GIS for a Blue Planet At a time when the health of our oceans is
seen as crucial to our very existence, marine researchers have
developed a data model that supports seafloor mapping, fisheries
management, marine mammal tracking, monitoring of shoreline
change, and water temperature analysis. Our ability to measure
change in oceans and along coasts has increased as marine GIS
has grown more complex. Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet
presents the initial results of a successful effort to create
and define a data model for the marine community—academic,
government, military, and private oceanographers, resource
managers, conservationists, geographers, nautical
archaeologists, and others who support better management of
complex spatial analysis in marine applications. The data model
not only provides structure to storing and analyzing marine data
but helps users create maps and 3D scenes of the marine
environment in ways invaluable to decision making. The standards
and best practices that emerged from the case st