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Priority Habitat Information System

The Priority Habitat Information System is a web-based portal that allows user access to Gulf-wide habitat data and information from many different sources.



One of the long-term goals for the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GoMA) is to identify, inventory, and assess the current state of and trends in priority coastal, estuarine, nearshore, and offshore Gulf of Mexico habitats to inform resource management decisions.  NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) worked together to build The Priority Habitat Information System (PHINS).  The Priority Habitat Information System is a Web portal that provides public access to and delivery of current and historic local, state, and federal Gulf of Mexico habitat data with the initial focus on sea grass beds.


PHINS


The Priority Habitat Information System has three main features:

  • a Digital Library for web-based data access for information and products related to the Gulf of Mexico Alliance

  • a Map Viewer to build maps from data stored at participating agencies

  • a Metadata Tool to publish new or existing metadata records

The Priority Habitat Information System uses NCDDC's metadata tool, Metadata Enterprise Resource Management Aid (MERMAid), to publish records to the Digital Library, as well as the Federal GeoSpatial One-Stop (GOS) and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).  In addition, NCDDC hosts the Priority Habitat Information System home page, and the NCDDC Director is the NOAA Lead on the project.