MESDIP- The Marine Ecosystem Spatial Data Integration Project

Nazila Merati
OAR/PMEL/OCRD

The Marine Ecosystem Spatial Data Integration Project (MESDIP), is a joint effort of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). It interfaces with NOAA West Network (NWN). This project expands the Geographic Information System (GIS) database for North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea via an Internet Map Server (IMS) and tools for integrating oceanographic analyses in a GIS. MESDIP enhances NOAA's ability to investigate and understand the functioning of marine ecosystems of Alaska and collaborate with other government and non-government agencies.

GIS technology has the ability to integrate spatially-explicit information in different formats and from multiple sources. GIS has been used widely in many earth and social sciences, but has been underutilized in marine sciences. A common requirement of much marine research is the assimilation of physical and biological data from many sources, yet this is frequently a time-consuming process. This project resolves this obstacle for researchers studying the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea by making much of the existing data available as coverages within the GIS through existing network frameworks and by providing an analytical tool set for common analyses.

By using technology developed by ESRI and at PMEL, we have created an Internet Map Server that allows users to view, display and extract environmental and biological data that pertains to the North Pacific Region. The MESDIP Map Server uses advanced technology to serve data and images over the WWW using HTML and Java Viewers to streamline display and downloading of maps and data. The Viewer gives the user the ability to pan and map to a specified extent; query the data; create customized buffers and measure distances on maps. Additionally, maps may be annotated and edited by users.

To date, we have created a several map services for AFSC's groundfish survey data in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Routines to add in-situ oceanographic data from PMEL's EPIC data management system and gridded climatology data from PMEL's FERRET LAS have been developed. Java applets have been developed to create shape files from csv format files. This has simplified the creation and display of biological and oceanographic data for the Map Server. Programs for common oceanographic and biological analyses are being created for use in the Map Server and in a distributed user-friendly toolkit.

BIO - Nazila Merati Nazila Merati is currently a Research Scientist w/Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Oceans at the University of Washington stationed at PMEL. I have a master's degree in Fisheries from the UW with a emphasis in Fisheries Oceanography. I have been working at PMEL for the past six years on projects involving data visualization, data access and integration and GIS applications to marine GIS.

Science Center Exhibit/Demo Wednesday - 3:30 - 3:40 P.M. Other demo times will be posted at the exhibit.