Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computerized mapping, database and analysis system used at the Reserve to support:

• Research to map eelgrasses, macroalgae, and saltmarsh habitats and changes in the distribution of those habitats over time
• Education through the use of satellite imagery and watershed boundary information to help people understand their impacts on the larger system
• Stewardship, by integrating Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology and GIS to identify, map and keep database information on invasive species, wetland delineation, and human impacts
• Management, in maintaining an up-to-date mapping database of the reserve boundaries, roads, streams, proposed boundaries, surrounding land uses, property ownership/parcels, sampling site locations and other important information to help manage the system as a whole.
• Visiting scientists and graduate research fellows with mapping out sample site locations relative to sediment types, elevation considerations, and proximity to other existing and historical sample sites