Research, Resilience and risk mitigation

The Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) requires the Secretary of the Interior to review the maps of the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System
Learn more about the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System, which was established under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act in 1982.

Learn more about John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System
(CBRS) at least once every 5 years and make any minor and technical modifications necessary to reflect changes in the size or location of the CBRS unit as a result of natural forces (16 U.S.C. 3503(c)). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) collaborated on a “digital conversion” project that fulfilled this 5-year review requirement and produced updated maps for most of the CBRS that were adopted between 2014 and 2016.

Please note that through the digital conversion project, the Service could only consider proposed changes to the draft maps that are consistent with its administrative authority to modify the CBRS boundaries which is limited to: (1) changes that have occurred as a result of natural forces such as erosion and accretion; (2) voluntary additions to the CBRS by property owners; and (3) additions of excess Federal property to the CBRS (16 U.S.C. 3503 (c)-(e)). Other requests for changes to the CBRS could not be considered under this project. 

The digital conversion project was conducted in four batches. The digital conversion schedule was based on FEMA’s schedule for coastal flood hazard mapping and other factors. Several states (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the Long Island portion of New York) did not go through the digital conversion process as they are part of a separate mapping project related to Hurricane Sandy. Learn more about the Hurricane Sandy CBRS Remapping Project.

Batch 1 - Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Texas

Set of 87 final revised maps, dated December 6, 2013.

Batch 2 - Maps for Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia

Set of 118 final revised maps, dated August 1, 2014.

Batch 3 - Maps for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York Great Lakes, Mississippi, Ohio, and Wisconsin

Set of 202 final revised maps, dated January 11, 2016.           

Batch 4 - Maps for Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Set of 65 final revised maps, dated November 15, 2016.

Library

Digital Coastal Barrier Resources System Boundaries

Coastal Barrier Resources System data are available for download as three separate shapefiles; compressed by using the .zip format. You can view the shapefiles by using ESRI's free software, among others.

View the Guide to Downloadable CBRS Data for information about the...

Programs

A rocky shoreline of a river. The water is calm. Mist and green branches line the river.
The Ecological Services Program works to restore and protect healthy populations of fish, wildlife, and plants and the environments upon which they depend. Using the best available science, we work with federal, state, Tribal, local, and non-profit stakeholders, as well as private land owners, to...
Aerial view of an undeveloped coastal freshwater pond.
We administer the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA), which encourages the conservation of storm-prone and dynamic coastal barriers by withdrawing the availability of federal funding and financial assistance within a designated set of units known as the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS)....