1. Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources
  2. Coastal and Marine Geoscience Data System

Metadata from the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program

Metadata document scientific data in a consistent structure and format.
Topical browse interfaces show what data we have, by scientific category.
Categories are hierarchical like a tree. Click them to find the ones you need.
There are 7,542 metadata records here.
A Complex Search of metadata keywords is available.

Scientific authors and editors (sorted by last name)

Sortable table of authors

USGS Thesaurus

Topics and methods of scientific study carried out by USGS, with product types, scientific disciplines, geologic time, and types of institutional structure and activities. Broad and shallow, used to help people find scientific information.
Subtopics:
Institutional structures and activities (5 items)
Methods (5030 items)
Product types (4709 items)
Sciences (4716 items)
Time periods (43 items)
Topics (6022 items)

ISO 19115 Topic Category

General subjects for which geospatial data may be relevant. Few, broad terms.
Subtopics:
Biota (196 items)
Boundaries (63 items)
ClimatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere (341 items)
Economy (3 items)
Elevation (1946 items)
Environment (2175 items)
Farming (2 items)
GeoscientificInformation (5183 items)
Health (11 items)
ImageryBaseMapsEarthCover (1820 items)
InlandWaters (556 items)
Location (1192 items)
Oceans (5756 items)
PlanningCadastre (1 items)
Society (20 items)
Structure (52 items)
Transportation (32 items)
UtilitiesCommunication (1 items)

Geographic keyword free-text search

Free text search of all keywords identified as place keywords.

Other known thesauri

Provide access to the other thesauri, however separated somewhat and documented that the results will produce incomplete records since those thesauri are not used consistently across the three Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program centers over the past 30 years.

Common geographic areas

Names and identifiers of commonly-known geographic areas including oceans, continents, countries, states and provinces in North America, counties in the United States, USGS map quadrangles, and hydrologic units, nested and cross-referenced by overlap.
Subtopics:
Land (346 items)
Oceans (204 items)

Alexandria Digital Library Feature Type Thesaurus

Types of named geographic features. Applicable also to many unnamed features but reflects the level of detail traditionally shown on maps, so some feature types specified in scientific studies may not be well represented here. Not highly specific.
Subtopics:
Physiographic features (4 items)
Regions (1 items)

Data Categories for Marine Planning

Categories spanning the breadth of information types required for ocean planning from a national, multidisciplinary perspective. Includes description, assessment, and prediction regarding governance, resources, uses, and infrastructure.
Subtopics:
Data Content Subjects (2921 items)
Data Content Types (1810 items)

Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) keywords

Theme keywords from the former Marine Realms Information Bank, focusing on characteristics of coasts and oceans, processes acting on them, and human concerns about them.
Subtopics:
Biota (15 items)
Coastal change hazards topics (1269 items)
Discipline (1324 items)
Feature type (1318 items)
Hot topics (1077 items)
Research method (2422 items)

Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard

Categories of ecosystems for coastal, estuarine, and marine environments.
Subtopics:
Aquatic Setting (625 items)
Biogeographic Setting (3 items)
Biotic (1 items)
Geoform (839 items)
Substrate (312 items)
Water Column (2 items)

Alphabetical list of metadata records