This CD-ROM contains information in a Geographic Information System (GIS) format (ESRI's ArcView) for the coastal region offshore of Boston, Massachusetts. This collection of coverages (here defined as ArcView shapefiles, grids and TIFs) is a beginning effort to develop a library of information in GIS format that can be referenced and shared by those working in, and seeking to understand, the Massachusetts Bay region. The CD-ROM was assembled at a workshop attended by an ad-hoc group representing federal and state government, industry and academia. This CD-ROM principally contains data on waste disposal sites and characteristics of the sea floor.

The principal goal of the participants in this project was to rapidly (within a few months) develop a library of data in GIS format for distribution and common use. This endeavor was envisioned as a pilot project of modest scope. As a first step in building a GIS library, the focus was to compile existing data in a GIS format, not to develop new data sets or to search out data sets not already in use by the participants.

Thus, data included on this CD-ROM are principally digital data from the working archives of the participants and/or their institutions. The source of the data is documented so that it can be referenced and properly credited.

The first suggestion for compiling data relevant to dumpsites in Massachusetts Bay in a GIS format originated in a meeting at EPA in Boston on March 26, 1998 that reviewed the status of a search for radioactive waste canisters disposed in Massachusetts Bay in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This search has been an on-going effort by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and their cooperators and contractors since 1981. In order to determine the next steps, if any, in this effort, a summary of the extent of the sea floor that had been surveyed and the techniques used was needed. These data needed to be examined in conjunction with disposal sites, bottom type, ground fishing activities, etc.  Placing survey information in a GIS was proposed as part of this synthesis.

On September 15, 1998 an ad hoc group of federal and state agency and industry personnel involved with investigating contaminants in Massachusetts Bay convened at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Woods Hole Field Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts (attendee list). Initially, the group focused on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) investigations and management of environmental and human health risks associated with the permitted disposal of radioactive and industrial chemical wastes between 1946 and 1976. The members recognized that numerous agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), the USGS, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) had also been researching and gathering information on environmental conditions that would be beneficial for overall management of Massachusetts Bay. Further, much of the available information was widespread, historical, often relied on "corporate memory", and was not readily accessible to all members, especially in formats that allowed rapid access for planning and management decision-making.

The attendees included EPA, NOAA, USGS, ACOE, EOEA, and their consultants, the National Undersea Research Center-North Atlantic & Great Lakes, Genwest System, Inc., SAIC, Polaris Imaging and Berger and Associates. Some not in attendance such as the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) were in communication with the group. The group recognized the value of creating a common information data asset with maps that would lead to greater cooperation and common understandings for the long-term management of Massachusetts Bay. The attendees agreed to meet again in December 1998 with the intention of creating a library of information in the form of a GIS project that would be published on a CD-ROM. The goal was to create a product that could be readily accessed by anyone concerned with the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the sea floor in Massachusetts Bay.  Given the original  focus of the group on the search for radioactive wastes, the project focused on disposal sites, including industrial chemical wastes, low-level radioactive wastes, munitions, and dredged materials.

On December 8-9, 1998 attendees (attendee list) reconvened at USGS in Woods Hole to review data sets that would be appropriate for compilation in the GIS. Attendees came to the meeting with data in ARC/INFO format. A preliminary CD-ROM was compiled during this two-day workshop. The project focus however expanded to include aspects of the new MWRA ocean outfall, Stellwagen Bank, and essential fish habitat (EFH).

The data on this CD-ROM are presented in ArcView views as Libraries and Chapters. There are six Libraries (Boundaries, Waste Site Features, Bathymetry, Multibeam, and Sidescan Sonar, Sediment Texture and Contaminants, Biological Data, and Physical Oceanography) that present GIS coverages by category. All of the coverages on this CD-ROM are included in one of the Libraries.  Two additional Libraries (where the data are not in ArcView format) contain links to selected web sites, and selected maps and interpretive figures assembled by researchers and others working in the Massachusetts Bay region that have been used for presentations and educational purposes. The four Chapters (Regional Overview, Waste Site Surveys, Outfalls, and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary) contain ArcView GIS layers (from the Libraries) that address some of the management needs of the contributors to this CD-ROM. These Chapters will serve a wide audience of managers, principal investigators and interested public and demonstrate how the coverages contained in the various Libraries on the CD-ROM can be assembled to address particular issues. In each of the views associated with the Libraries and Chapters, the coverages are not arranged in any particular order, except that background coverages have been placed near the bottom of the list to insure that they do not block other coverages. The order of the themes in the 3.0 and 3.1 views are not always identical.

In general, but not always, the coverages presented in each library view are contained in the directories on the CD-ROM with names that mirror the library names. Use a file search tool to locate a file on the CD-ROM if it cannot be found in the obvious library directory.

Throughout this text, the general term ‘coverages’ is used to refer to ArcView shapefiles, grids and TIFs. In ArcView terminology, these are called themes. For some layers (themes), the legend is hidden.  In these cases the user will have to highlight the theme and toggle the hide/show legend option to reveal the color assignments and attributes.

The contributors of the data on this CD-ROM provided metadata for each data set on an ‘Electronic Index Card.’ These cards contained the basic information needed to document the data sets. An Access database was generated from these 'cards' and used to provide the list of files sorted alphabetically and partial metadata presented at the end of each Chapter and Library. Readers wishing to view the entire metadata for a particular file can find it in the summary spreadsheet (in HTML format) by scrolling down this table to the appropriate file name, as well as in the Access database by sorting or scrolling.

The name of the ArcView file used on the CD-ROM is the file name as provided by the contributor. In some cases, plain English descriptions have been added to the metadata table and ArcView legends to facilitate recognition of the data. For example, a coverage named ‘Q20shade’ becomes ‘Quad 20 Shaded Relief Map.’ The metadata table has been sorted alphabetically by data file name.

All of the data on this CD-ROM are referenced in a geographic coordinate system (latitude and longitude decimal degrees) to facilitate rapid display of the data and to facilitate displaying the data in other projections.  When displayed in geographic coordinate system (i.e. unprojected), the coverages appear slightly distorted (for example circles appear as ellipses, and relative directions, other than north, south, east and west, are also distorted) because a degree of latitude and longitude are given equal distance, when in fact at 42 degrees north, the horizontal distance associated with a degree of longitude is about 0.74 times smaller than a degree of latitude. ArcView shapefiles can be projected into coordinate systems to provide a map with true geographic scale by projecting the entire view window. However, image files (.tif) or ARC/INFO grids will NOT be projected in the view, so they are provided in BOTH decimal degrees ("Geographic") and Mercator projection. On this CD-ROM, image/grid files include the shaded relief, backscatter, and pseudo-colored data from the multibeam surveys (see Library 3), as well as the dilution maps for the MWRA effluent (see Library 6). If one wishes to view these data in a projection, use the Mercator-projected image or grid files (file names end with "m") and project the view so that any shapefiles will overlay properly. To accomplish this, use the projection button in the View Properties dialog box and choose the following parameters: "custom" projection, Projection: Mercator, Spheroid: GRS 80, Central Meridian: -70.31667, Latitude of True Scale: 41.65.

To illustrate the difference between displaying the data in a projection and the geographic coordinate system, Chapter 3a contains identical coverages to Chapter 3 in Mercator Projection.

The participants in the workshop agreed that: (1) the GIS library be published (rather than informally exchanged), and (2) the source of the data be identified so that it could be referenced by users. The data on this CD-ROM came from many sources. Some of the data are published here for the first time, some have been previously published (in some cases reformatted for this CD-ROM), some are available publicly over the WWW, and some have been compiled for this CD-ROM by the various participants and other investigators affiliated with the participating organizations. The source of the data is provided to allow citation to the originator (especially for the data published here for the first time), and to identify a contact for quality control. The individuals who provided specific coverages are listed in the table included in each chapter.

There is growing recognition of the importance of building and maintaining high-quality data sets for research and management of the coastal ocean, and to provide tools that enable the public to use these data to meet their needs. In order to meet this need over the long-term, it is important that the individuals and agencies that care for these large data sets  receive appropriate credit. Therefore, we urge users of the files on this CD-ROM to cite both the originators of the data, as well as this publication.

This GIS Library represents an initial compilation that can be expanded and improved as new coverages are identified, documented and made available.  The production of this CD-ROM illustrated the difficulties in gathering and assembling disparate data, some of which was produced nearly 30 years ago, and some located in obscure reports and files. For example, many of the historical waste disposal sites were permitted on the basis of various landmarks, such as buoys, lightships and lighthouses, some of which no longer exist. We hope this compilation will help provide access to historical data and enable more consistent interpretations.

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