Abstract
As living shorelines become more well-known as an alternative to shoreline armoring, the need to explain the benefits of and what living shorelines are is replaced by questions about design, permitting, and costs. To answer these questions, the Green Infrastructure Working Group (GIWG) – a sub-group of the Gulf of Mexico Climate & Resilience Community of Practice – gathered 34 environmental professionals from across the five Gulf States. Quickly, it became evident that rather than creating a new living shoreline resource, it would be more productive to gather the already existing resources in one place. The GIWG compiled these resources into an extensive repository. Next, the repository was divided into topic areas and presented at a series of workshops across the five states. At these workshops, end-users were able to give input on missing information, draft formatting, and more. Following the workshops, five state-specific living shoreline resource catalogs were created for Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Because these resource catalogs are somewhat technical, the GIWG also created audience-specific, living shoreline two-pagers and videos. The two-pagers include frequently asked questions with answers and links to resources for more information. The short videos feature descriptions of living shorelines, testimonials from end-users, and descriptions of the state-specific living shoreline catalogs. These three resources can be used by a variety of audiences and serve as a one-stop shop for living shoreline information, reducing the need to scour the internet for resources and instead jump into exploring them. The state-specific living shoreline resource catalogs, audience-specific living shoreline two-pagers, and the three audience-specific videos can all be found at www.GulfLivingShorelines.com.
