The Collaborative Beach and Coral Reef Registry

With the advent of GIS Field Maps,  a scalable, ArcGIS Hub Site that allows for interactive monitoring of the transition zones between coral reefs and how we impose on them is used to  focus on local coastal issues for any location around the world. In the past, turf protection has been a major part of environmental organizations’ operations. These organizations wanted to hold their proprietary knowledge “close to the chest” to minimize rival encroachment into their “space”. Fortunately, it now appears that a new wave of interest is being exhibited where there is a desire to share more information with other organizations and the general citizenry with greater local relevance. In addition, new tools are available that allow these organizations to share their once proprietary data, knowledge and information on a broad scale. When we free up this data and more people become aware of an issue, and what might be a sustainable solution, shared by all, the interest will logically increase and give coastal and city planners’ better data over time, to make better data driven decisions. This newly trained demographic will be more open to engaging in other conservation efforts and green initiatives. Recorded history is the only reliable proof of past patterns of decline.  We need to be able to look back at coastal environments and events, to identify those patterns of decline/impact and maybe prevent them from happing again. It provides a “do over” approach. Directors, Mangers, researchers and general users, will have access to a richer holistic data/information source that allows for better real time decisions for organizations and managers, as we create the “digital twin” for the Florida Keys Model. The framework here is to aid in the transition from an outdated and/or non-existing monitoring system to a modern one, capturing current beach/water data with proximity to shallow water corals while sharing the science of coral reefs all from a single source. And, is now being shared with all.