Nearshore Strategies Analysis

From Salish Sea Wiki


NOAA Restoration Center led the PSNERP team analysis of nearshore geospatial data. Using the concepts developed by the nearshore science team, we developed a strategic framework for ecosystem restoration in the Puget Sound nearshore.

This effort develops indices and groupings of ecosystem sites in the nearshore, estimating the historic potential of the site to provide ecosystem services relative to other similar sites, and estimating the level of degradation of those services by our landscape modifications. It proposes a ecosystem restoration strategy based on consideration of those two fators in a Puget Sound and sub-basin context. Some of the outputs are in the PSNERP Change Analysis Dataset, and the report now published on the PSNERP website.

This work and its antecedents provide the basis for the identification beach, embayment and delta sites described in the ecosystem framework of this wiki. Some of the results can be viewed at the The Nearshore Map Portal.

Complementary work to synthesize data on biota available through WDFWs Priority Species and Habitats program has been completed as part of the Puget Sound Characterization Project.

This YouTube video describes the applications of these analyses in a presentation to the Mason County Shoreline Technical Advisory Team.

Elements of the PSNERP Strategies report (Cereghino et al 2012) have been included in descriptions of sites within the wiki. The following site descriptions include a data report from the strategies analysis: