Within the past two decades, Alabama’s coastline along the Gulf of Mexico was significantly altered by both natural and anthropogenic processes. Tropical cyclones, such as Hurricanes Ivan (September 2004) and Katrina (August 2005), caused unprecedented damage to habitat, recreational beaches, and infrastructure. Large-scale beach nourishment projects were completed in response to these large-scale erosional events and normal seasonal erosion events, such as passage of frontal systems. The Coastal Resources Program of the Geological Survey of Alabama collects, develops, archives, and disseminates episodic and temporal shoreline change data through the beach monitoring project, funded through the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Lands Division, Coastal Section. Methods of research include the collection, development, and dissemination of high-resolution coastal imagery and supporting thematic layers, shoreline change analyses (high resolution surveying techniques, aerial photographic interpretations, and statistics), and use of the Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. ArcGIS® platform, Version 10.8 to model airborne laser altimetry and historic shoreline vectors. This research helps to further understand and document these erosional events and the resiliency of Alabama beaches as they respond to natural processes and human-induced change. Research presented will include an overview of data the Geological Survey of Alabama collects, develops, models, and disseminates. Emphasis will be placed on episodic and temporal dynamics of the beach environment and its natural resiliency from erosional events of coastal dune systems.

The current trend in the Gulf of Mexico is to install hard structures, such as, bulkheads, groins, or revetment on shorelines to protect waterfront coastal properties from erosion. In Alabama over 26% of the state’s tidal shoreline has been armored, 40% of Tampa Bay’s shoreline has been armored, and 20% of tidal marshes in Galveston Bay have been lost as a result of armoring. Hard structures tend to present negative effects to hydrodynamics and erosion to adjacent unprotected properties. In addition, hard structures can also cause unwarranted consequences to coastal habitat, sustainable fisheries, and nutrient recycling. Based on discussions from the greater Gulf of Mexico scientific community more decision support tools need to be produced and made available to the public and decision makers to help encourage the use of living shorelines. The presenter will discuss the creation and application of the Gulf of Mexico Shoreline Management Model (SSM) and the Shoreline Decision Support Tool (DST) as funded by the NOAA RESTORE Science Program, that return upland and shoreline recommendations. The Models discussed will include the Galveston Bay, Lake Pontchartrain, and Coastal Alabama SSM viewers along with the interactive DST. The shoreline best management practices will be presented for each LSSM viewer. A short interactive training will be presented to allow the participants to understand essential input attributes and the ability to generate a natural or modified shoreline best management practice for a shoreline of interest upon completion of the seminar. Challenges and solutions for implementing the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences SSM for the select geographic regions in the Gulf of Mexico will also be discussed, including issues associated with generating and acquiring data for the SSM, where to access the SSM viewers and DST, and future access to the model and operator’s manual upon completion of the project.

Natural shorelines provide ecosystem services that are integral to maintaining healthy and resilient coastal ecosystems and communities. However, anthropogenic and environmental stressors are reducing the extent of natural shorelines and, thus, their capacity to provide critical ecosystem services. Small-scale private property owners own an overwhelming majority of waterfront property in coastal Mississippi and Alabama. Therefore, environmentally-focused management of private shorelines can provide large-scale benefits. Unfortunately, the most common shoreline management strategies for private property owners are hardened structures (e.g., bulkheads and seawalls) that are known to impair coastal ecosystems. An alternative to hardened shorelines is living shorelines, which are a collection of shoreline stabilization techniques that incorporate natural materials such as native shoreline plants. To promote living shorelines with private property owners, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Living Shorelines Program and its partners began producing guidance documents, offering technical assistance, and conducting trainings for private property owners and contractors. Throughout these interactions, property owners and contractors have expressed their potential barriers to living shoreline adoption and needs (living shoreline research, communication, and training). In this presentation, we will discuss the status of addressing those barriers and needs as well as introduce some new living shoreline assistance programs in Mississippi and Alabama.

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.

Situated along the western shore of Mobile Bay, the Dauphin Island Causeway serves as a key transportation corridor and the sole roadway to the “Sunset Capital of Alabama,” Dauphin Island. This strategically significant barrier island has 1,300 residents and is an important tourist destination. Shoreline erosion, loss of wetlands, rising sea levels, and coastal storms battering the shore have degraded the shoreline along this critical transportation link. The goal of the Dauphin Island Causeway Shoreline Restoration Project is to protect the existing shoreline from ongoing erosion and to restore habitat function to areas of eroded intertidal marsh. This project includes designing a 3.2-mile living shoreline to improve the resilience of the community by restoring shoreline along a key segment of the vulnerable roadway and creating a marsh habitat. The project will reestablish approximately 100-acres of tidal marsh and tidal creeks in Mobile Bay. Offshore breakwaters and sills will protect the marsh and reduce wave-induced erosion. The breakwaters will further serve as habitat for the challenged oyster population. Hydrodynamic modeling, sediment transport modeling, and a host of other tools are being used extensively in the planning process to determine the appropriate spatial arrangement, elevation, and composition of wave attenuation structures; appropriate marsh elevations; and depth, slope, and spatial arrangement of tidal channels. The wave attenuation structure design intends to reduce the erosional wave energy at the shoreline significantly. The marsh attributes intend to optimize tidal flooding dynamics in support of the proposed vegetation planting scheme and to maximize the benefit to marsh-dependent fishery species in the region. This presentation will discuss the design, challenges, and opportunities of this important shoreline project.