Managing California’s coastal habitats and tracking progress toward achieving regional and statewide goals requires up-to-date and comprehensive mapping to assess extent and track change in total area and habitat distribution over time.  To date, mapping of different coastal habitats in California has occurred periodically and often in a piecemeal manner.  This lack of comprehensive statewide coverage, lack of consistent methodology, and asynchronous temporal collection makes it difficult to achieve the objectives of California’s resource managers. 

To remedy this situation, the Ocean Protection Council (OPC) summarized options for routinely and comprehensively mapping the following four coastal habitats statewide: coastal wetlands, beaches and dunes, eelgrass, and rocky intertidal.  This effort is intended to support OPC’s Strategic Plan goals on coastal habitat acreage targets and to support other State agencies in their mandates to track habitat acreages (California’s Nature-based solutions climate targets AB1757, 2022 C. Garcia).  Expert workgroups were convened for each of the four habitats to provide input on mapping approaches and data sources.  This information will help inform the development of ongoing mapping efforts that can be applied in a consistent, practical and effective manner.