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Scientists from the Bureau of Economic Geology and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi have completed three light detection and ranging (lidar) surveys of the Texas Gulf shoreline from Sabine Pass to the Rio Grande. The surveys were conducted in April 2010, April 2011, and February 2012. Lidar provides highly accurate and detailed topographic data describing beaches, dunes, and development along the shoreline. These surveys were the first by the Bureau since 2000 to cover the entire Texas Gulf shoreline system. The survey was a collaborative effort among the Bureau (lidar operation, ground surveying, and GPS) at The University of Texas at Austin, the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (ground surveying and GPS), and the Texas Department of Transportation Flight Services (aircraft). The beach and foredune zones were surveyed to examine annual variability in shoreline and dune position and morphology, intervening storm effects, and recovery from recent storms such as Hurricane Ike, which devastated the upper Texas coast in September 2008.
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The overall goal of this project is to improve the management, protection, and restoration of the beach/dune system along the Texas Gulf of Mexico shoreline. Protection of natural foredunes and their enhancement is an excellent way to decrease the susceptibility of the shoreline to storm damage, while improving the beach/dune environment. Up-to-date knowledge of the vegetation cover, volume, and morphology of beaches and dunes is a fundamental dataset for determining the susceptibility of the coast to storm damage and ongoing erosion. This project will provide data, maps, and analyses that are needed to plan the future of the shoreline. State-of-the-art lidar technology and analysis methods will be used.
Specifically, this project will accomplish the following objectives over the next four years:
- update long-term and calculate short-term shoreline change rates for the Gulf of Mexico;
- develop protocols for mapping and annually map the line of vegetation, including developing and documenting methods for integrating topographic data (airborne lidar) and aerial photographs for vegetation-line position assessment;
- map (annually) the morphology, sediment volume, and vegetative cover and determine the storm-protection status of the beach/dune system and determine cumulative changes in beach/dune volume;
- improve understanding of the storm-, annual-, and decadal-scale dynamics of the beach/dune system;
- produce deliverables including maps and analyses for the purpose of formulating policy regarding the beach/dune system;
- develop data sets for use in designing shoreline projects;
- serve deliverables to the public through a website that includes downloads and an ArcGIS server; and
- inform the public on coastal processes through presentations and include results in education modules about the dynamics of the Texas coast.
This project will conduct annual lidar surveys in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Lidar data will be analyzed in combination with new and historical optical imagery and ground surveys to understand the status and trends of the beach/dune system and to monitor the susceptibility of the coast to storm damage. Status of the beach/dune system will be determined through the measurement of volumes, dimensions, and morphology, and a storm susceptibility index will be developed.
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2010 GIS files
2011 GIS files
2012 GIS files
This project is funded by the Texas Coastal Impact Assistance Program a federally funded program administered by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and the Texas General Land Office. The goal of the Texas CIAP is to conserve, restore, enhance, and protect the diversity, quality, quantity, functions, and values of the state’s coastal natural resources.
Collaborators for this project are the Coastal and Marine Geospatial Sciences Laboratory at Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi.
Texas CIAP: http://www.glo.texas.gov/what-we-do/caring-for-the-coast/grants-funding/ciap/index.html
BOEMRE: http://www.boemre.gov/
GLO: http://www.glo.texas.gov/what-we-do/caring-for-the-coast/index.html
HRI: http://www.harteresearchinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38&Itemid=173
CBI: http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/
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