes HYDROL and HYDROP contain vector lines and polygons representing the coastal shoreline and hydrography used in the creation of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) of the Lake Ontario 2023 ESI Geodatabase, classified by their susceptibility to oiling. The HYDROP (hydrography polygons) layer delineates the shoreline, and identifies areas as either Land or Water. The HYDROL (hydrography lines) layer depicts one continuous linear shoreline.

The study area includes the United States portion of Lake Ontario, covering the islands in New York: Association Island, Bass Island, Calf Island, Carl Island, Cherry Island, Eagle Island, Fox Island, Galloo Islands, Grenadier Island, Horse Island, Hoveys Island, Six Point Town, and Stony Island. Major Lake Ontario bays mapped include: Black River Bay, Blind Sodus Bay, Braddock Bay, Chaumont Bay, Guffin Bay, Irondequoit Bay, Henderson Bay, Little Sodus Bay, Mexico Bay, Port Bay, Sawyer Bay, and Sodus Bay.

As a whole, the ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil, and includes information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources.

Bounding box for the Great Lakes Lake Ontario study region.

Process Steps:

• 2023-08-15 00:00:00 - The shorelines for Lake Ontario for these data layers (HYDROL and HYDROP) were derived from the integration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) U.S. Great Lakes Hardened Shoreline (GLHS, 2014-2017), NOAA Continually Updated Shoreline Product (CUSP, 2007-2017), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) high-resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD, 2002-2019); the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) dataset (1975-2011); and manual digitization at 1:4,000 from BING Aerial imagery (2016-2022), ESRI Basemap World Imagery (2015-2022), and Google Earth aerial imagery (2015-2022). The most recent shoreline was utilized.
• 2023-08-15 00:00:00 - The above digital and/or hardcopy sources were compiled to create the HYDROL and HYDROP data layers. Depending on the type of source data, four general approaches are used for compiling the data layer: 1) hardcopy maps are digitized at their source scale; 2) digital data layers are evaluated and used "as is" or integrated with the other data sources; 3) overflight classifications are digitized from the scanned and registered hardcopy field maps; and/or 4) classifications are interpreted from oblique gps referenced photography or video taken during the overflights. After the initial shoreline classification, these data are edgematched and checked for logical consistency errors. Review maps are plotted at 1:42,000 scale for verification of polygonal and linear attributes. See the Lineage section for additional information on the type of source data for this data layer. The ESI, biology, and human-use data are compiled into the standard ESI digital data format. A second set of interviews with participating resource experts are conducted to review the compiled data. If necessary, edits to the HYDROL or HYDROP data layer are made based on the recommendations of the resource experts, and final hardcopy maps and digital data are created.

Data can be accessed by downloading the zipped ArcGIS geodatabase from the Download URL (see Distribution Information). Questions can be directed to the ESI Program Manager (Point Of Contact).