Gulf of Mexico Alliance Supplemental PIT Project Funding Opportunity

Transcription

1 Gulf of Mexico Alliance Supplemental PIT Project Funding Opportunity PIT: Ecosystems Integration and Assessment Coordinator: Cristina Carollo, Harte Research Institute State Lead: Larry McKinney, Harte Research Institute Project Collaborators: Chris Boyd, Associate Extension Professor of Environmental Ecology, Mississippi State University (Lead PI) and Stephen Jones, Geological Survey of Alabama Project Name: Living shoreline site suitability modeling for Mobile Bay: A GIS & remote sensing based approach Project Location: Mobile and Baldwin County, Alabama APII Objective: The living shoreline site suitability model and interactive mapping interface will provide ecosystem decision support tools to address priority issues within the Gulf by acquiring new and existing data sets as well as promote living marine resources, each are long term goal of the Ecosystem Integration and Assessment priority issue team (PIT). The model will be used by resource managers and Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) partners to make improved restoration decisions for shoreline erosion protection in Mobile Bay; the model can later be modified for other areas of the Gulf of Mexico. This suitability model has direct application to the actions of concern of other PIT s such as Habitat Conservation and Restoration (address issues impeding habitat conservation and restoration), Environmental Education (promote public awareness and better stewardship of shoreline ecosystems), and Coastal Community Resilience (assessing the natural and built environments to better manage our shorelines and support ecosystem friendly alternatives to shore protection. Project Duration: January 1, 2014 December 31, 2014 Total Estimated Costs: $50,744 1

2 Introduction The current trend in Alabama is to install hard structures, such as bulkheads, seawalls, or rip rap, on the shoreline to protect waterfront coastal property from erosion. Around Mobile Bay, more than 38% of property owners have built some sort of hard structure for shoreline protection (Jones and Tidwell, 2012), and 31% of the state s coastal shoreline has been armored as of At the current rate of shoreline armoring, greater than 45% of Mobile Bay could be armored by Other coastal areas in the state are experiencing similar rates of armoring, with 62% of Bayou St. John and 56% of Arnica Bay, both in Baldwin County, currently armored. Many state natural resource agencies have recommended alternative shoreline protection measures, such as living shorelines, to effectively reduce shoreline erosion in low to moderate wave environments while incurring less environmental damage than bulkheads. The United States Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District created and approved a Living Shorelines General Permit in 2011 in Alabama and in 2013 Mississippi approved a similar general permit. The general permit is used to speed up the review process for shoreline protection and enhancement projects. This is a large step in helping to promote the use of alternative shoreline protection structures. Approximately 15 miles or 1.8% of Alabama s tidal shoreline has been armored using living shorelines while 223 miles or 27.1% have used hard structures. While hard structures may be more suitable in high erosional setting other more natural structures such as living shorelines could be used in low to moderate wave energy environments. There have been several large scaled living shoreline projects in Alabama installed since 1998 mainly in undeveloped natural areas, but very few homeowners or communities have installed these types of projects. Based on discussions from the greater Gulf of Mexico scientific community more outreach material and tools need to be created; in order, to promote alternative shoreline protection options. The creation of a living shoreline site suitability model would serve as a valuable tool to help water front property owners, coastal engineers, researchers, and resource managers with project design and site selection for future shoreline protection or restoration projects. A living shorelines site suitability model was created for 3 counties in Maryland in 2008 and 2009 (Berman and Rudnicky, 2008, 2009a, 2009b) and the model is currently being improved by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. A similar model should be created for Mobile Bay, Alabama to assist local governments with shoreline management issues. The model could be modified by other GOMA state resource managers to create a similar suitability model for other regions of the Gulf. The geospatial model will display areas of Mobile Bay including the bay, tidal streams, tributaries, bayous, and other inlets that are most suitable for living shoreline treatments. The treatments will consist of soft stabilization such as vegetation, hybrid treatments that involve the use of breakwaters or wave attenuation devices and vegetation planting, or other natural options that do not sever the land water connection that alter coastal processes. In addition, an interactive mapping interface will be produced where the user can zoom into a particular shoreline region to determine their shoreline protection options. Due to the increased interest of living shoreline installation in place of hard shoreline armoring practices, this semi quantitative approach in Living Shoreline siting will produce guidance that illustrates Living Shoreline suitability. The model will assist as an advisory tool for regulators. The primary emphasis of this product is to help coastal managers maintain and maximize ecosystem services as erosion control projects are installed. This effort specifically targets several GOMA Action Plan II priority areas by addressing specific projects/activities that will deliver significant results to achieve the environmental outcomes of improved water quality for healthy beaches and shellfish beds; habitat conservation and restoration; increased awareness/stewardship of the Gulf of Mexico; ecosystems integration and assessment; and coastal community resilience. The practice of Living Shoreline 2

3 construction leads to enhanced water quality, promotes the optional resilience for shoreline erosion, and creates and enhances ecosystems and habitats essential for fisheries. Goals and Objectives The primary goal of this project is the creation of a living shorelines suitability model and an interactive mapping interface to serve as an advisory tool for determining the most environmental and structurally sound erosion control measure for Mobile Bay in order to maximize ecosystem services. In order to accomplish this goal the following objectives must be accomplished: 1. Acquire existing model data and create new data to fill missing data gaps. 2. Create GIS shape files. 3. Produce a living shoreline suitability model. 4. Display product using an interactive mapping interface and place data and metadata into GOMAportal to be used by all coastal stakeholders. Methodology This study focuses on creating living shoreline site suitability index maps using geospatial technology (GIS, remote sensing) for Mobile Bay and inlets. The research in this study will use a weighted suitability model to identify and locate suitable areas to install living shorelines. Site suitability assessment is a multi criteria problem. The following thematic layers to be incorporated into the model include, but are not limited to, sediment/substrate types, fetch, shoreline armoring, marsh presence, beach presence, bank height, land use, rate of erosion, bathymetry, bank stability, and canopy cover. A preference value (rank) will be assigned to each variable based on a common preference scale. The values of each layer will be reclassified in a relative scale. A weight will be assigned based on the importance of each data layer. The assigned weight will be relative to each other within and among the data layers. A rasterbased deterministic model will be created for the research and the model will manipulate several variables in a cell by cell analysis. The model returns suitability on a scale of 0 3, where 0 = being not suitable, 1 = suitable, 2 = good, 3 = optimum. The model will be created in a GIS platform which will predict preferable locations for living shoreline installation. Where living shorelines are determined to be the preferable erosion control method for a selected shoreline segment the type of treatment will be displayed on the GIS map as soft or hybrid option. Soft options could include but are not limited to enhanced riparian zone/marsh buffer, vegetative planting, coir logs, or beach nourishment and hybrid options would include planted marsh with offshore breakwater, offshore breakwater with beach nourishment, or other options that will be determined based on coastal engineering principals. These options will be determined using a decision tree matrix that will be part of the model builder. Ground truth data will be used to validate the site suitability index at selected locations within the mapping area. An error matrix will then be developed to determine the accuracy of the model by using the ground truth data to determine if field conditions at those locations agree with the conditions predicted by the GIS model. The project deliverable will be descriptive maps of areas where living shorelines would be a preferable erosion control option for installation and a web based interactive mapping interface to expand project findings. The web based mapping interface will be housed and maintained on the Geological Survey of Alabama server. In addition the geospatial data and metadata will be stored in the GOMAportal where end users can discover and use the data. Several GIS thematic layers have been developed which inadvertently support the implementation and success of this specific project and reduce money that would normally be required to create the needed input themes. Based on the availability and usefulness of recent historical orthophotography, recent 3

4 modeling has quantified erosion and accretion rates in Mobile Bay. In addition, a high resolution database was developed to convey site specific shoreline protection and type. The anticipated areas for further GIS development needed for suitability modeling include fetch, bank height, and bank condition. Orthophotography or other remotely sensed data will be used to determine canopy cover. The use of LiDAR data and GIS GPS based rapid field assessment techniques will be used to address any missing field specific data layers or coverage gaps. The model builder functionality available in ESRI s ArcInfo 9 (or 10)x platform will be utilized to create the model site suitability tool. The exemplification of this suitability model in the Gulf of Mexico region, specifically within an area representing an array of geomorphological and hydrodynamic regimes will prove beneficial across the Gulf region. The model will be created for Mobile Bay but the model will be shared with other Gulf GIS specialists that can create models for other states. There is a critical need for a product of this nature to address GOMA action items; such as, address issues impeding habitat conservation and restoration, promoting living marine resources, promote public awareness and better shoreline ecosystems, and assessing the natural and built environments to better manage our shorelines and support ecosystemfriendly alternatives to shore protection. Project Cost Salary: $17,678 Fringe: $6,855 Travel: $2,530 Supplies: $2,000 Equipment: $2,300 Contractual: $14,768 Indirect: $4,613 Total: $50,744 Salary. $9,846 is requested to pay a total of 1.5 month s salary for Dr. Chris Boyd at $6,564/month. These funds will support Dr. Boyd to collect needed data, create living shoreline treatment decision tree for model builder, ensure that model treatment outputs are scientifically valid and feasible based on coastal engineering principals, and oversee the project. Funds are requested to pay for a Mississippi State University doctoral student to help create the model builder at $1,958 for 4 months to total $7,832. The student will work directly with the project team to incorporate data into the model builder, determine if data is essential and accurate, and create missing shoreline geospatial data. Total salary requested is $17,678. Fringe Benefits. Dr. Boyd will be charging a 36.04% fringe rate ($3,548) and the MSU doctoral student will be charging a 0.9% fringe rate ($71) plus $738/month tuition for 4 months ($2,952) plus 4 months insurance at $71/month ($284) to total $6,855. Travel. Funds are requested by Dr. Boyd to support travel to collect data with the Alabama Geological Survey in Mobile and Baldwin County, Alabama and to ground truth the data for 5 trips to coastal Alabama ($353) and by the Mississippi State University graduate student to collect data from Starkville, Mississippi to coastal Alabama once ($725) and to work directly with the Alabama Geological Survey at their Tuscaloosa, Alabama office at ($1,452) to total $2,530. Supplies. $2,000 is requested to purchase software and essential data. 4

5 Equipment. A computer capable of storing and modeling large amounts of geospatial vector and raster data is requested to be purchased for the graduate student to create model and data portal project ($2,300). Contractual. Funds are requested to pay for the Geological Survey of Alabama to provide support to Mississippi State in the area of geospatial theme development. Themes to be updated, constructed, or verified could include sediment/substrate types, fetch, shoreline armoring, marsh presence, beach presence, bank height, land use, rate of erosion or bank condition, and bathymetry. It is anticipated that bank condition and shoreline type will involve in field development. The Geological Survey of Alabama will provide supporting themes and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) compliant metadata records to Mississippi State University. They are charging for 5 days of contract work to address project field concerns and 15 days of time for in house work. This work would include GIS development, working with graduate student, and co authoring. The total requested is $14,768. Indirect. 10% on campus, public service rate ($4,613). Total Funds Requested. $50,744 Complementary Projects This product will be accessible in multiple GIS formats stored on the Geological Survey of Alabama s website and will also be added to GOMAportal.org. This will allow it to be viewed while opening other GIS data sets to allow for biotic and physical data comparisons. In addition the data will be made available to the NOAA Data Atlas further promoting discovery and dissemination to end users. The living shoreline suitability model would also be a very useful tool to support future siting of the many restoration projects that will be funded in the Gulf of Mexico with the dissemination of NRDA funds resulting from BP oil spill restoration funding and RESTORE Act funds. Funds have already been allocated for construction of a 1.6 mile LS oyster breakwater in Baldwin County, Alabama costing an estimated $5,000,000 and 6 miles of LS in Hancock County, Mississippi to protect 46 acres of eroding marsh costing an estimated $50,000,000. References Jones, S. C., and D. K. Tidwell Comprehensive Shoreline Mapping, Baldwin and Mobile Counties, Alabama: Phase III. Open File Report 1204, Geological Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Berman, M., and T. Rudnicky Living Shoreline Suitability Model Worcester County, Maryland. Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Annapolis, Maryland. Berman, M., and T. Rudnicky. 2009a. Living Shoreline Suitability Model Somerset County, Maryland. Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Annapolis, Maryland. Berman, M., and T. Rudnicky. 2009b. The Living Shoreline Suitability Model Calvert County, Maryland. Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Annapolis, Maryland. 5

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