N.C. area among mapped barrier islands

Government maps of barrier islands that could make the difference between qualifying for federal help after a storm or financial ruin are about to join the modern age of digital technology.

Created in 1982 under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, better known as COBRA, boundaries in the maps delineating non-qualifying areas have been often based on outmoded information and inaccurate data. The confusion only got worse in 1990 when "otherwise protected areas," essentially conservation areas, were added to the system.

A report released this week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides details about a pilot project that has created draft digital maps for 70, or 10 percent, of the total 857 geographic units in the system. Of them, one is located in northeastern North Carolina at the Pine Island sanctuary north of Duck that is owned by the National Audubon Society.

The proposal would add 21.7 acres to the existing 7,174.4-acre unit that straddles Dare and Currituck counties along the Currituck Sound.

The report said that the proposed Pine Island Bay map would also remove 7.4 acres in an effort to align with recent digital parcel data and more precisely follow sanctuary boundaries.

The COBRA law is intended to discourage development in sensitive areas on barrier islands by making federally funded flood insurance, beach nourishment and storm recovery assistance unavailable, but misaligned map boundaries have at times incorrectly included private property.

Pine Island, in fact, was one of them. When it was established as an OPA in 1990, it inadvertently included a significant amount of publicly and privately owned developed property.

At the direction of Congress, a new map was drawn in 1992 that included National Audubon Society land, as well as the aquatic habitat of Pine Island Bay and Goat Island Bay. Audubon also requested that it be redesignated as a COBRA area.

Even then, the boundaries of the sanctuary in the new map still included privately owned developed property, according to language in a bill passed in 2000 that finally corrected the map.

There was a similar situation on a larger scale in Cape Hatteras National Seashore in 1998 that helped fuel the effort to first update and digitize the COBRA and OPA maps, said Steve Kalaf, manager of special mapping services with Fairfax, Va., consulting firm Dewberry.

"We addressed that unit sort of as a precursor of the methodology we're using today," Kalaf said during a teleconference this week.

About 100 homes on Hatteras Island had been improperly included in an OPA, he said.

Development is permitted within that designation, but National Flood Insurance is not available. Eventually, Congress passed a bill to correct the Hatteras Island map.

Remapping that includes advances in aerial photography and geographic imaging system technology will enhance the accuracy of the maps, and in turn the credibility of the program.

"Bottom line is," Kalaf said, "this is a strong program with weak maps."

A total of 3.1 million acres of mostly undeveloped coastal barriers along the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands coasts constitute the COBRA system.

Katie Niemi, coastal barriers coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the pilot project is the first part of the estimated $17 million systemwide digitalization. So far, no other projects are scheduled.

"We're modernizing maps as resources are made available for this effort," she said.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com