Brett Still is coordinating the Wellfleet Harbor Mapping Project

 General Description

             The Town of Wellfleet, in cooperation with Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management, Massachusetts Audubon Society at Wellfleet Bay, Cape Cod National Seashore, and the Cape Cod Commission, has received federal funding from the NOAA Coastal Services Center to develop an electronic database of coastal structures in Wellfleet Harbor.  The following coastal structures found throughout Wellfleet Harbor will be included in the project:

  • Public and private piers            
  • Town landings
  • Sea walls and revetments
  • Jetties and groins
  • Tidal gates
  • Stairways
  • Houses subject to coastal storm damage
  • Navigational hazards
  • Established channels
  • Mooring fields
  • Anchorage areas
  • Shellfish aquaculture grants
  • Shellfish management boundaries
  • Failed septic systems
  • Cess pools
  • Rights-of-way

The coastal structures database will be constructed using GPS (Global Positioning System) and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology.  Coastal structure data will be collected in the field with Trimble GeoExplorer and PRO XL GPS receivers.  Once the coordinate (Mass State Plane) data have been collected, they will be transformed into shapefile format and intergraded into Arcview GIS software. 

Comprehensive attribute tables identifying and describing the above features will be developed with the assistance of various town departments and committees, to provide the most useful data for the town.  Digital photos of features will also linked to the attribute tables to assist with the identification and evaluation of the structural condition of the features. 

Upon completion of the project, maps and other hard copy data will be developed with these data and distributed to the various town, state, and federal organizations involved with the project.

This mapping project will act as a springboard to launch Wellfleet into the development of various GPS/GIS related projects and analyses that would be beneficial for various departments, committees, and town administrators.  A GIS workstation has been set up in Town Hall and will be updated with various project data on a regular basis.

Here is a sample of the data and how it will be presented; note that all data are preliminary and subject to further proofing.