Decision-making for Coastal Adaptation: Sustaining Coastal Salt Marshes for Ecosystem Services along the Jersey Shore - Data

This project builds on our conceptual model to generate salt marsh vulnerability maps (i.e., MarshFutures maps) that assess seaward edge erosion, platform “elevation capital”, and landward migration and which predict the fate for selected Marshes of Interest (MOIs). Seven MOIs were studied: 2 in Delaware Bay; 3 in Great Bay; and, 2 in Barnegat Bay/Little Egg Harbor. This concept of elevation capital relates accretion rates and the tidal zone that dominant plants require for optimal growth to estimate the long-term prognosis of a vegetated marsh under a regime of rising sea levels. If marsh accretion rates are higher than rate of sea level rise, then elevation capital is increasing. Conversely, if marsh accretion rates are below the rate of sea level rise, then marsh elevation capital is decreasing. If any parts of MOIs are deemed to not be keeping pace with sea level rise, we have estimated years until drowning based on the remaining elevation capital. To aid in place-based decision-making the above assessments are combined to generate salt marsh vulnerability maps that highlight those geographic areas most susceptible to conversion over the coming decades. The combined modeling and mapping was undertaken at two different scales of analysis: site level (1-2 ha with a grain size of 1 m grid cells) and landscape level (across entire state of New Jersey with a grain size of 10 m grid cells). The results of the two scales were compared to determine: 1) the comparative accuracy of the landscape scale approach for planning purposes; and, 2) the value of the more refined site-level modeling approach. The data for this project was compiled by the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA), Rutgers University, the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, the Barnegat Bay Partnership, and Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. NOTE: The README is available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7282/T38W3H3