Estuarine Shoreline Change Research Project

Overview:

Coastal wetlands serve as buffer zones between marine and terrestrial environments that protect upland environments and inland communities from waves, storms, sea level rise, and episodic flooding. Wetlands also provide habitat for commercially and ecologically important species, are an important component of global carbon budgets and are popular destinations for recreational activities like hunting, fishing, and hiking. Many coastal wetlands are in ecologically and economically important estuaries and are at severe risk to habitat loss from increasing urbanization, climate change, sea level rise, and storms.

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As sea level rises, coastal wetlands can maintain area by accreting vertically by accumulating sediment or organic matter resulting in elevation gain and/or migrating horizontally toward the upland by converting upland forests to wetlands (also known as upland transgression). Shoreline change, also called the linear regression rate (LRR), is calculated using the slope of the linear trend between three or more shoreline positions over time. Shoreline change rates can be used for evaluating living shoreline resources, decision-making for future resource planning, and restoration planning for both protected and open-ocean shorelines. Shoreline change rates, upland transgression, and vertical accretion are critical components for long-term marsh development and evaluating whether wetland habitats will persist under rising sea level or result in habitat loss. In addition, tropical storms impact coastal wetlands by changing the rate of shoreline erosion and vertical accretion. Evaluating both short- and long-term coastal hazards are critical steps in the coastal management and planning process.

In the past, shoreline change research has focused primarily on sandy beach shorelines, however understanding wetland shoreline change is equally as important due the diverse estuarine habitats at risk from habitat loss and expanding coastal communities under increasing threat from sea level rise and storms. This information can also be used for making decisions regarding living shoreline projects, protected species habitat management, land-use planning, and coastal restoration. For more information on the importance of, and the methodology used to study shoreline change, see the USGS National Shoreline Change geonarrative.

Project tasks:

1. Derive shorelines from historical and modern sources with a focus on estuarine and wetland shorelines. Sources for shorelines include:

• Topographic sheets (t-sheets)
• Aerial imagery
• Satellite imagery
• Light detection and ranging (LIDAR)
• Field derived global positioning system (GPS) data

2. Calculate shoreline change rates
3. Develop novel remote sensing techniques to map wetland and estuarine shoreline position

Explore the diverse array of CCH projects:  

• Coastal Climate Impacts 
• Geologic Mapping 
• Coastal National Elevation Database Applications Project 
• Coastal Alaska Processes and Hazards 
• Estuarine Processes, Hazards, and Ecosystems 
• Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound 2.0 
• Biogeochemical Drivers of Wetland Persistence and Feedbacks on Coastal Hazards 
• Sediment Transport Coastal Environments 
• Sea-Level Rise Hazards and Decision Support 
• Coastal Sediment Availability and Flux Project 
• National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards 
• Coastal Model Applications and Field Measurements 
• Estuarine and Marsh Geology Research Project 
• Past, Present, and Future Coral Reefs 
• Cross-Shore and Inlets Processes Project 
• Remote Sensing Coastal Change 
• Geologic and Morphologic Evolution of Coastal Margins  
• Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring