Florida Coastal Mapping Program 

September 2022 Updates

Benthic Data Survey

We invite you to provide feedback through a survey by the FIO-funded Florida RESTORE Act "West Florida Shelf Standardized Mapping Framework" Center of Excellence to facilitate the development of a standardized mapping framework for the State of Florida. 

This brief survey explores how different stakeholders interact with benthic data in Florida. We will use this information to identify current practices and community needs. This feedback will fuel recommendations for a standardized framework for benthic data integration and distribution in Florida, aligning with existing national and international efforts. We intend to present the results of this survey at the upcoming Florida Coastal Mapping Program (FCMaP) Summit later this year.

Please follow the link below to complete the survey by October 14^th, 2022. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.

https://ufl.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_etzrRfVaSkKF5XM

If you have questions or comments about our feedback process, please contact us at a.braswell@ufl.edu.

Thank you in advance for providing your feedback!

Anna Braswell, Bradley Ennis, Joy Hazell, and Vincent Lecours

Leads, West Florida Shelf Standardized Mapping Framework Center of Excellence

School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences

University of Florida

The summit brings together stakeholders who are interested in Florida’s coastal resources. Please save the date. More information to follow. 

Contribute

We need your help updating the FCMaP bathymetry and elevation data footprint inventory in advance of the Summit!

The linked mapping application provides polygons of coverage and metadata for acoustic data, including multibeam and sidescan sonar data, optical topobathymetric lidar, and subbottom, high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles (compressed high-intensity radiated pulse and boomer data). We are asking the community to contribute new or missing mapping projects focused only on topobathymetric lidar or multibeam bathymetry that meet the following criteria:

• At least 1 data point every 10m²
• Collected anywhere on the Florida seafloor from the shoreline to 200m water depth
• Collected after the year 2000

Project footprints can be added directly into the web-based mapping application below (how-to directions will pop up when you click the link). If you are unable to add a project through the mapping application, please contact a member of the FCMaP team (Rene.Baumstark@MyFWC.com; chapke@usf.edu; ryan.druyor@myfwc.com) and we will assist.

Upcoming Events

COMIT webinar

Wednesday, September 28

12-1pm Eastern

"Evaluating socio-ecological functions provided by novel, nature-based coastal protection approaches"

Dr. Rachel Gittman, Assistant Professor at East Carolina University.

No registration required, join via webinar link.

More information on COMIT's website.

Southeast Acoustics Consortium Workshop

October 11-13

The goal of SEAC workshops is to grow a network of experts, practitioners and data users to advance the use of acoustic technologies to address fisheries and ecosystem management challenges in the Southeast and Gulf continental shelf and US Caribbean.

Free registration & additional information on the SEAC website.

Opportunity

This six-day, 36-lecture course is designed to provide a theoretical and practical background in marine swath survey technology and techniques for hydrographic surveys, continental shelf boundary delimitation, offshore engineering, harbor dredging, fisheries habitat, route survey and scientific research, and provides overviews of:

• the technology and problems associated with shallow water multibeam surveys,
• processing and visualization techniques designed to address the complexities of swath mapping,
• constraints on using swath bathymetry to produce highest quality data.

Do you have Florida mapping events, jobs, or information to share?

Please contact nicoleraineault@usf.edu to be included in the next newsletter or to be added to our mailing list.