GCAP :: Georgia Coastal Analysis Partnership

Introduction

GCAP is a joint initiative (begun July 2001) by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA DNR), and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) to coordinate results of ongoing federal and state monitoring programs along the coast of Georgia in an effort to support common research and coastal-management goals.

Key objectives of GCAP are:

To develop an initial inventory of sampling activities in the region (consisting of maps of station locations and a corresponding summary of types of samples collected at each site).
To use the inventory as a starting point for collecting data to address coastal research and management issues of common interest to all participating institutions.
To demonstrate the benefits of performing science through partnerships.

Scientists at the NOAA Charleston Lab have begun to assemble the sampling inventory that will serve as a basis for identifying sources of information for addressing various coastal-analysis issues. Information on types and locations of sampling activities is being entered now for the following data sets:

NOAA benthic survey sites at Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) and adjacent shelf waters;
NOAA fish survey sites at GRNMS and adjacent shelf waters;
EPA/NOAA historical Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) sites (1993-97);
NOAA sediment-toxicity and chemical-contaminant survey sites in Savannah and New Brunswick Harbors;
GA DNR's water-quality monitoring sites and EMAP's new National Coastal Assessment (NCA) monitoring sites;
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography meteorological and oceanographic sampling sites at offshore platforms under the SABSOON program; and
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sampling sites along the coast of Georgia.