ARD Tools

ARD Tools is a collection of Database and GIS tools that NOAA’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) has created to support the protection and restoration of coastal species and habitats.  These decision support tools help integrate sediment and tissue contamination and toxicity data in a GIS context.  NOAA ARD and project partners can take advantage of these tools to support analysis, mapping and communication of complex spatial contaminant and restoration issues in a Watershed context.

Query Manager

Query Manager is a database program that can be used to access sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity data, and tissue chemistry data from a relational database for individual watersheds. Query Manager organizes data sets from multiple studies into a consistent and standardized structure, thereby improving data delivery and ease of interpretation for coastal resource managers.

MARPLOT

MARPLOT is a basic mapping application designed to be both easy to use and to consume very little disk space. MARPLOT is integrated with Query Manager. Query Manager output can be easily mapped in MARPLOT, showing the spatial distribution of the query results using a coded legend to display the range of contaminant concentrations. However, there is limited geographic manipulation available in the MARPLOT package.

ARD GIS Tools

GIS Tools represents a collection of scripts and extensions used by the ARD GIS Team and our Partners.  These tools were either developed by ARD or collected by ARD for use in Watershed Database and Mapping Projects.

These tools aid in analysis and mapping spatial data by simplifying or automating tasks such as Importing Query Manager data into ArcMap, and providing functionality to accomplish complex tasks.  Most of these GIS Tools are written for either ArcView 3.x or ArcGIS 9.x.

For more information:

• NOAA National Ocean Service Office of Response and Restoration
• NOAA ARD Watershed Database and Mapping Projects