The Coastal Assessment Framework (CAF) is a digital spatial framework developed using geographic information system technology, which allows resource managers and analysts to organize and present information on the nation's coastal and marine resources. The CAF provides a consistently derived, watershed-based digital spatial framework for managers and analysts to organize and present information on the nation's coastal, near-ocean, and Great Lakes' resources. Within NOAA, it is the cornerstone of a series of ongoing efforts to develop a national estuarine assessment capability. The Framework is composed of 150 Estuarine (and sub-estuarine) Drainage Areas (EDAs), 54 Fluvial Drainage Areas (FDAs), 324 Coastal Drainage Areas (CDAs), 12 Fluvial components of Coastal Drainage Areas (FCDAs), 11 interior watershed areas (self-contained, groundwater-contributing only, or watersheds draining to outside the U.S.). The CAF encompasses 100 percent of the land area within the coterminous United States of America.
This geography contains the land portions of the Coastal Assessment Framework's 150 Estuarine (and sub-estuarine) Drainage Areas (EDAs) and 324 Coastal Drainage Areas (CDAs).