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Research Projects -
Alabama
This project responds to the demand to better understand and assess lower Mississippi sediment-hosted pollutant transport. One of the goals of the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program is a national assessment of coastal change hazards. One such hazard is extreme storms and hurricanes as they provide a powerful force that generates dangerous waves and currents capable of moving large amounts of sand, destroying buildings and infrastructure, and reshaping our nation's coastline. Our research focuses on understanding the magnitude and variability of the impacts of hurricanes and extreme storms on the sandy beaches of the United States. The overall objective is to improve the capability to predict coastal change that results from severe storms. Such a capability will facilitate locating buildings, infrastructure, and evacuation routes away from severe coastal change hazards. A Coastal Classification Map describing local geomorphic features is the first step toward determining the hazard vulnerability of an area. The National Assessment of Coastal Change Project's Coastal Classification Maps present ground conditions such as beach width, dune elevations, overwash potential, and density of development. In order to complete a hazard vulnerability assessment, that information must be integrated with other information, such as prior storm impacts and beach stability. The Coastal Classification Maps provide much of the basic information for such an assessment and represent a critical component of a storm-impact forecasting capability. The Mobile Bay Digital Library was created out of a need for distribution of two specific imagery sets for the area. Under the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program's Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan, the photography was developed for wetlands and submerged aquatic vegetation mapping activities. The National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards is a multi-year undertaking to identify and quantify the vulnerability of U.S. shorelines to coastal change hazards such as the effects of severe storms, sea-level rise, and shoreline erosion and retreat. It will continue to improve our understanding of processes that control these hazards, and will allow researchers to determine the probability of coastal change locally, regionally, and nationally. The National Assessment will deliver these data and assessment findings about coastal vulnerability to coastal managers, other researchers, and the general public. Beach erosion is a chronic problem along most open-ocean shores of the United States. As coastal populations continue to grow, and community infrastructures are threatened by erosion, there is increased demand for accurate information regarding past and present shoreline changes. There is also need for a comprehensive analysis of shoreline movement that is regionally consistent. To meet these national needs, the Coastal and Marine Geology Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting an analysis of historical shoreline changes along open-ocean sandy shores of the conterminous United States and parts of Alaska and Hawaii. A primary goal of this work is to develop standardized methods for mapping and analyzing shoreline movement so that internally consistent updates can periodically be made to record shoreline erosion and accretion. The goal of the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) Ecosystem Change and Hazard Susceptibility project is to understand the evolution of coastal ecosystems on the northern gulf coast, the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, and the vulnerability of ecosystems and human communities to more frequent and more intense hurricanes in the future.
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U. S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
Atchafalaya and Mississippi River Deltas Study
Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms
Coastal Classification Mapping Project
Mobile Bay Digital Library
National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards
National Assessment of Shoreline Change
Northern Gulf of Mexio (NGOM) Ecosystem Change and Hazards Susceptibility Project