The MARCO Mapping and Planning Portal is an online tool that allows state, federal, and local decision-makers and the public to visualize, query, map, and analyze ocean and coastal data in the Mid-Atlantic region. The five MARCO states agreed to work together to develop a regional, web-based portal as part of their 2009 action plan. In response to this need, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program provided funding (through their CZM Award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration- NOAA) for creation of this prototype mapping and planning portal for the Mid-Atlantic region. The portal was developed by a team of representatives from each of the Mid-Atlantic States, NOAA, and The Nature Conservancy.
In addition to the regional MARCO portal, other online mapping sites are available that cover different geographies. The MARCO portal development team envisions that the federal, regional, and state sites can be further linked for efficiency and synergy to support coastal and marine spatial planning processes at local, state, and regional scales.
See a summary of data layers available on the MARCO portal.
Other related online mapping sites
- Multipurpose Marine Cadastre
- Integrated Ocean Observing System Data Catalog
- Virginia Coastal GEMS
- Maryland Coastal Atlas
- New York Ocean and Great Lakes Atlas