Defined Map Units of the seafloor of Boston Harbor and Approaches (BOTTOMTYPE, UTM 19, WGS84)

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Defined Map Units of the seafloor of Boston Harbor and Approaches (BOTTOMTYPE, UTM 19, WGS84)
Abstract:
This data is a qualitatively-derived interpretative polygon shapefile defining the bottom types of the seafloor from Boston Harbor and the harbor approaches, Massachusetts. Approximately 170 km square of sidescan sonar and bathymetric data were collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ship Whiting in 2000 and 2001 and reprocessed and gridded by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    Ackerman, Seth, 2006, Defined Map Units of the seafloor of Boston Harbor and Approaches (BOTTOMTYPE, UTM 19, WGS84): Open-File Report 2006-1008, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Ackerman, S.D., Butman, B., Barnhardt, W.A., Danforth, W.W., and Crocker, J.M., 2006, High-Resolution Geologic Mapping of the Inner Continental Shelf: Boston Harbor and Approaches, Massachusetts: Open-File Report 2006-1008, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: 1 DVD-ROM
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -71.054017
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -70.816866
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.437853
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.256352
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 19-Sep-2000
    Ending_Date: 30-Oct-2001
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):
      • G-polygon (6)
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
      Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator
      Universal_Transverse_Mercator:
      UTM_Zone_Number: 19
      Transverse_Mercator:
      Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: 0.999600
      Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -69.000000
      Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.000000
      False_Easting: 500000.000000
      False_Northing: 0.000000
      Planar coordinates are encoded using coordinate pair
      Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000032
      Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000032
      Planar coordinates are specified in meters
      The horizontal datum used is D_WGS_1984.
      The ellipsoid used is WGS_1984.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.000000.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257224.
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    bottomtype
    shapefile attribute table (Source: Esri)
    FID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI) Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI) Coordinates defining the features.
    FID_newCla
    Classification ID number (Source: Information unavailable from original metadata.) Information unavailable from original metadata.
    Zone
    Seafloor map unit name (see Open File Report 2006-1008 for full description of each zone) (Source: Information unavailable from original metadata.) Information unavailable from original metadata.
    Area_km
    Area (in square kilometers) of each zone in the survey area (Source: Information unavailable from original metadata.) Information unavailable from original metadata.

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
    • Seth Ackerman
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
    Seth Ackerman
    Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
    Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2315 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    seth.ackerman@state.ma.us

Why was the data set created?

The geophysical dataset were collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Ocean Service (NOS) branch as part of their periodic hydrographic mapping for nautical charting. The raw datasets were provided by NOAA to the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Woods Hole, MA as part of a cooperative agreement to provide high resolution bathymetry and backscatter intensity maps and digital GIS information for resource management, scientific research, industry and the public.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    NOAA data (source 1 of 1)
    NOAA, unpublished material, Multibeam bathymetry data - cleaned, merged, and tide corrected.

    Other_Citation_Details: Multiple NOAA survey areas.
    Type_of_Source_Media: External Hard Drive
    Source_Contribution:
    The original geophysical data for this project were collected during four hydrographic surveys conducted by NOAA NOS in 2000 and 2001 on the NOAA Ship Whiting and its launches 1005/1014. Multibeam bathymetric data were acquired with a Reson SeaBat 8101 and sidescan sonar backscatter data were acquired with Edgetech model 272-T (100 kHz) or the Klein T-5500 (455 kHz) sonar systems. The NOAA acquisition vessels were also equipped with Odom Echotrac DF3200 MKII echosounders that logged high-frequency (100 kHz) vertical-beam soundings concurrently throughout the sidescan sonar and multibeam bathymetry surveying operations. Vertical-beam soundings were recorded in Hypack raw format and later converted to CARIS HDCS format. The NOAA Office of Coast Survey cleaned and merged the data and performed tide corrections using CARIS HIPS.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: unknown (process 1 of 6)
    The study area was separated into six units based on local bottom slope, backscatter intensity, surficial sediment texture and anthropogenic activity. These units were delineated qualitatively at a scale of 1:30,000 in areas where both new sidescan sonar and bathymetric data are available (about 155 km2, the source data sets were derived from the datasets described in the previous process step). A local bottom slope was calculated from the 30-m gridded bathymetry as the average slope between the central pixel and the surrounding 8 pixels. Areas smaller than about 200 meters were not delineated. The shapefile was created in ArcGIS 9.1 (ArcMap) by alternating the hillshade, slope and backscatter rasters overlay and manually drawing polygons for the regions representing the six classes of defined bottom type. Person who carried out this activity:
    Seth Ackerman
    Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
    Geologist
    c/o U.S. Geological Survey
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2315 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    seth.ackerman@state.ma.us
    Date: 05-Nov-2015 (process 2 of 6)
    Edits to the metadata were made to fix any errors that MP v 2.9.30 flagged. This is necessary to enable the metadata to be successfully harvested for various data catalogs. In some cases, this meant adding text "Information unavailable" or "Information unavailable from original metadata" for those required fields that were left blank. The source citation of the source contribution was blank, so that information was populated based on information in the source contribution. No process date was available, so that was set to unknown. Most of the attributes had no attribute domain values, so this was set to Unrepresentable_Domain, with "Information unavailable from original metadata." Other minor edits were probably performed (title, publisher, publication place, etc.). The metadata date (but not the metadata creator) was edited to reflect the date of these changes. The metadata available from a harvester may supersede metadata bundled within a download file. Compare the metadata dates to determine which metadata file is most recent. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 29-Jan-2018 (process 3 of 6)
    An error was fixed in one of the originator names. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 20-Jul-2018 (process 4 of 6)
    USGS Thesaurus keywords added to the keyword section. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 31-Jan-2019 (process 5 of 6)
    Fixed a broken link and added the DOI link. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
    Date: 08-Sep-2020 (process 6 of 6)
    Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    Information unavailable from original metadata.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Information unavailable from original metadata.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
Access_Constraints None
Use_Constraints Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as the source of this information.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    Seth Ackerman
    Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
    Geologist
    c/o U.S. Geological Survey
    Woods Hole, MA
    USA

    508-548-8700 x2315 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    seth.ackerman@state.ma.us
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? Downloadable Data
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    Although this data set has been used by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
    • Availability in digital form:
      Data format: Zip archive file containing the follow items. The SHP file contains the geospatial data. The SHX file contains the index of the geospatial data. The DBF file contains the attribute data in dBase format. The PRJ file contains the coordinate system information (optional). The AVL file contains the legend information (optional). The SBN and SBX files contain the spatial index of the geospatial data (optional). The XML file contains the metadata describing the data set "data set name".shp.xml. An ASCII version of the metadata file. A browse graphic showing the data layer coverage and extent (optional). in format Shapefile (version 3.3) ESRI Polygon Shapefile Size: 0.865
      Network links: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1008/gis/datazipped/bottomtype.zip
      https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1008/html/appendix1.html
      https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1008/gis/OFR_2006_1008/shapes/
      Media you can order: DVD-ROM (Density 4.75 Gbytes) (format UDF)
    • Cost to order the data: None

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    These data are available in Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Shapefile format. The user must have software capable of importing and processing the data file.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 18-Mar-2024
Metadata author:
Seth Ackerman
Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
Geologist
c/o U.S. Geological Survey
Woods Hole, MA
USA

508-548-8700 x2315 (voice)
508-457-2310 (FAX)
whsc_data_contact@usgs.gov
Contact_Instructions:
The metadata contact email address is a generic address in the event the person is no longer with USGS. (updated on 20240318)
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/whcmsc/open_file_report/ofr2006-1008/bottomtype.shp.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.51 on Mon Mar 25 16:05:24 2024