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Legislative Atlas

Last updated: 06/09/2009

Overview

The Legislative Atlas supports regional ocean and coastal management efforts by displaying spatial data for state and federal laws and jurisdictional boundaries. The atlas also allows users to search through legislative summaries of laws applicable in their regions. This information is provided through Internet mapping applications, providing access to on-line analytical tools. The Legislative Atlas can help coastal and ocean resource managers make sense of the complex jurisdictional and regulatory system and identify potential gaps in the current management framework.

General Considerations

What is it?

• A searchable database of state and federal legislative summaries (as well as links to full-text versions in the U.S. Code and Code of Federal Regulations)
• Downloadable spatial data and metadata depicting the spatial extent of coastal laws and policies
• An on-line mapping application

Expertise Needed

No geographic information system (GIS) expertise is needed to view the information contained in the Legislative Atlas mapping application. However, a lightweight GIS data visualization tool such as ArcGIS Explorer or Google Maps is necessary to view downloaded spatial data. 

How Do I Get It?

The Legislative Atlas is available through the Digital Coast website at http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/legatlas/index.html

Related Tools 

The georegulations obtained from the Legislative Atlas can be used with spatial data from the Multipurpose Marine Cadastre (http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/mmc/index.html) to support marine spatial planning activities.