Esri Living Atlas Data: Ecological Coastal Units
Description
This resource was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with Esri and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON). These data were developed as part of a Group on Earth Observations (GEO) initiative called GEO Ecosystems (GEO ECO), and is associated with a GEO ECO task to develop global coastal ecosystems data. The data allows for the visualization and query of any stretch of coastline on Earth, except for Antarctica. The underlying data are 4 million 1 km or shorter coastal segments, each of which is attributed with values from ten ecological settings variables representing the adjacent ocean, the adjacent land, and the coastline itself.
The 4 million coastal segments were classified into 81,000 coastal segment units (CSUs) using the Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Classification Standard (CMECS). Each distinct CSU is a segment with a unique combination of the classes of values of the ten ecological settings variables. The 4 million segments were also clustered into a set of 16 global groups of coastlines which are similar in the aggregate ecological setting described by the ten variables.
See this video for an animation showing ECU coverage and classification.
Accessing the dataset
To access and use the Ecological Coastal Units dataset, please access the Esri platform at the following link: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=54df078334954c5ea6d5e1c34eda2c87