- Success Stories
- Environmental Resource Assessment & Management
Expanding Our Offshore Wind Team
We’ve recently added several staff to bolster the offshore wind team at NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. With this full team of 13, our employee owners are able to provide more focused support in their areas of expertise, including mapping and spatial modeling, data collection, communications, project management, and partner engagement. Through this work, the team develops regional ecosystem-wide spatial models to inform siting of ocean use sectors, environmental review, and permitting, which provides guidance to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on suitable locations for offshore wind siting.
Sustainable coastal planning and development increases resiliency, creates jobs, reduces reliance on unsustainable imports, supports renewable energy, and grows the domestic Blue Economy. Check out the NCCOS Coastal & Marine Planning and Offshore Wind Energy spatial planning webpages to learn more.
This team is now providing spatial planning support in all U.S. ocean regions and was recently instrumental in BOEM designating two Wind Energy Areas in the Gulf of Mexico. As offshore wind continues to expand throughout U.S. waters, this team will continue to collaborate with BOEM to support the identification of suitable locations for renewable energy. Future work is slated for the U.S. Central Atlantic, Gulf of Maine, Oregon, and more to come!
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Assisting with a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment
Los Angeles County in California is a densely populated area vulnerable to natural hazards such as flooding and wildfires. Our staff modified and applied the Integrated Vulnerability Assessment Framework developed by NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science to assess the county’s climate vulnerability. Through partner and stakeholder engagement, the team used a series of…
Assessing Methylene Chloride Levels in Laboratories
CSS employee owners supporting the University of Kentucky have started sampling campus laboratories with high use of methylene chloride to assess levels of employee exposure. This effort is in response to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issuing methylene chloride regulations under Section 6(a) of the Toxic Substance Control Act in the Federal Register on May…
Examining Cetaceans for Contamination and Pathogens
CSS has employee owners who are experts in monitoring cetacean health. Several CSS scientists supporting NOAA’s Centers for Coastal Ocean Science have recently conducted research and tests on marine mammals to explore uncommon behaviors and causes for strandings. View some examples of this research below. Microplastics are becoming increasingly abundant in coastal and marine environments.…