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Local Coastal Tool

Full Title: A Web-Based Interactive Decision-Support Tool for Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems (ACUNE) in Southwest Florida

This project developed a decision support tool to aid resource managers, municipalities, and a county with decisions related to the preservation and restoration of mangrove, marsh, and beach habitats; water management; and coastal planning, zoning, and land acquisition.

The Team: Y. Peter Sheng (Lead Investigator, University of Florida, pete@coastal.ufl.edu), Christine Angelini (University of Florida), Justin R. Davis (University of Florida), Vladimir A. Paramygin (University of Florida), Michael Savarese (Florida Gulf Coast University), Felix Jose (Florida Gulf Coast University), David Letson (University of Miami), Karen Thorne (U.S. Geological Survey), Ken Krauss (United States Geological Survey), and Michael Barry (The Institute of Regional Conservation)

Technical Monitor: Dave Kidwell (david.kidwell@noaa.gov) and Kassie Ernst (kathleen.ernst@noaa.gov)

Federal Program Officer/Point of Contact: Frank Parker (frank.parker@noaa.gov)

This project began in June 2017 and ended in November 2021.

Award Amount: $995,487

Why it matters: Southwest Florida contains the largest area of tidally influenced public lands in the Gulf of Mexico and the fastest growing urban landscape in Florida. Both the human and natural components of the ecosystem are under increasing risk due to the threats of a growing human population, sea level rise, and tropical cyclones. This decision-support tool was designed to aid resource managers with preservation and restoration of mangrove, marsh, beach habitats and adaptation of water management efforts to mitigate future saltwater intrusion in estuaries and their associated habitats.

What the team did: This was accomplished in two steps. First, a suite of coupled state-of-the-art models were used to create inundation, salinity distribution, habitat distribution, beach and barrier islands vulnerability, and economic impact maps for current and future climates and for various sea level rise scenarios specific to the region. The researchers then integrated the maps into an Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems (ACUNE) web-based interactive decision-support tool that enables users to identify areas of high vulnerability in many layers of interest.

Summary of Outcome: 

Key projects accomplishments include:

  1. Co-developed a scientifically robust user-friendly ACUNE Geo Tool for adaptation planning by managers of local urban and natural systems, by utilizing the best available climate, coastal, ecological, and economic sciences, models, and data. Local stakeholders and NOAA technical managers have been actively engaged throughout the project.
  2. Developed the 1% annual chance coastal flood maps (including compound flooding by sea-level rise and tropical cyclones) and nuisance tide flood maps (including sea-level rise and tidal flooding) for current and future climate scenarios in 2030, 2060, and 2100.
  3. Assessed the ecosystem service value of coastal wetlands (mangroves, marshes, and woody wetlands) for buffering coastal communities from residential structural damage due to compound flooding by tropical cyclones and sea level rise in current and future climates.
  4. Provided in-depth training to managers of local urban and natural systems on the use of the ACUNE Geo Tool for assessing the vulnerability of future coastal flooding on various infrastructures and adaptation planning.
  5. Coastal communities and local governments, as well as neighboring communities (Lee, Charlotte, Pinellas, and Miami-Dade Counties) and other federal (USACE, USGS, USFWS) and state (Florida Department of Transportation, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Water Management Districts) agencies, have applied the current and future coastal flood risk to assessments and planning efforts in the region.

From the seminar “A Web-Based Interactive Decision-Support Tool for Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems (ACUNE) in Southwest Florida” 
Presenter: Dr. Peter Sheng, University of Florida

Other Resources

  • Sharp, S., P. Norby, and C. Angelini. 2020. NOAA RESTORE Science Program: A web-based interactive decision-support tool for Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems (ACUNE) in southwest Florida: measured and laser-scanned vegetation structure from 2017-11-27 to 2017-12-02 (NCEI Accession 0222471). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset.
  • Buffington, K., M. Barry, and K. Thorne. 2021. Wetland classification model developed with remotely sensed imagery obtained from the Sentinel-1 and -2 satellites and digitized species distribution maps for southwest Florida, coastal Gulf of Mexico, from 2010 to 2018 (NCEI Accession 0243071). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset.
  • Davis, J.R., and T. Van Natta. 2022. NOAA RESTORE Science Program: A Web-based Interactive Decision-Support Tool for Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems (ACUNE) in Southwest Florida: Episodic Water Level Monitoring from 2018-06-10 to 2020-01-10. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. 
  • Sheng, Y.P., V.A. Paramygin, and J.R. Davis. 2022. NOAA RESTORE Science Program: A Web-based Interactive Decision-Support Tool for Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems (ACUNE) in Southwest Florida: Flood Maps for current conditions, 2030, 2060, and 2100 under different sea level rise scenarios (NCEI Accession 0248802). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset.
  • LEAN-Corrected Collier County DEM for wetlands developed by Kevin Buffington. Dataset. 

Andres, K.D., Savarese, M., Bovard, B., and Parsons, M. (2019). Coastal wetland geomorphic and vegetative change: effects of sea-level rise and water management on brackish marshes. Estuaries and Coasts 42:1308-1327. 

Harvey, N., Gross, A., Jose, F., Savarese, M., and Missimer, T. (2021). Geomorphological impact of Hurricane Irma on Marco Island, Southwest Florida. Nat Hazards. 106: 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04445-3

Jose, F., Savarese, M., & Gross, A. M. (2019). Impact of Hurricane Irma on Keewaydin Island, Southwest Florida coast. In Coastal Sediments 2019: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference (pp. 1142-1151).

Sheng, P. Y., Paramygin, V. A., Yang, K., & Rivera-Nieves, A. A. (2022). A sensitivity study of rising compound coastal inundation over large flood plains in a changing climate. Scientific reports, 12(1), 1-14.

Sheng, Y. P., Yang, K., & Paramygin, V. A. (2022). Predicting compound coastal inundation in 2100 by considering the joint probabilities of landfalling tropical cyclones and sea level rise. Environmental Research Letters. 17:4.

Yang, K., Paramygin, V. A., & Sheng, Y. P. (2019). An objective and efficient method for estimating probabilistic coastal inundation hazards. Natural Hazards, 99:1105–1130. 

Yang, K., Paramygin, V., and Sheng, Y. P. (2020). A Rapid Forecasting and Mapping System of Storm Surge and Coastal Flooding. Weather and Forecasting. 35:1663-1681. doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-19-0150.1

Categorical Exclusion Memo for “A Web-Based Interactive Decision-Support Tool for Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems (ACUNE) in Southwest Florida”

Sheng, YP, and Paramygin VA. 2022. ACUNE Overview. ArcGIS Story Maps.