Abstract
The Bucktown community in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, has a rich history and culture, starting as a lakefront fishing village that now contains over 1,000 homes, schools, pumping stations, and an active U.S. Coast Guard station. Like most of Jefferson Parish, Bucktown’s land mass is below sea level. The levee and drainage system, necessary for flood protection, has also diminished the natural Lake Pontchartrain shoreline. The Bucktown Marsh Restoration and Living Shoreline project aims to rebuild the natural first line of defense against typical wave action and rising sea levels, to increase the resilience of the levee and the community it protects, and restore the ecological functions of the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline. By constructing a living shoreline using nature-based features, wave activity would be attenuated, protecting the levee from erosion and increasing the resilience of the Bucktown community in the face of coastal hazards. These nature-based features would also provide habitat for local aquatic species, waterfowl, shorebirds and other coastal fauna. A feasibility study was completed as a first step towards engineering and design of a shoreline stabilization and restoration strategy, which includes shoreline protection and marsh creation components. The feasibility study assesses various potential shoreline protection strategies to protect, stabilize, and enhance the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline for both habitat and public recreational use. A coastal modeling study was completed to characterize the wave climate and water level conditions which inform the schematic design of project features. Relative sea level rise was assessed and included in modeling to optimize shoreline protection geometry. This study provides the basis of an integrated approach to design a living shoreline that is scalable and adaptable beyond the current footprint. The results of the study can be used as the foundation for shoreline protection and increased resilience along the full urbanized Lake Pontchartrain shoreline.
