Increased population growth in coastal areas can result in pollution, habitat loss and degradation, overfishing, invasive species, and increased threats due to coastal hazards. Understanding the linkages between land use strategies and their effects on coastal-marine ecosystems is critical to the development of sound land use policies that minimize impacts from population growth and maintain the social, economic, and ecological values of our coasts.
Location:
Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), TX
Traditional methods of creating marine cost layers have included mapping current use by surveys of fishing activities. This includes either mapping catch per unit effort of one industry such as Stewart et al (2003) with rock lobster or mapping current fleet use such as Richardson et al (2006).
Since 2005, the MarineMap Consortium, consisting of scientists and technologists at the University of California Santa Barbara, Ecotrust and The Nature Conservancy, have developed web-based decision support tools for stakeholders to visualize and analyze geospatial information pertaining to the ocean.
The WEAP model is set up to accept physical impact relationships and economic valuation of changes in those relationships. These features are being used to estimate potential values for changes in the ecosystem from changes in water management in an application developed for the Town of Sharon, Massachusetts.
The primary aim of the project was, and is, to assist emergency managers, planners, the public, and others in their efforts to reduce hazard vulnerabilities through awareness and education, hazard mitigation, and comprehensive land-use and development planning.
Florida Antural Areas Inventory (FNAI) has conducted a statewide analysis of natural resource conservation priorities for the Florida Forever program. The Inventory created or compiled GIS data layers for rare species habitat, natural communities, ecological greenways, large landscapes, significant surface waters, natural floodplain, functional wetlands, aquifer recharge, coastal resources, cultural resources, recreation, and sustainable forestry.
The Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Project is a collaborative effort to develop and implement strategies to conserve and restore estuarine habitats in the Elkhorn Slough watershed.
Coastal and estuarine habitats in the Northeast are being significantly impacted by a rapid rate of population growth and an ever-accelerating change in land use composition.
We know that our coastal communities are vulnerable to hazards such as hurricanes, storm surge and flooding. In the future, climate change may make impacts from these hazards even worse.
The San Luis Obispo Science and Ecosystem Alliance (SLOSEA) strives to build an integrated group of scientists, stakeholders, and managers in the Morro Bay Ecosystem, which includes the watershed, estuary, harbor, and coastal ocean.