Introduction

1. Planning for Coastal Hazards Using Ecosystem Based Management Introduction Nearly half of the population of the United States of America lives in coastal regions, and millions of visitors from across the nation and world enjoy the coasts every year. Coastal and marine areas provide recreation such as fishing, swimming, boating, and diving. Economic activities essential for the financial health of the nation include commercial fisheries, offshore oil production and the transportation of goods via waterborne routes. These areas provide vital ecological services to the nation including natural protection from floods and storms, essential habitat for animals and plants, and natural water filters to assimilate wastes. The marine environment is a system formed through the interconnection between natural systems on several scales, designed human systems, and social systems. Therefore, a holistic approach is needed to understand the connections that can exist within and between elements of the marine environment, as well as to support policy makers in their decisions. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been proposed as a holistic approach for managing complex marine areas across multiple interacting scales. Generally, large marine ecosystems are targeted for management; however, managing these areas presents a problem in the fact that sub-ecosystems exist within the larger ecosystem. In order to create, implement, and maintain an ecosystem management plan, individual sub-regions within the larger region need to be identified. After sub-regions are identified based upon physical, biological, economic, social, and management similarities, sub-region ecosystem management plans can be successfully developed and implemented in order to improve and maintain the health of the sub-regions and the larger region as a whole. EBM plans are designed for everyday occurrences and long-term processes within an ecosystem. As part of a comprehensive EBM plan, emergency management plans are essential as they are used to plan for coastal hazard relief and mitigation of these hazards. Together, emergency management plans and EBM can be used as tools to guide resource management and protection in preparation and response for future coastal hazards. Infrastructure c Recreation a Wetlands d Habitat b Current work Work is currently being performed to develop a framework that can be implemented to identify sub-ecosystems within the Northern Gulf of Mexico for EBM purposes. The framework will make use of multiple indicator groups to describe the ecosystem and to weight what factors are the most important when managing an ecosystem – be it for general management or emergency management purposes. The weights were calculated using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (Saaty, 1986) and pairwise comparisons of each indicator from surveys of ecosystem management experts. These indicator groups are: Biological and Ecological Indicators–characterize the health of the ecosystem. Components of this indicator group describe the growing environment for flora and fauna, identify areas of environmental concern, and tell of the overall health of the area using the health of indicator species. There are seven indicators in this group. Physical Indicators – describe the non-organic properties of the ecosystem. Components of this group can be used to describe the physical system – from the way it was originally formed to the processes that are currently influencing it. There are six indicators and nine sub-indicators in this group. Human and Economic Indicators–define the relationships between humans and the ecosystem. Components of this group are used to detail human activities in the ecosystem, societal values placed upon the ecosystem, and the economic impact the ecosystem has . Five indicators and twenty six sub-indicators have been identified for this group. Ecosystem management experts are being surveyed to determine the weights of each indicator group, indicator, and sub-indicator for management purposes. Preliminary results from the survey are shown. Modeling as a Tool for Management Plans To create effective management plans, models and scenarios need to be developed and tested. Numerical models such as water quality models, hydrodynamic models, and visualizations thereof are needed when developing EBM and emergency management plans as they provide information about the water body and can give insight into what is happening within the ecosystem that might otherwise be missed. Visualization of model results – e.g. potential inundation levels as a result of a hurricane – can help streamline results and make it easier for managers to make important decisions on the fly. Models and their visualization can help researchers organize and integrate data into a framework that helps to design experiments to understand what management actions need to be taken. NG-CHC Results for Emergency Planning It is recommended that emergency management and mitigation plans be included in NOAA’s EBM plans for all large marine ecosystems within the United States. The development of the these contingency plans can be developed using the work and results of the Northern Gulf Coastal Hazards Collaboratory. Model runs and visualizations can be used for hazard mitigation pre-planning as well as emergency management decisions when the natural hazard is occurring. Emergency mitigation and management plans need to be detailed, put into place, and kept up-to-date by continually adding model results and visualizations to the database as hazards occur. Preparedness plans should include ecosystem-based goals. Sources a. Deep sea fishing photograph: http://www.amigosurfmexico.com/img/bfishing.jpg b. Habitat photograph: http://www.notjustfortwaltonbeach.com/fort_walton_beach/fort_walton_beach_pictures/fort_walton_beach_swimming.jpg c. Port of New Orleans photograph: http://bcgengineers.com/bcg_images/bcg_portofnola.jpg d. Estuary photograph: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/transformations/coastal_research/estuary650.jpg Jennifer Sloan Ziegler jls523@gri.msstate.edu Mississippi State University Strategy Area 2