2021 GOMA Tools Café Descriptions - Gulf of Mexico Alliance

2021 GOMA Tools Café Descriptions
August 10, 2021 Webinar              Databases and Decision Support

A word from our sponsor:
Keith VanGraafeiland, Esri: KVanGraafeiland@esri.com

Link to today’s blog to continue the discussion: go.esri.com/Esri0810

   Tools to Help Find Vulnerabilities, Plan, and Implement Resilience: Gulf
                                    TREE
Presenter(s): Mikaela Heming

Institution(s) and Email: Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects: Sea-Level
Rise; Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium; Florida Sea Grant; Mississippi State
University; m.heming@msstate.edu

Web Address: www.GulfTREE.org
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This resource is relevant for users of all experience levels across the climate resilience
spectrum in coastal Gulf of Mexico including, but not limited to, Extension and outreach
professionals, planners, natural resource professionals, local and regional government
agencies, researchers, and restoration and conservation specialists.

MAIN USE
Coastal Gulf of Mexico is a beautiful area, well-loved by locals and tourists alike; however, the
region also faces increasing climate hazards like worsened hurricanes, increased flooding and
sea-level rise, heavier rain events, higher temperatures – and all of the communication
challenges that come with these changes. Fortunately, researchers and tool developers have
been preparing and creating useful resources and tools that are designed to help the coast and
its communities increase their resilience to climate hazards. Unfortunately, there are now a lot
of them, which is a challenge when stakeholders try to find something relevant to help them
with their work. Gulf TREE (Tools for Resilience Exploration Engine) is a filter-based search
engine designed to match users with relevant climate resilience tools quickly, easily, and
confidently. With over 100 tools relevant to the Gulf of Mexico (and more being added all the
time), Gulf TREE sorts through the plethora of options to match users with a climate resilience
tool that meets their specific criteria. Developed through an end-user driven process, Gulf
TREE is user-friendly despite the complex nature of its content and was created to be a solution
to common obstacles faced by Gulf of Mexico stakeholders interested in climate resilience.

GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
Many tools on Gulf TREE are national in scale, but there are also many that are specific to
regional, state, or local (county-level or occasionally smaller) geographies. Gulf TREE

includes all climate resilience tools relevant to Gulf of Mexico shoreline and watershed
counties.

ACCESSIBILITY
Gulf TREE is available online at www.GulfTREE.org and is accessible by most web browsers.
View the web resource on a computer for full functionality. Due to the complex nature of Gulf
TREE, we can only provide limited functionality (i.e., a list of climate tools) on the mobile
version and some tablet computers do not auto-display properly.

      Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information & Data Cooperative
                     (GRIIDC) Data Management System
Presenter: Rosalie Rossi, Rosalie.Rossi@tamucc.edu

Institution: Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information & Data Cooperative,
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi,

Web Address: https://data.gulfresearchinitiative.org/

INTENDED AUDIENCE
Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) funded investigators and administration; National
Academy of Sciences Gulf Research Program funded investigators and administration;
RESTORE Act Centers of Excellence funded investigators and administration; academic
researchers; natural resource managers; policy makers; emergency responders; non-
governmental organizations; and the general public.

DESCRIPTION/MAIN USE
The tool was initially designed to manage and distribute data generated by Gulf of Mexico
Research Initiative (GoMRI) funded projects. The data management applications that assist with
planning, documenting, and submitting data to GRIIDC are designed for investigators and data
managers. GRIIDC also issues a DOI for discrete data packages that provides researchers with a
citable reference for their efforts. The system allows data submissions to be tracked through the
data package workflow by both investigators and program administration via the dataset
monitoring application. The GRIIDC search and dataset landing pages are designed for anyone
who is interested in obtaining data about the Gulf of Mexico, including academic researchers,
natural resource managers, policy makers, emergency responders, non-governmental
organizations, and the general public. These tools are available to GoMRI, Florida RESTORE
Act Centers of Excellence Program (FLRACEP), Mississippi Based RESTORE Act Center of
Excellence (MBRACE), Texas OneGulf Center of Excellence, the National Academy of
Sciences Gulf Research Program, and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies.
The GRIIDC program is also developing new partnerships to continue our mission of ensuring a
data and information legacy that promotes continual scientific discovery and public awareness of
the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Potential partnerships with research institutions, oil and gas
industry, and others will allow more investigators to use these tools to manage and share their
data using the GRIIDC system.

GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
The tool is focused on Gulf of Mexico data; however, limited datasets are available related to
other locations including the North Sea and the Pacific Coast of North America. Most data
available through the tool have been generated after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident.
Datasets available through the tool have been produced through lab, field, and modeling
activities describing phenomenon ranging from microscopic fluid dynamics to large scale ocean
currents, bacteria to marine mammals, and detailed observations to synoptic mapping.

ACCESSIBILITY
This tool is available online only.

2021 GOMA Tools Café Descriptions
August 17, 2021 Webinar               Socioeconomics - SLR and GEMS

A word from our sponsor:
Keith VanGraafeiland, Esri: KVanGraafeiland@esri.com

Link to today’s blog to continue the discussion: go.esri.com/Esri0817

 Resources for Assessing Ecological and Socioeconomic Impacts of Sea-Level
                                    Rise
Presenters: Carey Schafer, careyscha@gmail.com & Renee Collini
Institutions: PLACE:SLR (Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects | Sea Level Rise)
Web Address: www.placeslr.org
INTENDED AUDIENCE
These resources are intended for built and natural environment coastal stewards to understand
future conditions and potential impacts as a result of rising seas. This includes professionals such
as natural resource managers, restoration specialists, floodplain managers, city planners, elected
officials, transportation and utility professionals, coastal engineers, and consultants.
MAIN USE
These resources and tools assess changes in high tide inundation, changes in storm surge extent
and depth, changes in coastal habitat extent and health, and populations at risk due to sea-level
rise. Specific resources include the NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer, the Gulf of Mexico Storm
Surge Story Map, SLAMM View, Hydro-MEM, Surging Seas Risk Finder, and a soon to be
released dataset on the economic impacts of changing storm surge.
GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
The majority of these resources are national in scale, though some of the more advanced models
cover smaller geographies focused on the northern Gulf of Mexico (Mississippi, Alabama, and
northwest Florida).
ACCESSBILITY
All resources are available online at their respective websites, except the storm surge economic
impact data which is still in development.
Future high tide: NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer (https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/)
Future storm surge: Gulf of Mexico Storm Surge Story Map (www.gomsurge.org)
Changes in Coastal Habitat:
   − Hydro-MEM (www.gommarsh.org)
   − SLAMM (http://www.slammview.org/)

At-Risk Communities
   − Risk Finder (https://riskfinder.climatecentral.org/)
CDC Social Vulnerability Index (https://svi.cdc.gov/)

Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Service Logic Models & Socio-Economic Indicators
                                 (GEMS)
Presenter: Rachel Karasik, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
Rachel.karasik@duke.edu

Institutions: Harte Research Institute, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions,
The Nature Conservancy, The Bridge Collaborative

E-mail of lead presenter: Rachel.karasik@duke.edu

Web address: https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/project/gems

INTENDED AUDIENCE
The GEMS tool supports planning around, decision-making based on, and monitoring of social
and economic outcomes of coastal habitat restoration projects and programs. The target audience
is any stakeholder who is actively incorporating social and economic considerations into their
work or interested in doing so.
MAIN USE
The GEMS tool has a number of uses, outlined below:

   •   Project type search – 22 coastal project types have been assessed and evaluated. For each,
       users can extract information from the following:
           o Ecosystem Service Logic Models (ESLMs) - show how each restoration action
               cascades through the natural and human system to result in a set of directly linked
               (and attributable) social and economic outcomes. These can be downloaded to
               identify relevant outcomes for project justification or monitoring plans. Each
               ESLM indicates which social and economic outcomes are strongly linked to the
               project type.
           o Editable ESLMs – Users can remove pathways that aren’t relevant, add location
               specific details around restoration activities or species of interest. Likewise,
               multiple models can be linked together if more than one restoration technique is
               being use.
           o Context Document - describes the project type, provides additional detail and
               clarification about the relationships in the model, and lists key references used to
               develop the model.
   •   Metrics search – Metrics were identified for each social and economic outcome based on
       SMARTs criteria. For each metric the following information is provided:

o Core Metrics - Core metrics are strongly linked (likely to show a significant
               change due to the intervention) to at least half of the project types within a
               category.
          o Scale - Scale refers to the scope of the data collection. Metrics are either
               identified as project-scale (could feasibly be measured and reported by individual
               projects.) or program-scale (for cumulative, regional scale results and often need
               to be measured or modeled for a suite of projects by a third party)
          o Tier - Tier refers to the ease of data collection related to how much the relevant
               outcome changes due to the project. Metrics are either Tier 1 (relatively low-
               effort and easy to measure), Tier 2 (would require additional effort and expertise
               for data collection and/or analysis) or Research & Development (R&D, not fully
               established, or required data are not readily available.)
          o Measurement Protocols - Measurement protocols provide methods and resources
               for quantifying metrics based on how much each metric changes after project
               implementation and who is affected by these changes. The latter is especially
               important for equity considerations.
   •   Other resources include stakeholder engagement methods, practitioner guides, funders’
       guides, an overview brief and equity brief to support multiple stages of the planning
       cycle.
GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
This tool is intended to support project- and program- scale restoration stakeholders in the Gulf
of Mexico.
ACCESSIBILITY
The tool is available online. There are also a number of videos in the “Products” page that guides
users through how they might use the tool.

2021 GOMA Tools Café Descriptions
August 24, 2021 Webinar               Habitat and Species Data Management

A word from our sponsor:
Sarmistha Chatterjee, Esri: SChatterjee@esri.com

Link to today’s blog to continue the discussion: go.esri.com/Esri0824

        Fish Production Calculator for Salt Marsh and Seagrass Habitats
Presenters & Institutions:
Emily Farr, NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation, emily.farr@noaa.gov
Bryan DeAngelis, The Nature Conservancy
Kara Meckley, NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation

Web address: https://oceanwealth.org/applications/seagrass-saltmarsh-calculator/

INTENDED AUDIENCE
Habitat conservation and restoration practitioners and funders; fisheries and natural resource
managers and scientists

MAIN USE
The number of fish and invertebrates that are born and survive each year depends a lot on
habitat. This interactive tool allows the user to estimate how many juvenile fish, crabs, and
shrimp are produced within salt marsh and seagrass habitats in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The
fish production estimates in the tool are derived from recently published habitat valuation
research. The tool draws on thousands of fish and invertebrate records across the Gulf of
Mexico, and provides an understanding of which fish, shrimp, and crabs are enhanced by these
habitats in the initial stage of their life.

The main interface of the tool includes a “calculator” section next to a map of comprehensive
spatial data for seagrass and salt marsh edge in the Gulf of Mexico. The tool allows users to
select an area of seagrass or salt marsh edge by drawing a polygon on the map. Once an area is
selected, the total acreage (or hectares) of seagrass and saltmarsh edge in the polygon is
displayed. Alternatively, users can enter an area of habitat directly. The user then selects from a
list of fish and mobile invertebrates that are known to be enhanced by salt marsh or seagrass
habitat in the Gulf of Mexico, based on recently published habitat valuation research. The tool
then displays fish production estimates in (1) total number of juvenile fish and invertebrates
produced and (2) yearly production in pounds, meaning the biomass that cohort of fish
contributes to the system over the course of their lifetime. Finally, there is an option to download
the data.

By placing a value on an area of salt marsh or seagrass habitat—measured by the number and
type of fish, crabs, and shrimp produced—natural resource managers can make informed
decisions about protecting or restoring coastal habitats. This tool helps answer questions like,

“how much habitat do we need to increase the production of a particular species?” or “how many
fish would we lose every year if this area of coastal habitat is lost?” We hope it will be especially
valuable for fishery managers wanting to understand the importance of nursery habitats for fish
production, and for habitat funders and practitioners to evaluate the potential benefits of
investing in a given area of coastal ecosystem protection or restoration.

GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
The tool covers salt marsh and seagrass habitats across the northern Gulf of Mexico. Fish
production can be estimated at a 1 acre to 5km scale.

ACCESSIBILITY
The tool is available online, and can be accessed at this link. It is housed on the Mapping Ocean
Wealth website.

                       SmartOysters Data Management Platform
Presenter: Josh Neese

Affiliation: SmartOysters – US Representative

Email: josh@smartoysters.com

Web address: www.smartoysters.com

INTENDED AUDIENCE
The intended audience is diverse, primarily focusing on aquaculture operations but with
restorative, research, and monitoring applications as well. This includes academic researchers,
federal, state, and municipal agencies, not-for-profit organizations, and private environmental
firms in addition to oyster, mussel, seaweed, and finfish aquaculturists. SmartOysters can assist
with any environmental data and monitoring needs while providing traceability and
transparency to any project.

MAIN USE
SmartOysters is a cloud-based data management platform which allows users to collect data in
the form of inventory on a farm or monitoring of a restoration site, while quantifying
ecosystem services based on quantity and size of data collected for use in marketing, outreach,
or education of the human benefits derived from an estuary’s natural functions. The user-
friendly interface and customizable reporting features are also applicable in ecological
research including but not limited to habitat, wildlife and fisheries, and water quality
monitoring. SmartOysters task management function allows for remote project oversight and
reporting. Furthermore, the mapping functionality has been applied in assisting farms and
surrounding communities in locating and retrieving lost gear, mitigating marine debris by
engaging community stakeholders. This was developed to help farmers recover gear and crops
after an extremely active 2020 hurricane season that affected most of the Gulf Coast.
Regardless of what capacity the platform is utilized, it offers a peace of mind to the users by

managing any necessary data and tasks without relying on memory or “back of the envelope”
type data recording.

GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
SmartOysters was developed in Australia by an oyster farmer and is currently in use globally.
Oyster farmers in all Gulf states also subscribe to the platform to manage their aquaculture
operations with interest in applying the tool to the high priority oyster habitat restoration market.
Scale of the operation is insignificant as sites are individually charted using a GPS-based
mapping system. Current users range from quarter acres up to TEN(?) acres with no minimum or
maximum thresholds, perfect for both large- and small-scale projects.

ACCESSIBILITY
SmartOysters is a subscription service accessed via a free app on an iPhone or Android
operating system using a phone or tablet. The cloud-based platform is efficient in securely
recording data in seconds while mitigating the potential for misplaced or indecipherable records
and eliminating errors and the need for recording information more than once – saving time and
money.

2021 GOMA Tools Café Descriptions
August 31, 2021 Webinar              Watersheds and Salinity

A word from our sponsor:
Dean Djokic, Esri: ddjokic@esri.com

Link to today’s blog to continue the discussion: go.esri.com/Esri0831

    Educating and Engaging Communities with the Coast Watershed Game

Presenters & Institutions:
   • Karen Bareford, Ph.D., Sea Grant Water Resources Lead, Mississippi-Alabama Sea
      Grant, kjbareford@ua.edu
   • Tina Miller-Way, Ph.D., Assistant Director for Education, Mississippi-Alabama Sea
      Grant
   • Brenna Sweetman, NOAA Office for Coastal Management, Brenna.sweetman@noaa.gov

Web address: https://seagrant.umn.edu/watershed-game

INTENDED AUDIENCE
The Watershed Game Coast Model is an education and engagement tool intended for use by
educators and community engagement professionals to be used with local leaders, coastal
stakeholders and youth.

MAIN USE
Coastal environments are economically valuable, biologically rich and densely populated. As a
result, there are often competing and divisive interests among stakeholder groups. Small-group
simulations like the Watershed Game help break down barriers related to engaging local
community members on watershed planning and management while encouraging civility,
dialogue and mutual respect. The Watershed Game Program is a proven, interactive nonpoint
water pollution tool for local leaders and educators that increases participants’ understanding of
the impacts that excess pollutants have on communities and natural resources. The game,
available in a local leader and youth classroom version, enhances understanding of management
challenges and solutions including practices, plans and policies to protect water resources while
building collaboration skills across stakeholder groups. Based on requests from local leaders,
educators, and water professionals, the Watershed Game has expanded to include models with a
focus on priority issues of coastal and estuarine environments including water quality and
resilience. This demonstration will provide an overview of the local leader and classroom
versions of the Coast Model of the Watershed Game, and highlight how the game addresses
water quality issues (including excess nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment) and community
resilience to flooding.
Game Goal
The goal of the game is to decrease nonpoint source pollution to meet a Clean Water Goal and to
increase the community’s resilience to flooding with limited financial resources.

Learning Objectives
➔ Understand that all land uses within a watershed contribute pollutants and impact water
quality.
➔ Identify specific sources of excess nutrients and sediment from each land use.
➔ Understand that all land uses are susceptible to flooding,
➔ Identify specific sites most vulnerable to damage from flooding.
➔ Apply “Tools” (plans, practices, and policies) to prevent or reduce nutrient and sediment
pollution while increasing a community's preparedness for, and ability to respond to, flooding.
➔ Choose solutions based on available funds, benefits, and feasibility.

GEOGRAPHY AND SCALE
The tool is designed for application with all coastal and Great Lake communities across the U.S.
Representatives in the Gulf of Mexico provided significant input into the creation and testing of
the Coast Model of the Watershed Game.

ACCESSIBILITY
The tool is a large-format board game and the Coast Model will be available in printed form. For
more information on the existing versions of the Watershed Game, visit
watershedgame.umn.edu.

Expanded Coastal Salinity Index to Characterize Long-term Salinity Patterns
                               in Estuaries
Presenters & Institutions:
Matt Petkewich, USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center, mdpetkew@usgs.gov
Andrea S. Medenblik, USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center
Chris M. Swarzenski, USGS Lower Mississippi Gulf Water Science Center
Scott V. Mize, USGS Lower Mississippi Gulf Water Science Center

Web address: https://www2.usgs.gov/water/southatlantic/projects/coastalsalinity/index.html

INTENDED AUDIENCE
The Coastal Salinity Index website’s intended audience is natural resource managers with state,
local, and federal agencies and NGOs; researchers and students at academic institutions; and
anyone who has a need to understand historic and current salinity fluctuations in coastal settings
and estuaries for their work

MAIN USE
The Coastal Salinity Index (CSI) is a long-term monitoring tool that characterizes relative
changes in coastal salinity regimes for salinity gages with long periods of record. It is a
standardized probability index. A value of zero indicates equality with historical mean salinity
for the gage data, and negative and positive values represent above and below normal salinity
conditions, respectively. The CSI is site-specific based on local historic conditions and can be
computed for multiple time intervals from 1- to 24-months, to help users evaluate responses at
monthly to interannual time scales.

The CSI was developed to characterize coastal drought, monitor changing salinity conditions,
and improve understanding of the effects of changing salinities on fresh and saltwater
ecosystems, fish habitat, and freshwater availability for municipal and industrial use. The CSI
uses the same classification scheme as the U.S. Drought Monitor for high saline (or drought)
conditions and the inverse for wet conditions.

The website displays maps of CSI values at multiple time intervals, stacked graphs of CSI values
at multiple intervals over time, and graphs of monthly CSI values over time. Real-time salinity,
water temperature, and gage height data is also available in map and graph formats. Users can
easily access gage information, input data, and CSI data via searchable table of all stations.

GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
The website provides CSI values for 103 real-time gages located from Maine to Texas and in
Puerto Rico, using data available from the U.S. Geological Survey, National Estuarine Research
Reserve System (NERRS), and Everglades National Park. Plans are to expand nation-wide.

ACCESIBILITY
The CSI tool is available online as a tool for stations collecting real-time salinity data and which
have sufficiently long-term data to allow salinity characterization. The CSI tool is also available
as an R package for users to apply to long-term data sets that may not be in available in real-time
or publicly accessible.

2021 GOMA Tools Café Descriptions
September 7, 2021 Webinar Coastal Flooding and Stormwater Management

A word from our sponsor:
Dan Pisut, Esri: DPisut@esri.com

Link to today’s blog to continue the discussion: go.esri.com/Esri0907

      Adapting Stormwater Management for Coastal Floods: Recent Tool
                             Enhancements
Presenter & Institution: Brenna Sweetman, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
Brenna.sweetman@noaa.gov

Web address: https://coast.noaa.gov/stormwater-floods/

INTENDED AUDIENCE
The tool is intended primarily for stormwater managers and engineers and secondarily for land
use planners, public works personnel and floodplain managers.

MAIN USE
Understanding coastal water levels is increasingly important and challenging in the face of
climate change. In coastal areas, combined flooding from storms, riverine flooding and sea level
rise translates to more widespread and prolonged inundation, often impairing even the best
stormwater systems. To effectively address this complex issue, communities need to know if and
when they should expect to see coastal flooding, how long it will last, and how this may impact
their ability to effectively manage stormwater. “Adapting Stormwater Management for Coastal
Floods” is an integrated collection of information and resources to help users determine and
address the potential impacts of coastal flooding scenarios on stormwater management.
Available through NOAA’s Digital Coast’s training section, the website includes tools and
methods to derive critical coastal water level thresholds, assess the potential impacts and
understand the planning, policy, and funding actions that can be taken to address the issue and
increase coastal resilience. Based on user feedback there have been substantial enhancements
made to adopt a learning-focused approach to improve the “Analyze” and “Assess” sections of
this product.

Product Goal:
   • Describe impacts and implications of coastal inundation on stormwater management
   • Estimate current and future local coastal flooding taking into account changing future
       conditions
   • Prepare to meaningfully communicate coastal flooding to stakeholders, including
       community leaders.
   • Identify methodology for estimating impacts of coastal inundation on stormwater
       systems

•    Identify options for addressing impacts of coastal flooding on stormwater management
         including planning, legislation, and projects and potential funding sources

GEOGRAPHY AND SCALE
The tool is a web-based resource with a national scope that can be applied for use with local
communities.

ACCESSIBILITY
The tool is an online resource available on NOAA’s Digital Coast under Trainings:
https://coast.noaa.gov/stormwater-floods/.

        Title of the Tool: ACUNE (Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural
                    Ecosystems) and ACUNE+ (Enhanced ACUNE)
Contributors to the ACUNE and ACUNE+ projects: Lead: Peter Sheng1, CO-Lead: Mike Savarese2, Vladimir
Paramygin1, Ken Krauss3, Karen Thorne3, Kevin Buffington3, Akin Owosina4, Carol Ballard4, Jim O’Brien5, Noemi
Gonzalez-Ramirez5, Jessica McIntosh6, Justin Davis1, Christine Angelini1, Felix Jose2, David Letson7, Mike Barry8,
Trevor Meckley9, David Kidwell9
1: UF, 2: FGCU, 3: USGS, 4: SFWMD, 5: FLO-2D, 6: RBNERR, 7: UM, 8: Ecologist, 9: NCCOS, NOAA

Presenters: Peter Sheng (pete@coastal.ufl.edu) and Mike Savarese (msavares@fgcu.edu)

GEOGRAPHY AND SCALE
Collier County in southwest Florida, with almost one million population and valuable
infrastructures, is subject to increasing coastal flood risk in the 21st century, due to accelerating
sea level rise, more intense storms, increasing precipitation, and increasing population and
development. The study domain covers the entire Collier County and beyond and extends 50+
km offshore.

INTENDED AUDIENCES
Local governments (Collier County, Naples, Marco Island, Everglades City) and state and
federal resource management agencies such as South Florida Water Management District
(SFWMD), Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (RBNERR), Ten Thousand
Island National Wildlife Refuge (TTINWR), and Everglades Restoration Task Force (SFWMD,
NOAA, USACE, NPS, etc.) who are concerned about the high vulnerability of the urban and
natural ecosystems resulting from the rising coastal inundation hazard. This area has the largest
mangrove forest in the Gulf of Mexico region which, along with marshes and forest wetlands,
can provide valuable ecosystem service of flood protection in addition to contributing to fishery,
carbon sequestration, and pollution control.

MAIN USE
The major goal to inform the Collier County urban and natural system managers of the current
and future flood hazard and vulnerability of infrastructures (buildings, roads, bridges, stormwater
systems, cultural sites, beaches, archeological sites, and wetlands, etc.). Value of coastal
wetlands in reducing flood damage to residential structures is being assessed. The ACUNE team
used the best available climate, hurricane, coastal, ecological, and economic sciences and

models, with extensive data, and developed a ACUNE Geo Tool which includes probabilistic
flood maps, infrastructure maps, and potential residential structural loss for current and future
scenarios (2030, 2060, 2100). These scenarios include the probabilistic sea level rise values
predicted by NOAA (2017) and future storms predicted by CMIP5 climate models, and wetland
distribution maps in a changing climate. Importantly, the ACUNE flood maps are simulated by a
three-dimensional vegetation-resolving surge and wave modeling system CH3D-SWAN with
time varying wetland distribution maps by USGS. The ACUNE flood maps show that the flood
hazard in the region could double by 2060 and increase by 5-6 times by 2100, and adaptation
planning is urgently needed. This ACUNE tool is being tested by the stakeholders for adaptation
and resilience planning.

ACUNE+ (Enhanced ACUNE): The ACUNE plus project started in late 2019 to study the
effects of watershed flow, precipitation, and urban stormwater flow, on coastal inundation.
Potential wetland restoration projects are being evaluated in terms of their relative benefits for
reducing future storm-induced flood and wave damage on residential structures. The new project,
“Assessing the Role of Natural and Nature-Based Features in Enhancing Coastal Resilience of
Urban and Natural Ecosystems in the 21st Century”, aka ACUNE+, funded by the NOAA Effect
of Sea Level Rise (ESLR) Program with $750,000 over three years, includes dynamic wetland
modelers from USGS, watershed modelers from SFWMD, stormwater modelers from FLO-2D,
and coastal trainer from RBNERR. A dynamic process-based wetland model will include the
effects of SLR, storms, salinity, sediment, temperature, and soil on the mangrove distribution.
The coastal model, watershed model, mangrove model, and stormwater model are being coupled
to ensure accurate prediction of future coastal, urban, and watershed inundation.

2021 GOMA Tools Café Descriptions
September 14, 2021 Webinar
       Cross Platform Data Sharing, Collaboration, Conservation & Coordination

A word from our sponsor:
TBD, Esri:

Link to today’s blog to continue the discussion: go.esri.com/Esri0914

        Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes –
        Performance Updates to the Web-based Geospatial Tool Suite
Presenter(s): Amanda Sesser1, Shannon Westlake1, and Kristine Evans2

Institution(s): 121sustainability LLC, amanda@21sustainability.com; 2Mississippi
State University

Web address: https://www.quest.fwrc.msstate.edu/sca-project.php

INTENDED AUDIENCE
The Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes (SCA) project serves land
and resource agencies working in the five Gulf states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Texas. The SCA tool suite is relevant and useful to the broader Gulf
conservation community, including member agencies of the RESTORE Council, land trusts,
nongovernmental organizations, and private industry.

MAIN USE
Land and resource decision makers currently have an unprecedented opportunity for land
conservation in the Gulf Coast Region yet identifying optimal projects to meet conservation
goals is a persistent challenge. The SCA project provides a suite of planning- support tools to
assist Gulf conservation stakeholders in integrating shared priorities for land conservation and
evaluating co-benefits of potential projects in a geospatial environment given individual
stakeholder values.

BACKGROUND
The newly refactored SCA Toolkit is a suite of three web-based geospatial planning-support
tools that will help land and resource managers evaluate co-benefits of potential land
conservation projects. We will present the three refactored SCA project tools together, which
allow for seamless project prioritization, assessment of benefit, and visualization. This will
demonstrate how the tools integrate and collectively support strategic conservation in the Gulf
Coast Region. These refactored tools incorporate and reflect user feedback gathered over the
life of the SCA project, which has led to improved tool functionality and performance, along
with applicability and relevance. This presentation will inform potential users about the SCA
Toolkit and will encourage user feedback to continue the iterative process of stakeholder-
driven tool revisions.

GEOGRAPHY AND SCALE
The Gulf Coast Region, which includes all the coastal zones within the five Gulf states
(AL, FL, LA, MS, TX), plus 25 miles inland.

ACCESSIBILITY
The SCA Toolkit, along with additional project documentation and information, is located at
https://www.quest.fwrc.msstate.edu/sca-project.php.

  GeoCollaborate: A Realtime Synchronous Cross-Platform Data Sharing to
    Support Resilience Planning, Exercises, Cross-Agency & Organization
   Disaster Response and Coordination, Marine Decision Making and more
Presenters & Institutions: Dave Jones, StormCenter Communications, dave@stormcenter.com
Dr. Ellen Prager, Chief Scientist, StormCenter Communications

Web address: Will be given during the demonstrations since it will involve real-time data
sharing.

INTENDED AUDIENCE
GeoCollaborate is designed for decision makers and data providers at federal, state, local levels
as well as private sector partners, educational institutions, and NGOs to be able to coordinate
with critical partners during emergency response, planning, and exercises to improve response
and accelerate situational awareness. It can also be used to enable collaborative and enhanced
use of existing data portals.

MAIN USE
GeoCollaborate’s main use is to connect trusted data providers with decision makers and the
public through its web-based interface. GeoCollaborate got its start through NASA’s Gulf of
Mexico Alliance funded project in 2008 to address the need for states to communicate with each
other during disasters. This is directly related to the ongoing needs of GOMA partners. As a
phase III SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) project, GeoCollaborate has now matured
to become the leading data sharing and collaboration platform within the federal government.
From red tide to oil spills to hurricanes, GeoCollaborate allows expert leadership in collaborative
sessions across platforms, on any device, and with disparate forms of data to enhance briefings,
communication, and decision making.

GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
GeoCollaborate can operate at a global, regional (such as Gulf of Mexico) or neighborhood
scale.

ACCESSIBILITY
The user accesses GeoCollaborate through a web address from any device.

The Potential Role of Machine Learning Applications in Coastal Restoration
Presenter: Josh Carter, PE, D.CE, Joshua.Carter@mottmac.com

Institution: Mott MacDonald’s Coastal Practice

Web address: n/a

INTENDED AUDIENCE
The intended audience is coastal restoration planners and practitioners as well as coastal
resource managers. Machine Learning tools and applications have been used for coastal
restoration planning and designs for different types of coastal ecosystem protection and
restoration projects. The presentation calls for the collaboration between ecologists,
geomorphologists and engineers in order to develop advanced tools for habitat assessment and
design.

MAIN USE
Machine Learning (ML) methods can be utilized to analyze and solve a wide range of problems
in the field of coastal engineering and coastal ecosystem restoration. ML can be used to
accelerate traditional process-based numerical models, quickly generate longer duration hindcast
or forecast simulations built on historical observations or existing predictions, build predictive
tools based complex interdependent relationships in data, and in some instances replace process-
based numerical models to develop predictions based on existing data. Machine Learning
applications facilitate the conversation and analysis between ecologists, engineers,
geomorphologists and planners. The applications allow for different inputs of the complex
variables involved in the models and the outcomes of the models. The more ecological
information is incorporated into the models, the better results in the scenarios created through
the machine learning models. This presentation will provide examples of each of these as
applied to coastal restoration projects, highlighting the advantages as well as limitations of the
ML methods.

GEOGRAPHY & SCALE
The general application of machine learning is not limited by geography and scale. This
presentation shows applications on Louisiana and Texas coastal restoration projects.

ACCESSIBILITY
Machine learning algorithms are freely available via several online sources and usable through
open-source programming packages such as Python.