Marine Sensitivity

Project Documentation

Preface

The Marine Sensitivity Toolkit (MST) is a cloud-native system developed for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to assess the sensitivity of marine ecosystems to offshore energy development. It integrates 9,819 species distribution models with extinction risk assessments across 20 BOEM Program Areas spanning US waters.

Figure 1: Overview of the MST methodology: species distribution models from 7 source datasets are merged, weighted by extinction risk scores (incorporating ESA, MMPA, MBTA, and IUCN protections), rescaled by ecoregion, and aggregated to management zones for visualization.

Interactive Apps

• Composite Scores — explore sensitivity scores across BOEM Program Areas with flower plot summaries
• Species Distribution — view individual species distribution models and habitat suitability maps

This book documents the scientific methodology, software infrastructure, and interactive applications that comprise the MST. It is organized in two parts:

• Science (2  Science) — data sources, taxonomic integration, extinction risk scoring, model merging, and sensitivity scoring methodology
• Software — server architecture, databases, workflows, APIs, R libraries, and interactive applications

How to Cite

Best, B.D. (2026). Marine Sensitivity Toolkit: Project Documentation. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Environmental Studies Program. https://marinesensitivity.org/docs/

Acknowledgments

This work is funded by the BOEM Environmental Studies Program (BOEM-ESP). We thank the data providers whose open datasets make this work possible: AquaMaps, BirdLife International, IUCN Red List, NOAA Fisheries, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.