Priority Landscapes

Dauphin Island, Alabama, is the only barrier island providing protection to much of Alabama's coastal natural resources. Severely impacted by repeated extreme events, like Hurricane Katrina and Deepwater Horizon oil spill, USGS and partners are conducting a joint study to evaluate the feasibility of certain alternatives to increase resiliency and sustainability of the island.

WARC first implemented geographic information systems (GIS) in 1980 to help monitor the nature and extent of wetland habitat changes. The center continues to use GIS, remote sensing, and other computer based technologies to address a wide range of natural resource related issues.

USGS WARC first implemented geographic information systems (GIS) in 1980 to assist in monitoring the nature and extent of wetland habitat changes. Today, WARC geographers and support staff create, maintain, and use geospatial data to analyze restoration efforts in Louisiana.

State and Federal agencies, including USGS, are working together to assess the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and to determine appropriate restoration actions to restore natural resources, ecological services, and recreational services injured or lost due to the incident.

The Coastwise Reference Monitoring System was designed to monitor the effectiveness of restoration actions at individual sites, as well as across the entire Louisiana coast.

As the first federally mandated restoration program, Louisiana enacted the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) to address Louisiana’s land loss crisis.

The Wetland and Aquatic Research Center (WARC) first implemented geographic information systems (GIS) in 1980 to assist in monitoring the nature and extent of wetland habitat changes. The geospatial capabilities at WARC, in part, grew out of that initial effort and now use GIS, remote sensing, and other computer based technologies to address a wide range of natural resource related issues.

USGS and partners will assess the potential cumulative effects of restoration projects on the resiliency of barrier islands and barrier shorelines in the north-central Gulf.

Researchers at WARC will use data and models to produce probabilistic maps of current and future wetland inundation, coastal wetland extent, and coastal and wetland trangression.

Through a collaborative effort with other federal agencies and academic and research institutions, USGS is working to fill data gaps, determine baseline conditions, and characterize key community conditions at mesophotic and deep benthic sites impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Eighteen USGS coastal scientists from all four coasts of the conterminous United States are working together to advance the understanding of climate change and sea-level rise impacts to coastal wetlands.

WARC researchers are providing support to Louisiana Monitoring and Adaptive Management activities.