Coastal Water Quality Tool
Introduction
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center has developed a coastal water quality tool called the Nonpoint Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool (N-SPECT). N-SPECT is a screening tool used to help understand and predict the impacts of management decisions on water quality and, potentially, on coastal environments such as coral reefs and shellfish beds. The tool was initially developed for the Wai‘anae region of O‘ahu, therefore data provided with N-SPECT are local to that area. However, N-SPECT is designed to be used within any watershed, provided the user has the necessary data, including data to calibrate the pollutant coefficients.
An example of how the tool can be used in the Mākaha Valley of Wai‘anae has been included in the Management Application section of this Web site. The example management application gives potential users, such as resource managers or land use planners, an idea of how N-SPECT can be used to help support the coastal management decision-making processes.
N-SPECT is a spatial decision support tool that requires geographic information systems (GIS) software. To learn more about N-SPECT, go to the Overview of N-SPECT section.
