Healthy and resilient coastal and marine ecosystems that provide services and resources to our Nation are under increasing stress from competing economic, energy, recreational, and cultural uses. Managing the use of these ecosystems is challenging because of the complexities inherent to natural and human dynamics in an ecosystem. Additionally, many sectors’ activities (e.g. fisheries, energy, shipping, real estate, agriculture and forestry) have implications for multiple elements in an ecosystem as well as for each other and both are influenced or impacted by management decisions of a given sector. To date management and conservation of ecosystem services has been generally limited to independent sectors. To enable more comprehensive and holistic management, there is a move towards the adoption of an ecosystem-based approach to management.

NOAA’s Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs) are “a synthesis and quantitative analysis of information on relevant physical, chemical, ecological and human processes in relation to specified ecosystem management objectives” (Levin, et al. 2008, 2009). NOAA’s IEA approach is a decision-support system that uses diverse data and ecosystem models to forecast future conditions; evaluates alternative management scenarios; and assesses economic and ecological tradeoffs to guide decisions, implement, and evaluate management actions relative to the specified objectives. The system further enables revision of the IEA (adaptive management), and identification of data and information gaps. The approach requires close and continual work with relevant stakeholders and managers throughout the process to identify priority management issues in order to provide them with robust decision-support information. Each of the steps in the IEA framework (click on embedded iterative loop image for more information) contributes to this process to provide a sound scientific basis for and enable better management of ocean and coastal resources through an ecosystem-based approach.

A primary objective of NOAA’s IEA approach is to make comprehensive information available to inform management decisions. This is done by predicting the outcome of management choices through the described iterative step-wise process that aims to:

• assess existing (baseline) ecosystem conditions
• assess activities or elements in an ecosystem that can stress the ecosystem
• predict the status of the ecosystem under stress if no management action is taken
• evaluate the status of the ecosystem under stress under different management scenarios, and
• evaluate the success of management actions in achieving the desired target conditions.

The IEA program is a NOAA-wide initiative and draws on the strengths, capabilities, and expertise of multiple Program lines including the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the National Ocean Service, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service’s National Coastal Data Development Center. As the program continues to grow and expand, it will continue to build relationships and leverage expertise from other partners both in NOAA as well as other federal and non-federal (e.g. academia, non-governmental organizations) partners.

NOAA’s IEA program is anticipated to consist of eight regions, based on NOAA’s Regional Ecosystems (US Large Marine Ecosystems). At present there is formal IEA work being conducted to develop and implement IEAs in 5 of eight of these regions: The California Current, The Gulf of Mexico, the Northeast Shelf, as well as in Alaska and the Pacific Islands. The remaining three regions (Southeast Shelf, Caribbean, and Great Lakes) will follow as program capacity grows.