1. CO-OPS Outreach to Local Maritime Communities
Richard Edwing
Director, NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services
NOAA Navigation Services Office Updates
Hydrographic Services Review Panel Public Meeting
Charleston, SC
September 16-18, 2014

2. Turning operational oceanographic data into meaningful information for the Nation

3. CO-OPS Programs Mapping and Charting Services
National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON)
Supports hydrographic and shoreline mapping missions, including VDatum
Supports other federal MTS partners
Maritime Services
Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®)
National Current Observation Program
Nowcast and forecast models
CO-OPS’ Mapping and Charting Services Program is based on NWLON and its primary purpose to accurately collect water level data to meet NOAA’s mission and goal requirements for water level information.
CO-OPS installs and operates long term and short-term water level stations in support of a variety of programs, including hydrographic surveys, shoreline mapping projects, marine boundary determinations, dredging projects, and other mapping efforts.
CO-OPS Maritime Services provides information that improves the safety and efficiency of maritime commerce and coastal resource management through the integration of real-time environmental observations, forecasts and other geospatial information.
CO-OPS measures and disseminates observations, predictions and nowcast/forecasts of water levels, currents, salinity, and meteorological parameters (e.g., winds, atmospheric pressure, and air and water temperatures) that mariners need to navigate safely. CO-OPS has also added visibility and waves to the suite of sensors to provide additional information crucial to safe navigation.

4. CO-OPS Programs Resilience
Storm QuickLook
Coastal hazards – support warnings and planning for storm surge, tsunamis, etc.
Climate – long-term sea level trends
Ecosystem – habitat management and restoration
Ecological Forecasting (NOAA wide)
Forecasting Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB)
HAB Bulletin
The Coastal Oceanographic Applications and Services of Tides and Lakes (COASTAL) leverages precise water level information for monitoring, management, planning applications that include coastal development and engineering, habitat restoration, long-term sea level assessments, storm surge monitoring, tsunami warning support, emergency preparedness, and HAZMAT response.
COASTAL also supports NOAA's emerging effort to develop operational ecological forecasts, such as the Gulf of Mexico Harmful Algal Bloom Operational Forecast System
Sound coastal ecosystem management practices, including planning and monitoring of restoration sites, coastal engineering and development, and land-use planning, must be framed by a thorough understanding of the relationship between water levels, tidal datums, and geodetic, or land-based elevations. 

5. Outreach Infrastructure
CO-OPS FY15-19 Strategic Plan Goal 1
Customer Service focused on outreach, education, and customer satisfaction
CO-OPS Outreach Personnel
Program Managers, Communications Specialist, Chief Scientist, Project Leads and Field Crews
Partnerships and Collaborations
Navigation Managers, IOOS RAs, NWS WFOs, NOAA Regional Coordinators, IDIQ Contractors, PORTS® Partners, TCOON, GLERL, NERRS, other Federal agencies, local media
Outreach Tools
Tides and Currents website, surveys, brochures and publications, press releases, media, and events.
CO-OPS Strategic Plan, Customer Service Goal:
Objective 1.1: Identify customers and understand their requirements.
Objective 1.2: Develop a culture of customer service.
Objective 1.3: Educate customers to increase utility of CO-OPS products.
Objective 1.4: Monitor customer satisfaction.

6. Navigation Community Outreach
Attend Regional and National Professional Meetings (exhibits, presentations, etc.)
AAPA, APA, Great Lakes Waterways Conference, Lake Carriers’ Association, CMA Shipping, Passenger Vessels Association, Harbor Safety and Security Conference
Check-in on Local Customer Satisfaction
Attend local Harbor Safety Committee Meetings
Targeted Regional Outreach
Program Managers and oceanographers visit one or two regions each year to highlight new and updated products and get feedback
In FY14, Northern Gulf of Mexico and San Francisco Bay Region
Attend and exhibit at professional meetings (add picture)
There are two categories of stakeholder engagement. One is project based (such as establishing a new PORTS, conducting a currents survey, etc.). The second is more ad hoc or event driven, such as SF Bay effort, 150 years at SF, 200th NWLON station, etc.
Info on San Francisco Bay: CO-OPS has several new products and updated information in the San Francisco region. This outreach effort was designed to educate, inform and connect with our users. In June, CO-OPS met with the San Francisco Bar Pilots, the Marine Exchange of the San Francisco Bay Region, the Monterey, CA NWS, San Francisco Harbor Safety Committee, and conducted a product workshop following the Harbor Safety meeting. The products discussed included:
- San Francisco PORTS sensor additions and tools (MyPORTS, Mobile App)
- San Francisco Operational Forecast Model
- Surface currents measured by High Frequency Radar
- Updated Tidal Current Predictions from a recent two year current survey
New NOAA Current Prediction Tool

7. Navigation Community Outreach
Project Driven
New PORTS®
Upcoming Current Surveys
Model Forecast Development
Types of project-driving outreach efforts we make before and after new PORTS and current surveys.
San Francisco meeting was both event- and project-driven
Need more info on OFS prediction points. What is this? (Darren, Brent)

8. Navigation Community Outreach
Event Driven
Historic low waters in Great Lakes
PORTS® dedications
San Francisco Bay new product event
150 Years of Tides
200th NWLON Station
Media and outreach efforts relating to the historic low water levels

9. Enhancing the Online Experience
ForeSee Surveys
CO-OPS contract
Data available quarterly since Sept. 2013
Benefit: audience insights, demographics, satisfaction score
NOS Monthly Log Files
Compiled monthly
Data available for 2000-present
Benefit: web traffic, most popular content, data transferred/downloaded
Google Analytics
Data available since Jan. 2014
Represents sample
Benefit: audience location, real-time data, trends
Enhancing the Online Experience
- Using three tools including a survey and Google Analytics to evaluate user behavior on our site
- Users interested in web services that directly deliver our data, PORTS, and tide predictions
- More than 25% of our users access the Tides and Currents website via a mobile device
- According to Google Analytics, the top 5 states accessing our site: FL, VA, CA, WA, TX
- close to half of our survey responses were from recreational users
There are three input data sets that go into our full web analytics overview today. There are 3 analytics tools that combined help to paint a picture of the traffic on our site, popular content, and a bit on who is using the site.
There is the ForeSee survey. This survey is presented to about 20% of CO-OPS’ audience on the site and from that sample, only a portion will complete the survey, but it does give you great audience insight and scoring to your site.
The monthly log files are files for the CO-OPS website sent to NOS Communications and Education Division to be processed every month to show overall web traffic on your site.
Google Analytics is probably the most popular of the data inputs that most of us know about. It is important to note for Google Analytics that this is great for providing trends and a bit more demographic data on your audience, but should not be used for actual numbers as Google Analytics only represents a subset of the overall data.

10. Capturing the Voice of Visitor Vital Statistics
Start of Data Collection: September 5, 2013
Survey Placement:
On-exit browse
Reporting Period:
September 5, 2013 –
July 31, 2014
Surveys Completed:
3,663
Completion Percentage:
57%
Sampling Conditions:
The survey is randomly presented to 20% of visitors who view at least 2 pages on the site. A persistent cookie prevents visitors from being invited to take the survey again for at least 90 days.
The ForeSee survey is presented to about 20% of CO-OPS’ audience on the site and from that sample, only a portion will complete the survey, but it does give us great audience insight and scoring to our site.
Encourage the audience to take the survey if offered the chance to do so to continue to help us improve our audience experience

11. Greatest Outreach Need
Physical presence and representation at the regional level
Silver Spring, MD
Chesapeake, VA
Seattle, WA
Mobile, AL
Our greatest need is physical presence in regions. We don’t have district or regional offices like other federal agencies, such as the approach the USACE, USGS, and NWS.
However, CO-OPS does have field offices in Chesapeake, Virginia and Seattle, Washington, and recently stationed personnel at NOAA’s Disaster Response Center in Mobile, Alabama for this reason.
One gap is the Great Lakes.

12. How Can the HSRP Help?
Offer perspectives on how the NOS Navigation Services can enhance our outreach efforts and effectiveness given lack of robust local and regional presence.

13. Jacksonville PORTS Dedication
Questions
Jacksonville PORTS Dedication
July 2014

14. Backup Slides

15. Monitoring Customer Satisfaction Web Analytics Data
ForeSee Survey (November 2013–March 2014)
>1,400 response in 5 months
Satisfaction score = 77 (above federal average)
43% recreational user
63% tides/tide predictions
NOS Monthly Log Files (January-May 2014 with baseline data from )
Traffic trends: 2013 peaks in summer months, web services is ~60% of hits so far in 2014
28% traffic in 2014 from mobile devices
Top 5 directories: API, PORTS, home page, tide predictions, IOOS SOS home
Google Analytics (January-May 2014)
Top entrance pages: home page, tide pred., PORTS
Top 5 cities: NYC, Jax, Seattle, Houston
Top 5 regions: FL, VA, CA, WA, TX
Here’s the data from the three web analytic tools:
For the ForeSee survey and this is based on data from November 1, 2013 to March 31, During those 5 months, you had just over 1,400 survey responses with an average satisfaction score of 77. This score was above the federal government average which is a goal cited in the CO-OPS Strategic Plan. The demographic info completed by your survey respondents showed that 43% of this audience were recreational users and 63% of the audience was looking for tides/tide predictions. So now, let’s look at each of these three web analytics inputs in a bit more detail.
From the monthly log files for 2013, we started to see some defined peaks of traffic over the summer months which could be from both folks out on the water/recreation as well as hurricane season/coastal storms and need for data to prepare for and respond to events. We’ll explore some past data in the coming slides. Also, so far this year, you are seeing 27% of your traffic to the CO-OPS site from mobile devices, helping to show the strong benefit of launching the responsive design website last year to make it easier for your audience to access tides and currents data on the go. And the top directories, so this includes all pages, hits, bytes, everything in that particular directory or folder on the site are API or web services, PORTS, the tides and currents home page, tide predictions, and the IOOS SOS home.
For Google Analytics from January to April, your top entrance pages, the pages folks first access on your site were the home page, tide predictions, and PORTS. The top 5 cities for tides and currents users were NYC, Jacksonville, Seattle, San Francisco, and Houston. And the top 5 regions or states were Florida, California, Washington, Texas, and Virginia.