The Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program (MsCIP) has developed a Comprehensive Barrier Island Restoration Plan containing options to ensure the integrity of the Mississippi barrier islands through restoration efforts. Any restoration activities implemented must have minimal adverse impacts to critical habitat for various marine, terrestrial and avian resources. Documenting the success of restoration activities in meeting this requirement requires habitat monitoring. In recent communications with MsCIP personnel, the MsCIP lacks a remotely sensed component to its habitat monitoring plan. Additionally, MsCIP personnel have expressed a need for data pertaining to critical habitat utilized by species of interest including piping plovers, red knots, and sea turtles. Remotely sensed habitat analyses provide a cost-effective and accurate means of inventorying current conditions and monitoring change, especially for large areas in which field investigations would prove logistically or fiscally restrictive. Upland range dune and upland barren dune were delineated as areas at or above 1.524 meters (5 feet) as determined in the Lidar datra utilized for this dataset. Neighboring habitats bordering these areas are included in the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) classification system as irregularly flooded (E2EM1P and E2USP).

This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, diving birds, pelagic seabirds, passerine birds, and gulls and terns in coastal Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi River. Vector polygons represent locations of wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, diving birds, pelagic birds, passerine birds, and gulls and terns that may be particularly vulnerable because of nesting, migratory staging, and wintering activities. Vector points represent locations of nesting and roosting sites for shorebirds, wading birds, diving birds, seabirds, gulls, and terns. Species specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in relational data tables (described below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer. This data set comprises a portion of the ESI data for Louisiana. ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil. The ESI data include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources.

This dataset includes barrier island land cover types collected from mid-November 2015 to mid-December 2015 along randomly placed transects at seven sites throughout the east end of Dauphin Island. Specifically, this data collection included characterizing land cover types and measuring horizontal position and elevation. We characterized plant community composition and structure for a subset of these points (see Vegetation Survey Data Table). This work was conducted through a joint effort by the State of Alabama, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate the feasibility of various restoration alternatives and how specific alternatives might increase the resiliency and sustainability of Dauphin Island. The overarching goal of the aforementioned effort is to preserve and enhance the ecological functions and values of the island. This product provides a powerful tool for tracking changes to barrier island habitats over time. This data release includes the following three components, which are included in the attached ZIP file: 1) Dauphin Island Habitat Map (Raster data) 2) Land Cover and Vegetation Field Data Points (Vector data) 3) Vegetation Survey Data (Tabular data)

The analyses of landscape change presented in this dataset use Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) and Operational Land Imager (OLI) to assess changes in land area through time. All cloud-free dates of imagery from 1984 through early 2016 were used in this analysis. This amounted to a total of 174 dates of imagery which were analyzed. No water level restrictions were used during the image selection process as gages with a period of record sufficient for this analysis are not available nearby. Persistent loss and gain data are presented for 1984-2016.

Seagrass or submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is a valuable and abundant resource found within Gulf Islands National Seashore. It provides habitat for many fish and invertebrates. Seagrass grows in shallow waters and, therefore, is prone to damage and erosion from boats, propellers, fishing equipment, and wakes. We have employed an object-based image analysis technique using Trimble eCognition software to quantify the seagrass and provide a baseline for future studies.

This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, diving birds, seabirds, passerine birds, and gulls and terns in Maryland. Vector polygons in this data set represent bird nesting, feeding, migratory staging, and wintering sites. Species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in relational data tables (described below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer.This data set comprises a portion of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data for Maryland. ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil. The ESI data include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources. See also the NESTS (Nest Points) data layer, part of the larger Maryland ESI database, for additional bird information.

This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for endangered waterbirds and passerine birds, migratory shorebirds and waterfowl, gulls and terns, seabirds, raptors, and wading birds in coastal Hawaii. Vector polygons in this data set represent locations of bird nesting and foraging sites. Species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in relational data tables (described below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer. This data set comprises a portion of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data for Hawaii. ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil. The ESI data include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources. See also the NESTS data layer, part of the larger Hawaii ESI database, for additional bird information.

This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for Sargassum in Louisiana. Vector polygons in this data set represent areas of known Sargassum aggregation. Species specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in relational data tables (described below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer. This data set comprises a portion of the ESI data for Louisiana. ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil. The ESI data include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources. See also the BENTHIC data layer, part of the larger Louisiana ESI database, for additional habitat information.

The Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring (BICM) program was developed by Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and is implemented as a component of the System Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program (SWAMP). The program uses both historical data and contemporary data collections to assess and monitor changes in the aerial and subaqueous extent of islands, habitat types, sediment texture and geotechnical properties, environmental processes, and vegetation composition. Examples of BICM datasets include still and video aerial photography for documenting shoreline changes, shoreline positions, habitat mapping, land change analyses, light detection and ranging (lidar) surveys for topographic elevations, single-beam and swath bathymetry, and sediment grab samples. For more information about the BICM program, see Kindinger and others (2013). The U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center provides support to the BICM program through the development of habitat map products using aerial imagery and lidar elevation data and assessing change in habitats over time. These data provide a snapshot of barrier island habitats and can be combined with other past and/or future maps to monitor these valuable natural resources over time. The current effort of this habitat mapping program includes developing habitat maps for 2008 and 2015/2016 for the following BICM regions: 1) West Chenier; 2) East Chenier; 3) Acadiana Bays (only Marsh Island); 4) Early Lafourche Delta; 5) Late Lafourche Delta; 6) Modern Delta (only Chaland Headland and Shell Island); and 7) Chandeleur Islands. The BICM program has developed two habitat classification schemes which include a detailed 15-class habitat scheme and a general eight-class habitat scheme. The detailed scheme was used for this habitat mapping effort and builds off the general scheme used in previous BICM habitat mapping efforts (Fearnley and others, 2009). The additional classes developed in the detailed scheme are primarily used to further delineate various dune habitats, separate marsh and mangrove, and distinguish between beach and unvegetated barrier flat habitats. The habitat change analyses in this product depict and summarize habitat change between 2008 and 2015/2016 per BICM reach. The results from these analyses are summarized in two habitat change products. The first product depicts change in land and water coverage and the second product highlights changes based on inundation zones (for example, water, intertidal-unvegetated, intertidal-vegetated, supratidal, and developed/shoreline protection). This product also includes recommended symbology for these data layers. Please see the Entity and Attribute Information section in this metadata file for the BICM barrier island habitat and change class descriptions and the Processing Steps section for information on methodology for map development.

This product depicts the spatial coverage of seagrass beds from 0.5-m color-infrared orthoimagery for Cat Island and Ship Island, Mississippi from early fall of 2011. Specifically, the map includes presence and absence of seagrass beds within a potential seagrass extent that was based on topobathymetric data. A minimum mapping unit of 4 square meters was used for this mapping effort.