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Completed Projects: Verification of Existing Environmentally Sensitive Priority Zones
This project reviews and combines to separate and distinct evaluations of environmental sensitivity into a single assessment product. For Virginia waters there are currently two products that rank shoreline sensitivity based on environmental factors. Both are intended to provide guidance to individuals charged with oil spill clean-up. The VA Coastal Area Subcommittee ranked segments of waterbodies and their contiguous shorelines based on habitat presence, special area management considerations, and the ability to adequately clean the segment of oil. The results were published as maps in the first edition of the VA Coastal Area Subcommittees Oil Spill Contingency Plan. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration adopted a different ranking system which ranked shorelines based on the geomorphology and composition. Both classifications are useful, but do not necessarily compliment each other. This project is intended to develop a revised series of maps based on components of both classification systems.
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