Translation of ShoreZone Attribute Data to Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Classification Standard (CMECSvIII) Data Format

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification System (CMECSv3); Madden et al 2009) has recently been developed to provide a standard classification system for coastal and marine ecology that can serve a wide variety of applications and be applied at a variety of scales.  The ShoreZone coastal habitat mapping system is a classification and mapping system for characterization of intertidal and nearshore habitat; ShoreZone has been applied to approximately 100,000 km of shoreline in the Pacific Northwest.  This project evaluated the potential for cross-walking the extensive ShoreZone dataset to the new CMECS classification system.  Previously mapped ShoreZone data from Sitka Sopund Alaksa (122 km of shoreline in 522 alongshore units) was migrated to the CMECS system.  An estimated 75 – 80% of ShoreZone data could be cross-walked to CMECS with little ambiguity.  Most data fields used for habitat capability modeling are transferable.  This level of data transfer is high, considering that CMECS was designed primarily as a classification system and not as a mapping system.