Puget Sound Nearshore Change and Restoration Potential

GEOG 469- Spring 2010Aaron Blunt

Jasmin LafradezJames Schuyleman

Who are We?

PSNERP Partnership Miles Logsdon

Senior Lecturer UW – Department of Oceanography

Professor Timothy Nyerges UW – Department of Geography T.A. - Josef Eckert

GEOG 469 – PSNERP Group Aaron Blunt Jasmin Lafradez James Schuyleman

Puget Sound

o “Extends approximately 2,500 miles from the Canadian Border, throughout the Puget Sound and out the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Neah Bay.”

o http://www.pugetsoundnearshore.org/what.htm

o Contains Marine and Estuarine Shorelines.

o PSNERP envisions a healthy Puget Sound full of marine life (i.e. Orcas, Blue Herons, Native Shellfish, Salmon, as well as Eelgrass Meadows).

Source: www.ecy.wa.gov

Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project Overview

Established in 2001. Funded by: The US Army Corps of Engineers,

Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife as well as state and local organizations.

“…Evaluate significant ecosystem degradation in the Puget Sound Basin; to formulate, evaluate, and screen potential solutions to these problems and to recommend a series of actions and projects that have a federal interest and are supported by a local entity willing to provide the necessary items of local cooperation”

http://www.pugetsoundnearshore.org/what.htm

What is the Nearshore?

The Nearshore is the “connection” between land and water body. Includes Photic Zone downwards 100 meters up to the Coastline. Contains numerous marine and wildlife.

Nearshore is essential for ecological processes.

An understanding of Nearshore changes can increase public support.

Source: www.pugetsoundnearshore.org

Problem Statement & Purpose

Problem: Identify areas where Historical Shoreforms have transitioned to other types of Shoreforms.

Purpose: Contribute to the General Investigation for the PSNERP Partnership.

Project Goal

To conduct a Tier 1 change analysis between historical and current shoreforms in the Puget Sound. Implement a form of change analysis built on

the principal of land adjacency. In addition, implement another form of change

analysis on the principal of distance separation.

Project Methods PSNERP Database –

South Puget Sound Sub-Basin

Locate Historical Shoreforms

Locate Current Shoreform Records

Identify changes Buffer Adjacency

Source: http://extratextual.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/300px-golden_gardens_05.jpg

Need-to-know Questions 1. Where are Historical Barrier Beaches located at in the

South Puget Sound Sub-Basin? Software requirements: ArcGIS (ArcCatalog, ArcMap) Hardware requirements: ~1 GB memory space for South Puget Sound Sub-basin

Geodatabase provided by PSNERP.

SP_PSNERP_2.0.mdb (South Puget Sound Sub-basin

DatabaseFd_shoreform_change.shp

Query (H_Type = ‘BAB’)

Bab.shp(Selected Historical Barrier

beach Shoreforms)

Table of Shoreform

descriptions(‘lutSF’)

Need-to-know Questions2. Which of the Historical Barrier Beaches have transitioned to a different Shoreform?

Query(C_Type = ‘ART’ OR

C_Type = ‘BLB’)

Frequency of Shoreforms

SP_PSNERP_2.0.mdb (South Puget Sound Sub-basin

Database

Query (H_Type = ‘BAB’)

Bab.shp(Selected Historical

Barrier beach Shoreforms)

Fd_shoreform_change.shp

Table join ‘lutSF’(Join SF_type to

H_Type in fd_shoreform_ch

ange.shp)

Historical & Current

Shoreform Types

(Freq_SF.dbf)

Need-to-know Questions 3. Are changes in Historical Barrier Beaches

associated with adjacent shoreforms? After locating the Historical Barrier Beaches that have transitioned into

different shoreforms, we created an analysis zone equal to its historical length, that surrounds the changed shoreforms.

Shoreforms contained in those areas are classified as the “adjacent” shoreforms.

Query(C_Type = ‘ART’ OR

C_Type = ‘BLB’)

Diff_Current.shp(Historical Barrier beaches that

have changed to Artificial shoreforms or Bluff-backed

beaches)

Buffer(w/ length = ‘C_LenFull’)

Diff_Current_Buffer.shp(Zone surrounding

changed Historical Barrier Beaches)

Select by Location(Located Shoreforms adjacent to changed Barrier Beaches to

see how they are affected)

Adj_sf_change.shp(Adjacent

Shoerforms)

Frequency

SP_PSNERP_2.0.mdb (South Puget Sound Sub-basin

Database

Query (H_Type = ‘BAB’)

Bab.shp(Selected Historical

Barrier beach Shoreforms)

Fd_shoreform_change.shp

Table join ‘lutSF’(Join SF_type to

H_Type in fd_shoreform_ch

ange.shp)

Historical & Current

Shoreform Types

(Freq_SF.dbf)

Need-to-know Questions

4. What is the separation between the changed historical Barrier beaches?

A “straight line” distance analysis was conducted to compute the separation between each area of changed shoreforms.

Query(C_Type = ‘ART’ OR

C_Type = ‘BLB’)

Diff_Current.shp(Historical Barrier beaches that

have changed to Artificial shoreforms or Bluff-backed

beaches)

Buffer(w/ length = ‘C_LenFull’)

Diff_Current_Buffer.shp(Zone surrounding

changed Historical Barrier Beaches)

Select by Location(Located Shoreforms adjacent to changed Barrier Beaches to

see how they are affected)

Adj_sf_change.shp(Adjacent

Shoerforms)

Frequency

SP_PSNERP_2.0.mdb (South Puget Sound Sub-basin

Database

Query (H_Type = ‘BAB’)

Bab.shp(Selected Historical

Barrier beach Shoreforms)

Fd_shoreform_change.shp

Table join ‘lutSF’(Join SF_type to

H_Type in fd_shoreform_ch

ange.shp)

Historical & Current

Shoreform Types

(Freq_SF.dbf)

Straight Line DistanceDistance.aux

Units in Meters

Project Results – Shoreform Frequency Table

o 11,656 total shoreforms in the South Puget Sound Sub-basin.o Total of 1,849 Historical Barrier Beaches

Project Results –Adjacent Shoreforms

Adjacent shoreforms have also been affected. Barrier Lagoons, Bluff-backed Beaches, and Barrier Estuaries are the types of

shoreforms that are adjacent to historical barrier beaches. Most of them did not transition from historical to current shoreform. Those that did, have transitioned to “Artificial” shoreforms. Most likely

affected by the increase in development.

o Adjacent Shoreforms Frequency Table

Summary 1,849 total Historical Barrier Beaches 64 total Historical Barrier Beaches transitioned to either

Bluff-backed beaches or Artificial shoreforms. Some shoreforms transitioned to artificial shoreforms, but

most of them did not change. The range of separation between changed shoreforms. Rather than having to focus on 64 individual areas of

changed shoreforms, the historical barrier beaches, that have changed, are clustered. Therefore, further change analysis will be concentrated to only 10 clusters.

Recommendations

If working with PSNERP data, make sure to have a very specific project goal. There is A LOT of data.

Future projects should focus on those identified areas of changed clustered shoreforms.