{"id":173667,"date":"2021-03-18T12:57:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T12:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/?p=173667"},"modified":"2025-03-24T14:44:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T14:44:35","slug":"noaa-announces-progress-report-on-mapping-u-s-ocean-coastal-and-great-lakes-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/noaa-announces-progress-report-on-mapping-u-s-ocean-coastal-and-great-lakes-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping announces progress report on mapping U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes waters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping (IWG-OCM) released the second annual report on the progress made in mapping U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes waters. The depth, shape, and composition of the seafloor are foundational data elements that we need to understand in order to explore, sustainably develop, conserve, and manage our coastal and offshore ocean resources. The 2020 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/iocm.noaa.gov\/about\/documents\/strategic-plans\/20200611-FINAL-STRATEGY-NOMEC-Sec.-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">National Strategy for Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the United States Exclusive Economic Zone<\/a> and the global <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/seabed2030.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Seabed 2030<\/a> initiative make comprehensive ocean mapping a priority for the coming decade. The <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/iocm.noaa.gov\/seabed-2030\/mapping-progress-report2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Unmapped U.S. Waters report<\/a> tracks progress toward these important goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Pulling from an <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/noaa.maps.arcgis.com\/home\/item.html?id=4d7d925fc96d47d9ace970dd5040df0a\" target=\"_blank\">analysis of publicly available bathymetry<\/a>, the report presents the percentage of unmapped U.S. waters by region and shows our progress towards filling these basic bathymetry data gaps with each passing year. At the end of 2020, the latest analysis yielded a 1% gain, equal to 36,000 square nautical miles, of new bathymetry since the last report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile we would like to see greater gains each year to meet our collective target of 150,000 square nautical miles annually, this one percent change reflects valuable contributions from government, private sector, philanthropic and academic survey efforts. Sharing mapping data, and coordinating on new acquisitions and technical innovations to make ocean mapping more efficient, are key elements of the strategy to comprehensively map U.S. waters \u2013 we welcome all contributors.\u201d<br> \u2014Ashley Chappell, NOAA\u2019s Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Percent of U.S. waters that remain unmapped as of January 2021:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>U.S. total \u2013 53% of 3,592,000 square nautical miles (snm)<\/li><li>Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico \u2013 41% of 472,200 snm<\/li><li>Great Lakes \u2013 95% of 46,600 snm<\/li><li>Caribbean \u2013 43% of 61,600 snm<\/li><li>Alaska \u2013 72% of 1,080,200 snm<\/li><li>Pacific (California, Oregon, Washington) \u2013 22% of 239,700 snm<\/li><li>Pacific Remote Islands and Hawaii \u2013 49% of 1,691,700 snm<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1294\" src=\"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/OceanMappingProgressReportMarch2021.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-182625\"\/><figcaption>Geographic distribution and extent of the unmapped areas within U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes waters. Analysis conducted in January 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/learn\/hydrographic-survey-equipment.html\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/learn\/hydrographic-survey-equipment.html\" target=\"_blank\">Multibeam and lidar surveys<\/a> are the two primary sources of bathymetry needed to fill these gaps.&nbsp; In support of the integrated ocean and coastal mapping goal to \u201cmap once, use many times,\u201d all of the data collected in this effort are publicly available to benefit numerous users.&nbsp; For the latest status on these efforts and how you can contribute, visit <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/iocm.noaa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/iocm.noaa.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping (IWG-OCM) released the second annual report on the progress made in mapping U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes waters. The depth, shape, and composition of the seafloor are foundational data elements that we need to understand in order to explore, sustainably develop, conserve, and manage our &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/noaa-announces-progress-report-on-mapping-u-s-ocean-coastal-and-great-lakes-waters\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping announces progress report on mapping U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes waters&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,21,31,32,33,7,8,34,9,13,15,35,337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autonomous-systems","category-bathymetry","category-crowdsourced-bathymetry","category-geography","category-geology","category-gis","category-hydrographic-surveys","category-hydrography","category-integrated-ocean-and-coastal-mapping","category-international-cooperation","category-noaa","category-noaa-ships","category-remote-sensing-surveys","category-uncrewed-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182627,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173667\/revisions\/182627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}