Coastal Habitat Mapping

The major goals of our coastal monitoring program are to:

• expand a coastal mapping program that includes both aerial imaging and detailed on-the-ground data collections;
• conduct an environmental monitoring program that identifies populations of important intertidal and subtidal species, analyzes background concentrations of potential contaminants in intertidal and subtidal sediments, and analyzes tissues of organisms living and feeding in Cook Inlet.
• collect source data to better be able to identify natural versus anthropogenic inputs of hydrocarbons 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 of Washington State and British Columbia. It made sense to use a method that had been tested and 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.). ShoreZone provides “broad brush” information; information about physical and biological nearshore environment across large geographic areas for relatively low cost; this method provides a “big picture” approach that will provide information that can be summarized at regional levels and help us to define areas at which we need more detailed habitat mapping for other purposes. We recognized the wide range of applications of the data, beyond obtaining shoreline habitat information useful for understanding potential impacts by oil industry operations.

Cook Inlet RCAC conducted a pilot ShoreZone mapping program in Cook Inlet in 2001 and has actively sought additional funding sources and partners to expand this program outside of Cook Inlet. 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 that there is still significant work that needs to be done in the region. That work includes:

• 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 efforts need to be made towards improving our ability to map wetlands and wide coastlines. We are working with the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve to develop plans for mapping these areas that would be mapped as “polygons,” instead of as “lines” as most of the coastline of Alaska has been mapped.
• Expanding the mapping database for wetland and saltmarsh areas. In doing so, we would further integrate the Coastal Mapping database with the environmental monitoring database developed for our intertidal monitoring program. This would require features in the Coastal Mapping database where “point” data can be inserted and chemistry data could be queried as part of the mapping database.