management
Application of Water Level and Datum Information
to Coastal Zone Management
The Application of Water Level and Datum Information to Coastal Zone Management is a partnership project that involves the following agencies: NOAA National Ocean Service's (NOS) Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), 
NOS's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS), NOAA's Coastal Services Center (CSC), the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium/Sea Grant Law Center, and the Dauphin Island (AL) Sea Lab. As part of this partnership, CO-OPS has installed a tide station in each state for one year for demonstration and technology-transfer purposes. Additionally together with NGS and state partners, CO-OPS will hold a workshop to educate surveyors and coastal zone managers on the applications of tide and geodetic datums.
Throughout the course of this project, state requirements will be determined for water-level measurements, marine boundary delineations, coastal observing systems required for coastal zone management, habitat restoration projects, coastal monitoring, surveying, and mapping. In addition, existing state specification documents for delineating tidal datum elevations (such as Mean High Water) will be updated, or developed if no such document exists. An implementation plan will also be developed to integrate state and regional observing systems and reference networks with Federal water-level and geodetic networks.
Finally, new products and services that meet coastal zone management needs will be identified as an outcome of the partnership. The project will also serve as a template for approaching and working with other coastal state managers, and will be a springboard for future projects with the states of Mississippi and Alabama.