SWIM Tools

Available tools for citizens and experts:

Tools available from the Coastal Services Center: The NOAA Coastal Services Center develops software tools to meet the specific needs of the nation's coastal resource managers.

Tools Available from the Ecosystem Based Management Network: Ecosystem based management tools for citizens and officials.

Tools available from the Coastal Services Center

N-SPECT helps coastal managers and local officials predict potential water quality impacts to rivers and streams from nonpoint source pollution and erosion. Users first enter information about their area (land cover, elevation, precipitation, and soil characteristics) to create the base data layer. They can then add different land cover change scenarios (such as a development) to get information about potential changes in surface water runoff, nonpoint pollution, and erosion. (Requires ArcView and spatial analyst license)

The Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Tool was developed as part of the larger Lake St. Clair Coastal Habitat Conservation and Restoration Project. The objective was to develop a decision support tool capable of examining the impacts of various management decisions on Lake St. Clair coastal habitat.The tool is not limited to any geographic area; terrestrial analysis can be performed for any with corresponding land cover data, and aquatic calculations for any area with at least one aquatic data set. (Requires ArcView and spatial analyst license)

The Impervious Surface Analysis Tool (ISAT) is used to calculate the percentage of impervious surface area of user-selected geographic areas (e.g., watersheds, municipalities, subdivisions). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center and the University of Connecticut Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) Program developed this tool for coastal and natural resource managers. ISAT is available as an ArcView^® 3.x, ArcView 8.x or an ArcView 9.x extension.

PIVOT Web pages are outreach tools used by coastal programs to complement their existing Web sites. With PIVOT (Performance Indicators Visualization and Outreach Tool), static reports become visual stories that engage constituents. Using graphics, maps, and Web technology, users are able to understand the issues, see measures being taken to address these issues, and follow the progress and success rate of management plans.

Tools Available from the Ecosystem Based Management Network:

About the Ecosystem Based Management Network

The EBM Tools Network is an alliance of EBM tool developers, practitioners, and training providers. Network members include Duke University, Ecotrust, The Nature Conservancy, NatureServe, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Orton Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (PacMARA), Princeton University, University of Queensland and the Sea Around Us Project.

The goals of the Network are to:

develop a knowledge base of coastal-marine EBM tools.
increase information about, access to, and honest evaluation of EBM tools.
determine tool functionality necessary for EBM.
promote the development of tools to fill gaps in EBM tool functionality.
develop tool engineering guidelines to promote the development of sustainable and interoperable tools.
develop best practices for effectively and appropriately using tools in EBM projects.
build capacity for effectively and appropriately using tools by provide training and toolkits for EBM implementers.
work with willing tool developers to develop suites of interoperable tools for EBM.
provide support for EBM tool use in field EBM implementation projects.

For a list of tools from the EBM network follow this link see descriptions of the types of tools available on their
network.