The ECSC has established a framework for assisting management decisions by organizing the Center’s programs around four research Thematic Areas that demonstrate our unique capabilities to meet the needs of stakeholders in the coastal environmental community and that address the set of environmental stressors identified in the NOAA/NCCOS strategic plan.

The Thematic Areas are:

1) Education and Outreach

2) Integrated Assessment in Support of Environmental Decision Making

3) Integrated Social Sciences

4) Ecological Processes and Indicators of Ecosystem Health

5) Geospatial Analyses and Data Development.

ECSC, with its central scientific theme of integrated assessments of ecosystem health, is conducting research on the methodologies for integrated assessments in support of environmental decision making, including better tools for ecosystem assessments and monitoring, better understanding of the processes of coastal habitats and ecosystem dynamics, better understanding of the linkages of coastal ecosystems to human endpoints, and better understanding of bioindicators of ecosystem health. Thus, ECSC’s central focus is directly complementary to each of the existing NOAA ecosystem goals.