Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) Atlas: Central California (Including Monterey Bay Sanctuary), maps and geographic information systems data (NCEI Accession 0013176)

ESI MAPS SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR NAVIGATION.

Information from left of disc - July 2006, Seattle, Washington

Northern California ESI data are available from the CD digital data release, March 2001 (vs.2), Seattle Washington, titled - ESI Atlas Northern California, maps and geographic information systems data, archived in NCEI accession 0013175.

San Francisco Bay ESI data are available from the CD digital data release, March 2001 (vs. 3), Seattle Washington, titled - ESI Atlas San Francisco Bay, California maps and geographic information systems data, archived in NCEI accession 0013224.

Southern California ESI data are available from the CD digital data release, March 2001 (vs. 1), Seattle Washington, titled - ESI Atlas Southern California, maps and geographic information systems data, archived in NCEI accession 0013225.

California ESI data are available from the CD titled - ESI Atlases: A sampling of digital data for geographic information systems, South Carolina, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, archived in NCEI accession 0046075.

Updated Central California data are available from the DVD digital data re-release, April 2009, Seattle Washington, titled - ESI Atlas, California; Northern (2008), Southern (1995), Central (2006), and San Francisco (1998), maps and geographic information systems data archived in NCEI accession 0052935.

This atlas and the associated database were developed to provide summary information on sensitive natural and human-use resources for the purposes of oil and chemical spill planning and response. Although the atlas and database should be very useful for other environmental and natural resource planning purposes, it should not be used in place of data held by participating agencies. Likewise, information contained in the atlas and database cannot be used in place of consultations with natural and cultural resource agencies or in place of field surveys. Also, this atlas should not be used for navigation.

Additional ESI maps for other regions of California have been archived at NCEI.

In addition to the 41 detailed maps in the atlas, an Offshore Sensitivity Map was created. This map is intended to provide a regional overview of the environmentally sensitive nearshore and offshore marine resources of the Central California Coast, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Nearshore biological data shown on the offshore map that overlaps with the detailed maps are also displayed on the individual map sheets. Please refer to the detailed species group (e.g., marine mammals, birds) and human-use resource summaries for more information on the mapped offshore resources.

The original disk for this NCEI accession has been transferred to the NOAA Central Library. A copy of each disk can be generated using the .iso files in the data/0-data/disc_image/ directory.