An Earth's Future Special Collection: Impacts of the coastal dynamics of sea level rise on low‐gradient coastal landscapes

Abstract

Rising sea level represents a significant threat to coastal communities and ecosystems, including altered habitats and increased vulnerability to coastal storms and recurrent inundation. This threat is exemplified in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where low topography, marshes, and a prevalence of tropical storms have resulted in extensive coastal impacts. The ability to facilitate adaptation and mitigation measures relies, in part, on the development of robust predictive capabilities that incorporate complex biological processes with physical dynamics. Initiated in 2010, the 6-year Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise-Northern Gulf of Mexico project applied a transdisciplinary science approach to develop a suite of integrated modeling platforms informed by empirical data that are capable of evaluating a range of climate change scenarios. This special issue highlights resultant integrated models focused on tidal hydrodynamics, shoreline morphology, oyster ecology, coastal wetland vulnerability, and storm surges that demonstrate the need for dynamic models to incorporate feedbacks among physical and biological processes in assessments of sea level rise effects on coastal systems. Effects are projected to be significant, spatially variable and nonlinear relative to sea level rise rates. Scenarios of higher sea level rise rates are projected to exceed thresholds of wetland sustainability, and many regions will experience enhanced storm surges. Influenced by an extensive collaborative stakeholder engagement process, these assessments on the coastal dynamics of sea level rise provide a strong foundation for resilience measures in the northern Gulf of Mexico and a transferable approach for application to other coastal regions throughout the world.

The Impact of Lidar Elevation Uncertainty on Mapping Intertidal Habitats on Barrier Islands

“…617-620). Clearly, a map of intertidal areas developed from untreated DEM would result in a gross underestimation of intertidal wetlands similar to results from other researchers [18,44]. However, both maps with treatment of error could provide reasonable intertidal wetland estimates based on lidar data alone or as an initial step that could be refined via minor manual photointerpretation.…”

Communicating with Coastal Decision-Makers and Environmental Educators via Sea Level Rise Decision-Support Tools

“…This paper reports on stakeholder focus groups conducted as part of a transdisciplinary research project, Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (EESLR-NGOM), to develop the project's communication products (such as "fact sheet" handouts and an informational website), scientific SLR planning models, and other decision-support tools (henceforth referred to as "tools") so they are relevant and readily usable for key regional stakeholders. EESLR-NGOM was a seven-year, United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-sponsored project [DeLorme et al, 2016;Kidwell et al, 2017] involving detailed assessments and process-based modeling to project the dynamic response of ecological habitats [Alizad et al, 2016], and future tide and hurricane storm surge and flooding potential under SLR scenarios along the northern U.S. Gulf [Bilskie et al, 2016;Passeri et al, 2016]. The focus groups were instrumental in fostering an atmosphere of dialogue that helped us understand the needs of stakeholders for information format, features, and functionality in order to better tailor communication towards these target audiences.…”

Advancing barrier island habitat mapping using landscape position information

“…Storms can shape dune morphology (Sallenger, 2000); thus, extreme water levels associated with storms can serve as a reasonable dune elevation threshold. Researchers recommend that vertical uncertainty be considered for coastal studies using lidar data for the automated delineation of elevation-dependent habitats (Buffington et al, 2016; Enwright et al, 2018b; Kidwell et al, 2017; Liu et al, 2007). The vertical uncertainty of lidar in dunes can be impacted by both vegetation cover and slope (Su and Bork, 2006).…”