Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard
Original (non-English) name
Acronym
CMECS
Citation
citation to fill
Abstract
The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) is a structured catalog of ecological terms that also provides a framework for interpreting, classifying, and inter-relating observational data from all types of sensors and platforms. The CMECS vocabulary describes coastal and marine environments from the head of tide in estuaries to the depths of the oceans and Great Lakes, and offers an umbrella under which a national coastal and marine ecological classification can grow and evolve.
Endorsed by the FGDC in 2012, CMECS builds upon approaches from published national, regional, and local habitat classification procedures. As an FGDC standard, federally funded projects working with environmental data in marine settings should use CMECS as their primary classification system or include CMECS attributes for their data.