Overview of statewide geophysical surveys for ecosystem restoration in Louisiana

Shore & Beach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 102-109
Author(s):  
Syed Khalil ◽  
Beth Forrest ◽  
Mike Lowiec ◽  
Beau Suthard ◽  
Richard Raynie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Barrier Island ◽  
Ecosystem Restoration ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Side Scan Sonar ◽  
Island Restoration ◽  
Geophysical Surveys ◽  
Louisiana Coast ◽  
Almost All

The System Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program (SWAMP) was implemented by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to develop an Adaptive Management Implementation Plan (AMIP). SWAMP ensures that a comprehensive network of coastal data collection/monitoring activities is in place to support the development and implementation of Louisiana’s coastal protection and restoration program. Monitoring of physical terrain is an important parameter of SWAMP. For the first time a systematic approach was adopted to undertake a geophysical (bathymetric, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profile, and magnetometer) survey along more than 5,000 nautical miles (nm) (excluding the 1,559 nm currently being surveyed from west of Terrebonne Bay to Sabine Lake) of track-line in almost all of the bays and lakes from Chandeleur Sound in the east to Terrebonne Bay in the west. This data collection effort complements the regional bathymetric survey undertaken under the Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring (BICM) Program in the adjacent offshore areas. This paper describes how a study of this magnitude was conceptualized, planned, and executed along the entire Louisiana coast. It is important to note that the initial intent was to collect bathymetric data only for numerical modelling for ecosystem restoration and storm surge prediction. Geophysical data were added for oyster identification and delineation. These first-order data also help comprehend the regional subsurface geology essential for sediment exploration to support Louisiana’s marsh and barrier island restoration projects.

Coastal monitoring and data management for restoration in Louisiana

Shore & Beach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 92-101
Author(s):  
Richard Raynie ◽  
Syed Khalil ◽  
Charles Villarrubia ◽  
Ed Haywood
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Data Management ◽  
Management System ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Document Retrieval ◽  
Information Management System ◽  
System Level ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Coastal Louisiana

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) of Louisiana was created after the devastating hurricanes of 2005 (Katrina and Rita) and is responsible for planning and implementing projects that will either reduce storm-induced losses (protection) or restore coastal ecosystems that have been lost or are in danger of being lost (restoration). The first task of the CPRA board was to develop Louisiana’s first Coastal Master Plan (CPRA 2007), which formally integrates and guides the protection and restoration of Louisiana’s coast. The System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program (SWAMP) was subsequently developed as a long-term monitoring program to ensure that a comprehensive network of coastal data collection activities is in place to support the planning, development, implementation, and adaptive management of the protection and restoration program and projects within coastal Louisiana. SWAMP includes both natural-system and human-system components and also incorporates the previously-developed Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS), the Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring (BICM) program, and fisheries data collected by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) in addition to other aspects of system dynamics, including offshore and inland water-body boundary conditions, water quality, risk status, and protection performance, which have historically not been the subject of CPRA-coordinated monitoring. This program further facilitates the integration of project-specific data needs into a larger, system-level design framework. Monitoring and operation of restoration and protection projects will be nested within a larger hydrologic basin-wide and coast-wide SWAMP framework and will allow informed decisions to be made with an understanding of system conditions and dynamics at multiple scales. This paper also provides an update on the implementation of various components of SWAMP in Coastal Louisiana, which began as a Barataria Basin pilot implementation program in 2015. During 2017, the second phase of SWAMP was initiated in the areas east of the Mississippi River. In 2019, development of SWAMP design was completed for the remaining basins in coastal Louisiana west of Bayou Lafourche (Figure 1). Data collection is important to inform decisions, however if the data are not properly managed or are not discoverable, they are of limited use. CPRA is committed to ensuring that information is organized and publicly available to help all coastal stakeholders make informed, science-based decisions. As a part of this effort, CPRA has re-engineered its data management system to include spatial viewers, tabular download web pages, and a library/document retrieval system along with a suite of public-facing web services providing programmatic access. This system is collectively called the Coastal Information Management System (CIMS). CPRA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are also developing a proposal to create an interface for CIMS data to be exported to a neutral template that could then be ingested into NOAA’s Data Integration Visualization, Exploration and Reporting (DIVER) repository, and vice versa. DIVER is the repository that the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) program is using to manage NRDA-funded project data throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Linking CIMS and DIVER will make it easier to aggregate data across Gulf states and look at larger, ecosystem-level changes.

Restoring barrier habitat in Louisiana to compensate for natural resource injuries: Shell Island and Chenier Ronquille Barrier Restoration Projects

Shore & Beach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 65-71
Author(s):  
Whitney Thompson ◽  
Christopher Paul ◽  
John Darnall
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Barrier Island ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Restoration Project ◽  
Island Restoration ◽  
Barataria Basin ◽  
Outer Coast

Coastal Louisiana received significant funds tied to BP penalties as a result of the Deepwater Horizon incident. As it is widely considered that the State of Louisiana sustained most of the damage due to this incident, there has been a firm push to waste no time in implementing habitat restoration projects. Sustaining the land on the coast of Louisiana is vital to our nation’s economy, as several of the nation’s largest ports are located on the Gulf coast in Louisiana. In addition, the ecosystems making up the Louisiana coast are important to sustain some of the largest and most valuable fisheries in the nation. Funded by BP Phase 3 Early Restoration, the goals of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Outer Coast Restoration Project are to restore beach, dune, and marsh habitats to help compensate spill-related injuries to habitats and species, specifically brown pelicans, terns, skimmers, and gulls. Four island components in Louisiana were funded under this project; Shell Island Barrier Restoration, Chenier Ronquille Barrier Island Restoration, Caillou Lake Headlands Barrier Island Restoration, and North Breton Island Restoration (https://www. gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/louisiana-outer-coast-restoration, NOAA 2018). Shell Island and Chenier Ronquille are critical pieces of barrier shoreline within the Barataria Basin in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. These large-scale restoration projects were completed in the years following the Deepwater Horizon incident, creating new habitat and reinforcing Louisiana’s Gulf of Mexico shoreline. The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) finished construction of the Shell Island NRDA Restoration Project in 2017, which restored two barrier islands in Plaquemines Parish utilizing sand hydraulically dredged from the Mississippi River and pumped via pipeline over 20 miles over levees and through towns, marinas, and marshes to the coastline. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) also completed the Plaquemines Parish barrier island restoration at Chenier Ronquille in 2017 utilizing nearshore Gulf of Mexico sediment, restoring wetland, coastal, and nearshore habitat in the Barataria Basin. A design and construction overview is provided herein.

scholarly journals PREDICTING THE EVOLUTION OF COASTAL LOUISIANA’S BARRIER ISLANDS

2018 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Michael Poff ◽  
Vadim Alymov
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Barrier Island ◽  
Barrier Islands ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Storm Events ◽  
Island Restoration ◽  
Modeling Approaches ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
And Migration

The Louisiana barrier islands are one of the outcomes of the Mississippi River outlet changing over the past several thousand years. It is the natural shifts in the river channel alignment interacting with the combination of anthropogenic impacts, sediment transport, and significant storm events that drive barrier island formation and subsequent erosion and migration. Predicting the evolution of Louisiana’s barrier islands is a critical component of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) program for restoring and sustaining their barrier islands. Both empirical and numerical modeling approaches, as well as hybrid modeling approaches, have been utilized for predicting morphologic changes over time. These predictions have been employed for the development of single-island restoration projects, and for the long-term basin-scale modeling completed for the 2017 Coastal Master Plan (CPRA, 2017) for which Coastal Engineering Consultants served on the barrier island modeling team.

Turning a tragedy into large-scale barrier island restoration in Louisiana: A three-project case study

Shore & Beach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 58-64
Author(s):  
Steve Dartez ◽  
Brett Borne ◽  
Michael Poff
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Barrier Island ◽  
Average Density ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Environmental Benefit ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Island Restoration ◽  
Dune Restoration

Louisiana has successfully utilized the proceeds from the fines imposed for the Deepwater Horizon incident to significantly jump start barrier island restoration as identified in the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) of Louisiana Coastal Master Plan (CPRA 2017). The Riverine Sand Mining/ Scofield Island Restoration (BA-40) project was the first to be implemented through a commitment of remaining funds in the initial emergency protective berms’ construction budget formulated into the Berms to Barrier Islands plan. The berm/ restoration conversion at Scofield Island was the first to utilize this funding mechanism. The Caminada Headland Beach and Dune Restoration–Increment II (BA-143) project was funded through the National Fish and Wildlife (NFWF) Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund and capitalized on a prior project constructed to the west completing the beach and dune restoration of the entire headland. Lastly, the Caillou Lake Headlands Restoration (TE-100) project was funded through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA). The TE-100 project restored the entire degraded beach and dune system backed by a created marsh habitat to complement a prior restoration effort. Scofield Island is located west of the active Mississippi River bird’s foot delta in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. A primary objective of this project was the excavation and delivery of Mississippi riverine sand for beach and dune restoration; a first in our nation’s history. Multiple design and construction challenges arose requiring the CPRA, consulting team, and construction contractor to adapt. Construction of the beach and dune component of this project required approximately 22 miles (mi) of pipeline and four booster pumps along a sediment pipeline corridor that crossed two hurricane protection levees, went underneath two highways and a navigation channel, traversed the Empire Waterway, crossed Pelican Island, entered the Gulf of Mexico, and extended to Scofield Island. The restoration footprint length was approximately 2.4 mi, total volume placed was approximately 3.5 million cubic yards (MCY), and the benefit equaled 510 restored acres (CEC 2014). The pipeline corridor has subsequently been utilized for two other restoration projects, Shell Island East Berm Barrier Island Restoration (BA-110) and Shell Island West NRDA Restoration (BA-111). As a first in Louisiana’s restoration history, the Caminada Headland Beach and Dune Restoration–Increments I and II (BA-45 and BA-143) utilized sand dredged from Ship Shoal, an Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) sand resource located approximately 26-38 mi from the restoration areas. The 13.3 mi long headland was restored with approximately 3.7 MCY for BA-45 and 5.5 MCY for BA-143 from the borrow area (CEC 2015 and CEC 2017). A combination of cutterhead dredge/scow barges and hopper dredges were used to construct the project. A key goal of this project was restoring and protecting the fragile ecosystem which provides critical habitat for nesting shorebirds. The headland is of critical importance in serving as a defense of our national energy infrastructure. The western portion of the headland directly protects Port Fourchon, one of the nation’s most important energy ports. Caillou Lake Headlands (TE-100), known locally as Whiskey Island, is centrally located in the Isle Dernieres chain and it is a remnant of the single, larger Isle Dernieres (Last Island), which was segmented into multiple smaller islands by a major hurricane in 1856. The project included restoring the beach and dune along approximately 4.5 mi while simultaneously creating a marsh platform along approximately 5,500 feet (ft) utilizing 10.4 MCY of sand from the borrow area (CEC 2018). The borrow area lies within Ship Shoal OCS Lease Block 88 located over 10 mi along the conveyance corridor offshore of Whiskey Island. This project represents the largest barrier island restoration project to date in terms of volume per linear foot of shoreline with an average density of over 441 cubic yards per linear foot (CEC 2018).

scholarly journals LONG-TERM SUBSIDENCE OF BEACH NOURISHMENT AND DUNE RESTORATION IN CAMINADA HEADLANDS, COASTAL LOUISIANA

2018 ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Navid H. Jafari ◽  
Brian D. Harris ◽  
Timothy D. Stark
Keyword(s):  
Wind Waves ◽  
Barrier Island ◽  
Barrier Islands ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Inland Bays ◽  
Island Restoration ◽  
Coastal Barrier ◽  
Geotechnical Investigations ◽  
Sediment Consolidation

Coastal barrier islands are the first line of defense for protecting wetlands, inland bays, and mainland regions from direct effects of wind, waves, and storms. Rosati (2006) indicate that 20 to 40% of the total sand volume can be sequestered and lost from the sandy barrier island through consolidation. As a result, predicting long-term subsurface sediment consolidation is integral to determining the ability of barrier islands to provide coastal protection and resilience to future hazards, such as relative sea level rise, sediment erosion, and hurricanes. This study uses the Caminada Headlands geotechnical investigations and monitoring data to determine empirical correlations for deltaic sediment compressibility and develop a validated and calibrated consolidation and subsidence numerical model for future barrier island restoration projects. With this calibrated model, differential settlements associated with sand fill placement can be estimated to design placement elevations to maintain post-construction topography for ecological habitat and restoration requirements and can be used for future beach restoration projects along barrier island shorelines.

INVESTIGATING BARRIER ISLAND EVOLUTION THROUGH SEDIMENT CORE ANALYSIS AND GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Tuttle ◽  
◽  
Cassie Mohkami ◽  
Phillipe A. Wernette ◽  
Chris Houser
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Core ◽  
Barrier Island ◽  
Core Analysis ◽  
Island Evolution ◽  
Geophysical Surveys

Homicide in Australia 2017-18

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Bricknell
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Homicide Rate ◽  
Intimate Partner Homicide ◽  
Australian Capital Territory ◽  
National Data ◽  
Australian Capital ◽  
Australian State

The National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) is Australia’s only national data collection on homicide incidents, victims and offenders. This report describes the 196 homicide incidents recorded by Australian state and territory police (except Australian Capital Territory) between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018. During this 12-month period there were 202 victims of homicide and 213 identified offenders. All but two incidents involved a single victim and offender and three-quarters of homicide victims knew the offender. The intimate partner homicide rate for women was 0.33 per 100,000, the lowest rate recorded since the commencement of the NHMP in 1989–90.

scholarly journals Remote Sensing Is Changing Our View of the Coast: Insights from 40 Years of Monitoring at Narrabeen-Collaroy, Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Splinter ◽  
Mitchell Harley ◽  
Ian Turner
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Data Collection Program ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Collection Program

Narrabeen-Collaroy Beach, located on the Northern Beaches of Sydney along the Pacific coast of southeast Australia, is one of the longest continuously monitored beaches in the world. This paper provides an overview of the evolution and international scientific impact of this long-term beach monitoring program, from its humble beginnings over 40 years ago using the rod and tape measure Emery field survey method; to today, where the application of remote sensing data collection including drones, satellites and crowd-sourced smartphone images, are now core aspects of this continuing and much expanded monitoring effort. Commenced in 1976, surveying at this beach for the first 30 years focused on in-situ methods, whereby the growing database of monthly beach profile surveys informed the coastal science community about fundamental processes such as beach state evolution and the role of cross-shore and alongshore sediment transport in embayment morphodynamics. In the mid-2000s, continuous (hourly) video-based monitoring was the first application of routine remote sensing at the site, providing much greater spatial and temporal resolution over the traditional monthly surveys. This implementation of video as the first of a now rapidly expanding range of remote sensing tools and techniques also facilitated much wider access by the international research community to the continuing data collection program at Narrabeen-Collaroy. In the past decade the video-based data streams have formed the basis of deeper understanding into storm to multi-year response of the shoreline to changing wave conditions and also contributed to progress in the understanding of estuary entrance dynamics. More recently, ‘opportunistic’ remote sensing platforms such as surf cameras and smartphones have also been used for image-based shoreline data collection. Commencing in 2011, a significant new focus for the Narrabeen-Collaroy monitoring program shifted to include airborne lidar (and later Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)), in an enhanced effort to quantify the morphological impacts of individual storm events, understand key drivers of erosion, and the placing of these observations within their broader regional context. A fixed continuous scanning lidar installed in 2014 again improved the spatial and temporal resolution of the remote-sensed data collection, providing new insight into swash dynamics and the often-overlooked processes of post-storm beach recovery. The use of satellite data that is now readily available to all coastal researchers via Google Earth Engine continues to expand the routine data collection program and provide key insight into multi-decadal shoreline variability. As new and expanding remote sensing technologies continue to emerge, a key lesson from the long-term monitoring at Narrabeen-Collaroy is the importance of a regular re-evaluation of what data is most needed to progress the science.

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