Mapping the Way Forward: Spatial Data Inventory and Insights for Coastal and Marine Planning in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; Workshop Summary, 14-15 January 2025, New Orleans, Louisiana: NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 360

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), convened a coastal and marine spatial planning workshop in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 14th and 15th, 2025. This technical memorandum summarizes the outputs of this workshop. NCCOS, NREL, DOE and BOEM are building spatial planning capacity in the Gulf of America (formerly Gulf of Mexico) region of the United States (U.S.). Coastal and marine spatial planning holds great promise to assist coastal managers, Tribes, environmental organizations, and industry with planning for future development of the blue economy, including for prospects like offshore wind energy (OSW) and associated development related to transmission planning. This workshop represents one in a series of data development collaborations that have taken place around the nation, from the U.S. Caribbean and Guam, along the Atlantic Seaboard, and now in the Gulf of America. Moreover, future workshops are pending in other regions that, like this event, will foster sustained community engagement as the blue economy evolves. The workshop results add to a greater body of work that is, over time, increasing coastal ocean intelligence around the nation.