Louisiana's 2012 Coastal Master Plan: Overview of a Science-Based and Publicly Informed Decision-Making Process

Peyronnin, Natalie; Green, Mandy; Richards, Carol Parsons; Owens, Alaina; Reed, Denise J.; Chamberlain, J.R.; Groves, David G.; Rhinehart, William K.; Belhadjali, Karim

doi:10.2112/si_67_1.1

Cited by 109 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(10 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the New Orleans metropolitan area, interpolated rates from EBK are similar to the observations from Dixon et al [15,25,36]. In the Mississippi River Delta around Plaquemines parish, previous studies [34,35] derived a faster subsidence rate than EBK calculation. In addition to the studies listed in Table 2 [25,[37][38][39], have used the same TR50 benchmark survey data from NGS and obtained similar subsidence estimations at various parts of the study region.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

Evaluating Land Subsidence Rates and Their Implications for Land Loss in the Lower Mississippi River Basin

Zou

Kent

Lam

et al. 2015

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

High subsidence rates, along with eustatic sea-level change, sediment accumulation and shoreline erosion have led to widespread land loss and the deterioration of ecosystem health around the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB). A proper evaluation of the spatial pattern of subsidence rates in the LMRB is the key to understanding the mechanisms of the submergence, estimating its potential impacts on land loss and the long-term sustainability of the region. Based on the subsidence rate data derived from benchmark surveys from 1922 to 1995, this paper constructed a subsidence rate surface for the region through the empirical Bayesian kriging (EBK) interpolation method. The results show that the subsidence rates in the region ranged from 1.7 to 29 mm/year, with an average rate of 9.4 mm/year. Subsidence rates increased from north to south as the outcome of both regional geophysical conditions and anthropogenic activities. Four areas of high subsidence rates were found, and they are located in Orleans, Jefferson, Terrebonne and Plaquemines parishes. A projection of future landscape loss using the interpolated subsidence rates reveals that areas below zero elevation in the LMRB will increase from 3.86% in 2004 to 19.79% in 2030 and 30.88% in 2050. This translates to a growing increase of areas that are vulnerable to land loss from 44.3 km 2 /year to 240.7 km 2 /year from 2011 to 2050. Under the same scenario, Lafourche, Plaquemines and Terrebonne parishes will experience serious loss of wetlands, whereas Orleans and Jefferson parishes will lose significant developed land, and Lafourche parish will endure severe loss of agriculture land.

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

Evaluating Land Subsidence Rates and Their Implications for Land Loss in the Lower Mississippi River Basin

Zou

Kent

Lam

et al. 2015

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our findings suggest that intentional harnessing of positive interactions can increase efficacy of conservation efforts. The yield enhancements generated from incorporating positive species interactions are not trivial, as billions of US dollars will be spent in the near future as coastal defenses shift from ones that are man-made only to ones that integrate protection generated by both natural and engineered systems (59,60). For instance, as part of the Gulf Coast cleanup initiative following the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill and the recent US Restoration Act, considerable effort will likely be undertaken to restore and expand degraded marshes through plantings in mudflat areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitation shifts paradigms and can amplify coastal restoration efforts

Silliman

Schrack

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

220

300

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Restoration has been elevated as an important strategy to reverse the decline of coastal wetlands worldwide. Current practice in restoration science emphasizes minimizing competition between outplanted propagules to maximize planting success. This paradigm persists despite the fact that foundational theory in ecology demonstrates that positive species interactions are key to organism success under high physical stress, such as recolonization of bare substrate. As evidence of how entrenched this restoration paradigm is, our survey of 25 restoration organizations in 14 states in the United States revealed that >95% of these agencies assume minimizing negative interactions (i.e., competition) between outplants will maximize propagule growth. Restoration experiments in both Western and Eastern Atlantic salt marshes demonstrate, however, that a simple change in planting configuration (placing propagules next to, rather than at a distance from, each other) results in harnessing facilitation and increased yields by 107% on average. Thus, small adjustments in restoration design may catalyze untapped positive species interactions, resulting in significantly higher restoration success with no added cost. As positive interactions between organisms commonly occur in coastal ecosystems (especially in more physically stressful areas like uncolonized substrate) and conservation resources are limited, transformation of the coastal restoration paradigm to incorporate facilitation theory may enhance conservation efforts, shoreline defense, and provisioning of ecosystem services such as fisheries production.shoreline defense | facilitation | coastal wetlands | wetland restoration D egradation of coastal ecosystems is occurring worldwide (1).Human-generated threats such as overharvesting, eutrophication, climate change, habitat destruction, and pollution have threatened these valuable ecosystems at local, regional and global scales (2-6). As these threats have intensified and combined, substantial declines in overall habitat coverage have occurred in almost all major coastal ecosystems, including those generated by key habitat-forming foundation species. For example, oyster reefs have declined by at least ∼85% (7), coral reefs by ∼19% (8), seagrasses by ∼29% (9), North American salt marshes by ∼42% (10), and mangroves by ∼35% (1). Because these ecosystems generate some of the richest biodiversity hotspots on Earth (11, 12), and provide critical services for human populations, including storm protection (13), fisheries production (2, 14, 15), and carbon storage (16, 17), conservation resources totaling over 1 billion US dollars have been spent globally in an attempt to halt and reverse the decline of foundation species in the coastal realm (18,19).A number of strategies have been used to conserve coastal ecosystems, including threat reduction, marine protected areas, buffer establishment, and international treaties. Habitat restoration, although in existence for many decades, has only recently been elevated as a global strategy for ...

show abstract

“…This investigation considers the performance of proposed barrier alignments under one plausible future scenario condition 50 years into the future adapted from the 2012 Coastal Master Plan analysis. Specifically, we adopted rates of land subsidence and sea level rise directly from the 2012 Less Optimistic scenario (Peyronnin et al, 2013), with sea level rise totaling 1.47 ft.…”

Section: Converting Data To Clara 20 Grid Point Resolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%