This vector file is intended to define the subregions/extent of the Southeast Blueprint into the future. This record should serve as a long-term archive. Notes on the development of this layer These subregions are intended to serve as the building blocks of larger subregions that actually get run in Zonation. They can be dissolved/combined into different combinations. In Zonation 5, we can run larger subregions. Having code that automates the creation of subregions gives us the flexibility to modify them easily as we test different subregion sizes and combinations. The continental inland subregions portion of the code is the same code (and inputs) used for the 2022 and 2023 subregions. For the Marine and Caribbean portions of the [...]
Summary
This vector file is intended to define the subregions/extent of the Southeast Blueprint into the future. This record should serve as a long-term archive.
Notes on the development of this layer
These subregions are intended to serve as the building blocks of larger subregions that actually get run in Zonation. They can be dissolved/combined into different combinations. In Zonation 5, we can run larger subregions. Having code that automates the creation of subregions gives us the flexibility to modify them easily as we test different subregion sizes and combinations. The continental inland subregions portion of the code is the same code (and inputs) used for the 2022 and 2023 subregions. For the Marine and Caribbean portions of the code, Amy automated the addition of the marine and Caribbean areas. Some hand editing was needed to turn the EEZ lines into polygons. I did that prior to running the code and I uploaded it to teams with the code and output. That hand edited layer was used as an input into this code. That allows us to run the code without the need to hand edit in the middle of the code.
This draft includes the entire EEZ around the US Caribbean. This may be too large of an area for 2024, but it is the ultimate goal to cover this area. It is so much easier to reduce the extent if we need to, rather than committing ourselves to a smaller extent up front that we are not able to easily modify later.
This should represent the maximum possible extent of the Southeast Blueprint for the foreseeable future.
We can modify the code and re-run it for the final subregion and extent output for any particular Blueprint version, including the VIPR6 boundary as input if that is what we need to do for 2024. This is intended to provide the maximum extent and one piece of code that makes all our subregions and makes our process more transparent.
This uses the marine ecoregions to subdivide the continental marine into 3 portions. In 2022 and 2023, the marine ecoregions didn't have a clean split between Atlantic and Gulf, they have a transition area around the southern portion of Florida where we had to hand-draw a line. This moves away from that.
The 2024 vector subregion layer
Amy tried to set up the updated subregions up to be flexible in the future and maybe not have to re-run this again
Amy added some extra fields that could be dissolved to make different potential subregions for zonation
Amy added some extra attributes to try to capture the 2023 extent, while this also has the info that could be used to fix some of the 2023 issues (like the Chesapeake bay issue)
For the 2024 download package, we can strip down to only show 2023 areas and a smaller attribute table.
We need to keep the bigger vector boundary with the full attribute table in the definitive ScienceBase archival space.
Approach for indicator extents in 2024
All GIS people will run updated indicators to either the full bounding box of the Continental extent raster (if source data extents that far) or to the max extent that the data allows inside this bounding box.
Amy also made the full Continental/Caribbean combined extent raster, that one will be in the download package. She just thought it might make our lives easier to use the Continental one for indicators this year, might save some processing time.
Then, as a final step for 2024, all re-run indicators will be batch clipped to the 1 values in this raster before being put in the download package
Indicators can be smaller than this bounding box, if data doesn’t extend to the entire area. For example, a Gulf indicator doesn’t have to be run to include the north Atlantic, because there probably isn’t data for that. But the version we save shouldn’t be bigger than this bounding box.
If running to this whole bounding box is causing too much processing time, we may need to think about buffers around our 2023 extent that will be a doable processing time, but will also allow us flexibility if our extent needs to be slightly modified in the future.
Be aware if you are doing focal analysis, you may need to start with an extent that is larger than this area, so that your analysis will have the necessary data to calculate the values inside our extent near the edges of the extent.
We will make a definitive archival location on ScienceBase where we store the unclipped versions of indicators, so we will have them available if we need to make boundary adjustments in the future. This will allow us to eventually slightly modify our external boundaries if we so desire.