For over five years CSS employee owners have supported NOAA’s Digital Coast data development and management, training development and delivery, and tool development and management through our subcontract with Lynker Technologies supporting NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management. As part of this effort, CSS employee owners process lidar data from many sources to make it available for custom and bulk downloads from the NOAA Data Access Viewer. This involves ensuring data quality and consistency and preparing the data for dissemination. The end goal is to provide elevation data users with the data they need to make the best decisions for coastal mapping and management efforts.

Graphic shows a flat surface next to a steep incline. A suspension bridge  reaches over the flat surface
High resolution lidar data provides enough detail to show specific and identifiable features and landmarks, like the Golden Gate Bridge.

See More CSS Insights

Entrance to an abandoned mine in a hillside

Assessing Contamination in Abandoned Mines

CSS supports the Environmental Protection Agency with assessing contamination within abandoned mines. There are thousands of abandoned mines throughout the western United States. Many of these mines are leaching heavy metals into nearby streams or have contaminated soils causing vegetation die off.   CSS employee owners conduct field work to assess the extent of this contamination.…

Expanding Our Offshore Wind Team

We’ve recently added several staff to bolster the offshore wind team at NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. With this full team of 13, our employee owners are able to provide more focused support in their areas of expertise, including mapping and spatial modeling, data collection, communications, project management, and partner engagement. Through this…

Bee on a flower

Developing a Database for Ecosystem Service Models 

CSS scientists have been major developers and contributors to the online U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EcoService Models Library (ESML) database since its inception in 2012. The ESML database contains detailed but concise descriptions of ecosystem service models to facilitate the selection of models by ecosystem scientists for a variety of management and research applications. The…