The beach strategies geodatabase

This oral presentation will highlight methods, results, and utility of the Beach Strategies geospatial database, recently completed by Coastal Geologic Services as part of the ESRP Learning Program. Making nearshore geospatial data accessible and reliable for use by professionals presents unique challenges. Many coastal datasets in the Puget Sound region of the Salish Sea were mapped by many different scientists over many years, some using inconsistent or outdated methods. Improved remote and field-based mapping methods used in the project have greatly expanded the resolution and reliability of data from previous records. This geodatabase has immense value and implications for nearshore prioritization and restoration. Geospatial products of the Beach Strategies project consist of three major data elements: a shoreline feature class, comprehensive shoreline parcels polygons, and linear referencing routes that convey locations and context for littoral drift mapping (referred heretofore as net shore-drift cells). The shoreline feature class includes best-available mapping of shore armor, geomorphic shoretype (current and historical), fetch, divergence zones, and net shore-drift cells in Puget Sound. The parcel polygons include a compilation of Sound-wide residential and non-residential real estate parcels, which each contain a summary of adjacent, intersecting shoreline data. The linear referencing component treats net shore-drift cells as routes, which allows for examination of up-drift and down-drift relationships between areas of interest, such as identifying the feeder bluffs that supply a down-drift beach with sediment. Together these data can enable improve planning and prioritization of restoration and preservation of coastal processes from a Sound-wide scale to individual real estate parcels. All data included in the Beach Strategies geodatabase conforms to the WDNR ShoreZone Shoreline (2001), making it compatible with many existing coastal datasets. This presentation will focus on geodatabase components, structure, and applications for use by nearshore professionals around the region

Nearshore spatial data architectures to enable restoration, preservation, and coastal hazard mapping

Leveraging and updating several coastal datasets for the Puget Sound region, the Beach Strategies project (completed for ESRP) enables the planning and prioritization of restoration and preservation from a Sound-wide scale to individual real estate parcels. This effort corrects and updates mapping of net shore-drift, shoretypes, shore armor, and erosion potential, and connects spatial data with net shore-drift directional linear referencing. The Nearshore Geospatial Framework (completed for Puget Sound Partnership) is a companion project to replicate some functionality of Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project spatial data products (PSNERP; Simenstad et al. 2011) with updated data, including integration of forage fish and eelgrass mapping, and hydrology from small streams to the largest watersheds