Coastal Habitat Mapping Brochure

Coastal Habitat MappingOne of the Cook Inlet RCAC mandates under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 is to devise andmanage a comprehensive program of monitoring the environmental impacts of the operations ofterminal facilities and of crude oil tankers while operating in Cook Inlet. To this end, Cook InletRCAC has put significant efforts towards increasing our knowledge of Cook Inlet’s environmentto better be able to identify any potential chronic, acute, or potential impacts. We have taken amulti-pronged approach, with the overall goal of building a database of Cook Inlet coastalhabitats that will allow us to better plan for and protect sensitive shorelines and improve ourability to detect change. The major goals of our coastal monitoring program are to: - expand a coastal mapping program that includes both aerial imaging and detailedon-the-ground data collections; - conduct an environmental monitoring program that identifies populations of importantintertidal and subtidal species, analyzes background concentrations of potential contaminants inintertidal and subtidal sediments, and analyzes tissues of organisms living and feeding in CookInlet. - collect source data to better be able to identify natural versus anthropogenic inputs ofhydrocarbons or other potential contaminants (e.g. heavy metals) to Cook Inlet. ShoreZone Mapping While researching options for providing coastal habitat information, a technique named“ShoreZone Mapping” came out as tool that had been successfully applied to the entire coast ofWashington State and British Columbia. It made sense to use a method that had been testedand applied to areas that had many similarities to the south central coast in terms of species,types of assemblages, remoteness of coastlines (especially in much of B.C.). ShoreZoneprovides “broad brush” information; information about physical and biological nearshoreenvironment across large geographic areas for relatively low cost; this method provides a “bigpicture” approach that will provide information that can be summarized at regional levels andhelp us to define areas at which we need more detailed habitat mapping for other purposes. Werecognized the wide range of applications of the data, beyond obtaining shoreline habitatinformation useful for understanding potential impacts by oil industry operations.Cook Inlet RCAC conducted a pilot ShoreZone mapping program in Cook Inlet in 2001 and hasactively sought additional funding sources and partners to expand this program outside of CookInlet. We have successfully described the idea of coordinated coastal mapping to other local,state, and federal agencies and are actively partnering to continue this program.Although we have successfully expanded our small pilot program into a larger plan, we see thatthere is still significant work that needs to be done in the region. That work includes: 1 / 2Coastal Habitat Mapping - Improving ShoreZone Mapping methods for areas that are unique in Alaska. For example,many miles of Cook Inlet shorelines have intertidal zones that are several miles wide.ShoreZone methods have had difficulty accurately mapping these types of habitat and effortsneed to be made towards improving our ability to map wetlands and wide coastlines. We areworking with the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve to develop plans for mapping these areasthat would be mapped as “polygons,” instead of as “lines” as most of the coastline of Alaska hasbeen mapped. - Expanding the mapping database for wetland and saltmarsh areas. In doing so, we wouldfurther integrate the Coastal Mapping database with the environmental monitoring databasedeveloped for our intertidal monitoring program. This would require features in the CoastalMapping database where “point” data can be inserted and chemistry data could be queried aspart of the mapping database. 2 / 2