GoMRC Project Team

The Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaborative (GoMRC) is a technical partnership of Battelle, The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Oregon State University, and regional coalitions dedicated to coastal resource management issues. Together these institutions bring strong expertise in coastal and marine sciences, information technology, and earth observation systems, as well as experience with regional-scale collaborations that address critical resource management challenges.

The project team builds on the work of state and federal agencies, NGOs, and academic institutions throughout the Gulf region. GoMRC has worked closely with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance member organizations and the EPA Gulf of Mexico Program to ensure a broad understanding of resource management issues, information availability and information needs. The GoMRC team has also partnered with researchers and coastal managers in Mexico to support the application of the GoMRC tools to decision-making in the states Veracruz and Campeche. This collaboration was led by the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL), and included Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), Centro EPOMEX of the Universidad Autónoma de Campeche, Parque Nacional Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano of the Comisión Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas, Veracruz Aquarium, Veracruz State government, Campeche State government, Universidad Veracruzana, Instituto Oceanográfico del Golfo y Mar Caribe of the Mexican Navy, and ECOSUR.

Project Sponsors

Initial funding for GoMRC was provided by the NASA Applied Sciences program and from NASA Stennis Space Center. Additional support was provided by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) through the NASA Infomart program.

End User Advisory Committee

To ensure that the GoMRC system and tools are aligned with what decision makers need, an End User Advisory Committee was formed to provide input on user requirements, to provide linkages to existing programs and data sources, and to review the GoMRC system at each step in its development.

Advisory committee members come from federal, state, and local agencies, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and private industry, and span the U.S. and Mexico. The following organizations are represented on the GoMRC End User Advisory Committee:

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
Mississippi Department of Marine Resources
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
State of Veracruz, Mexico
U.S. NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center
U.S. EPA Gulf of Mexico Program
Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program
Mobile Bay National Estuary Program
Houston Advanced Research Center
Mississippi State University / Northern Gulf Institute
National Ecology Institute (INE)
The Nature Conservancy
Coastal Environments, Inc.
Shell Oil Company