The Strand Line - Texas ASBPA · 2019-06-17 · The Strand Line. Summer Edition. Volume 11, Issue...

The Strand Line. Summer Edition. Volume 11, Issue No. 2

The Strand Line Letter from the President

The Texas ASBPA Chapter had a luncheon meeting in Austin, Texas, on February 19, at the Scholtz Garden German restaurant. Guest speakers included General Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who provided a presentation on Texas coastal issues, highlighted the economic value of the Texas Coast to the entire nation, and described ongoing initiatives by the General Land Office. Commissioner Bush outlined GLO’s partnering role with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Texas Coastal Study. He described the status of the study, the importance of public feedback on the preliminary coastal surge barrier concepts presented by USACE, and the study goals/objectives (e.g. national security investment, ecological benefits, flood protection, and economic benefits). He noted that one downside of the current plan is its alignment through developed areas which would displace residents and businesses. Commissioner Bush also mentioned the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan which is scheduled to be finalized and released within the next week or so.

We also heard from State Senator Larry Taylor and State Representative Todd Hunter who provided comments on the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) and challenges associated with high premiums. In addition, State Representative Mayes Middleton also provided comments on TWIA and ongoing efforts to cap premiums. He highlighted the fact that there are numerous coastal members in positions of leadership this legislative session, which should benefit coastal communities. Peter Ravella provided an update on Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network.

A fifth Symposium seminar was held at the Harte Research Institute in Corpus Christi on April 16 with the theme “Healthy Texas Shorelines” with many presentations and speakers and a poster session following the meeting.

Next Chapter Meeting: Date: August 22, 2019

Time: 11:30pm for Luncheon

Location: Galveston Convention Center

In this Edition: Letters from the Editor ………2

2019 Coastal Symposium Abstracts ...…………………...4

The Strand Line. Volume 11, Issue No. 2

2019 Coastal Symposium – Program and Abstracts of 20

A field trip occurred the day before of the Nueces Delta area. Cris Weber, Jace Tunnel, and Dr. Skip Davis put together a great event again. In addition, COPRI (Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and River Institute), which is a part of the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) had a happy hour after the field trip and all Symposium participants were invited.

For the last five years, the Texas Chapter collaborates with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Galveston District, who handles the entire Texas Coast, for a luncheon meeting again. This year it will occur on August 22 at the Galveston Island Convention Center. The Galveston District and the General Land Office has partnered for a Coastal Texas Study to be completed in 2021 with the estimated costs for all the projects to be from $23 to $31 billion and the major cost will be a costal barrier system to protect the Houston Ship Channel, which is of vital importance to the Texas and U.S. economy. The Corp will give an update on the study plus other current projects along the Texas coast.

We will have one more meeting before the end of the year either in the middle or upper coast of Texas. We encourage all members and interested parties to attend our lunch meetings. There is no registration or change but to attend and hear great presentations and coastal topics. ♦

Jerry Mohn President

Letter from the Editor Howdy, coastal community. Welcome to the Summer 2019 edition of The Strand Line, the

newsletter for the Texas Chapter of the Shore and Beach Preservation Association. We are trying a new format with this edition, so please feel free to provide feedback for what works and what doesn’t. We greatly appreciate the work and effort everyone puts into publishing the newsletter.

We want to encourage all members to consider volunteering for one of the several committees that make the Texas Chapter of the ASBPA, a valuable resource for the Texas Coast. There are many roles to play and much work required to make this a great organization. Find an area that interests you (membership, legislature, technical, communications, etc.), and then contact someone on the committee. Many hands make quick work.

As always, we encourage everyone to submit articles to the newsletter relating to your personal interests, professional projects, or general commentary regarding the coastal community. The more articles that we receive, the more robust the newsletter. If you have ideas for an article, please submit them. It is a group effort to provide content necessary to make the newsletter interesting and relevant. We look forward to reading your submissions. Thank you. ♦

Cris Weber Communications Committee Chairman [email protected]

BE HEARD, BE PUBLISHED! The TxASBPA Newsletter staff challenge our readers to submit articles for publication.

GUIDELINES:

500 to 1000-word articles (pictures welcomed).

Ensure permission to publish is granted.



2019 Coastal Symposium Abstracts

Tuesday, April 16, 2019 - Program

8:00 AM Opening Announcements & Welcome

8:10 AM Utilizing a terrestrial laser scanner to assess the evolution of an undeveloped beach environment in the Gulf of Mexico Kelsi Schwind

8:30 AM Isla Blanca Park Project Tim May

8:50 AM Texas Coastal Exchange; developing a regional marketplace for blue carbon sequestration capacity in Texas coastal wetlands Azure Bevington Ph.D.

9:10 AM Carbon Capture and Sequestration (Storage) – CCS: A Climate Change Mitigation Strategy for the Near‐Offshore Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

Ramon H. Trevino

9:30 AM Stewardship of Submerged Prehistoric Cultural Resources and Beach Nourishment at McFaddin Beach, Jefferson County, Texas August G. Costa

9:50 AM 20 min. break

10:10 AM Oyster Reef Enhancement and Innovations along the Texas Coast Cameron Perry

10:30 AM Money Matters: Major Funding Programs for Texas Coastal Restoration Project Jane Sarosdy

10:50 AM Opportunities and Challenges in the Pre-construction, Design and Engineering of the Sabine-to-Galveston Coastal Storm Risk Mitigation Project

Shubhra Misra, PhD

11:10 AM GLO Coastal Water Quality Jason Pinchback

11:30 AM Corpus Christi Entrance Channel Jetty Repair and In-Bay Beneficial Use Site Construction Coraggio Maglio

11:50 AM Lunch (Sponsored by Naismith Marine)

1:10 PM TX Coastal Resiliency Master Plan Chris Levitz, Josh Oyer, Marissa Dotson

2:10 PM Galveston Beach Projects, Research, and Updated Sediment Management Plan Reuben Trevino

2:30 PM Hydrodynamic and Sediment Transport Modeling for TPWD Perry R. Bass Redevelopment Project Dr. Yu‐Chun Su

2:50 PM Evaluating UAS Surveying for Monitoring Oiling Events on the Texas Coast Dr. Michael J. Starek

3:10 PM Classifying Coastal Imagery with Machine Learning Anthony Reisinger, Ph.D.

3:30 PM Poster Session Various presenters



Figure 1. Nueces/Corpus Christ Bay Field Trip

NUECES BAY AND CORPUS CHRISTI BAY FIELD TRIP Conducted by Dr. Mark Besonen and Randy Bissell

A half-day fieldtrip was offered on April 15, the day preceding the 2019 Texas Chapter ASBPA Coastal Symposium. The field trip was led by Dr. Mark Besonen (Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies) and Mr. Randy Bissell (Headington Energy Partners), and included 15 participants. The goal of the fieldtrip was to take a longer-term, geological perspective, and consider past shorelines and coastal configurations, and how they could inform us about present and future coastal change. The field trip made four stops — the first at a point on the southwest edge of Corpus Christi Bay, and then three stops in a generally perpendicular transect from the front of the modern Nueces Delta out to the modern Gulf shoreline.

At the first stop along Corpus Christi Bay, the group considered modern geomorphological processes that control bay cliff slumping. In particular, wave action undercuts the cliff face, which steepens it up, and causes mass movement failure by slumping. More undercutting gradually steepens up the cliff face again, priming it for yet another failure, and this perpetually repeating process causes progressive retreat of the bay cliff. The group also discussed the impact of the 1919 Hurricane and the construction of the Corpus Christi Sea Wall, and later heard accounts from fieldtrip participants who actually lived in the area during the passage of Hurricane Celia in 1970 and Hurricane Allen in 1980.

The second stop was at the mouth of the modern Nueces River along the Joe Fulton Corridor. The group considered the Nueces River Valley and its bayhead delta, but over the timespan back to the last interglacial period about 125,000 years ago. At that point, sea level was at least 5-6 m higher than at present, and the Gulf shoreline position was significantly landward of its present position. Then, during the stepwise progression into glacial conditions, which peaked about 20,000 years ago, sea level dropped by ~120-130 m as ocean water was locked up on land in the form of continental ice sheets. The Gulf shoreline receded out towards the edge of the continental shelf, and the Nueces River Valley was deeply excavated and incised. Ice age megafauna like mammoths, giant ground sloths, glyptodons, and saber-toothed cats freely roamed the South Texas landscape at that point. Fortunately during the fieldtrip, extremely low water levels allowed the group to visit not only the mini chenier plain at the former mouth of the Nueces River, but also one of the fantastically beautiful bayhead delta marsh islands as well.



The third stop (second along the perpendicular transect) was at Oso Bay, where participants considered shoreline features that formed during the period of higher sea level about 125,000 years ago. Oso Bay and some of the other secondary bays along the Coastal Bend are remnants of the former laguna from that time period, and Flour Bluff (i.e. the Encinal Peninsula) and the Live Oak Peninsula are the former barrier islands. This paleo-laguna and paleo-barrier system is exactly analogous to the modern Laguna Madre and Padre Island, but it is just one step older, i.e. from the previous interglacial cycle. Thus, participants learned that Oso Bay is affectionately referred to as the "Laguna Abuela", and Flour Bluff as the "Isla Abuelo".

The fourth stop (final one along the perpendicular transect) was at the Newport Pass area on the modern Gulf coast, where the group considered results of a recent synthesis work by John Anderson (Rice University) and colleagues including many of his former students. Following the point of maximum glaciation, about 20,000 years ago, much of the continental ice that had accumulated during glaciation melted quickly and water returning to the ocean basins caused a rapid rise in global sea level. The rising global sea level slowed around 6,000 years ago and has continued slowly and gradually since then, with the exception of the recent, modern uptick. The Anderson synthesis work shows that most all of the current barrier islands along the Texas coast formed during this time, in fact, most formed in just the last 4,000 years when global sea level rise rates were < 2.0 mm/year. Thus, the barrier islands are only stable when sea level rise rates are relatively slow. With current rates of sea level rise in the northern Gulf in the range of 2.0-3.0 mm/year, and that rate expected to accelerate in the future, a sobering conclusion can be drawn from the Anderson synthesis. Barrier rollover, the main process that allows barriers to migrate landward during rising sea level, might simply not be able to keep up with expected accelerated future sea level rise. Similarly, other important coastal wetland features like bayhead deltas are probably at the tipping point of catastrophic retreat. ♦

8:10 am

UTILIZING A TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNER TO ASSESS THE EVOLUTION OF AN UNDEVELOPED BEACH ENVIRONMENT IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

Presented by Kelsi Schwind ([email protected]) Co-authors: Michael Starek, Jake Berryhill Alistair Lord

3D point clouds and digital elevation models (DEMs) are of major interest to researchers studying coastal systems, especially for the purposes of evaluating the impacts of natural processes and episodic storm events such as hurricanes. Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) allow users to collect localized and precise high-resolution point cloud data from a ground perspective without the constraints of flight scheduling and costs often associated with using traditional airborne lidar systems. We utilized a TLS to collect data of a barrier island to assess volumetric changes over time at three beach sites in Florida. A series of TLS surveys were conducted at Little St. George Island at the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR) in Apalachicola, Florida from 2016 to 2018. A workflow was developed to generate high-resolution DEMs and accuracy reports from the 3D point cloud TLS data. The resulting DEMs were used in conjunction with historical transect data of the study sites to quantify how the beach morphology changed with time. The TLS provided dense and accurate elevation measurements of the site whose capabilities can continue to be applied to monitor sandy shorelines locally and Gulf-wide for future conservation and surveying efforts. Future research will explore the ability of digital

mailto:[email protected]



photogrammetry to quantify beach evolution in comparison to the TLS data.

Speaker Biography: Kelsi Schwind is an adjunct Professor of GISc at the Conrad Blucher Institute, College of Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She has her B.S. Environmental Geosciences (Minor in Geography) - Texas A&M University - College Station, and her M.S. in Geography (Enviromental and Natural Resources) - University of Alabama (2017).

8:30 am

ISLA BLANCA PARK, SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS. Presented by Tim May ([email protected])

Co-authors: Kimberly Miller, Michael Moya

South Padre Island’s beach environments are more than a haven migratory birds and sunbathers. They are also the site of active parks that are a cultural and recreational draw for locals and tourists alike. In this session, landscape architect Tim May will design how his team addressed how the design and development of Cameron County’s signature park harmonized the region’s desire for a destination performing arts venue with the need to mitigate dune impacts for improvements within the 1000’ dune protection zone of the South Padre Island park. This work required the design team to exercise GLO-approved mitigating procedures to preserve and protect existing dunes as well as restore and re-create dunes impacted during construction. Six (6) areas along the existing beach front were designated for mitigation that involved approximately 19,067 cubic yards of dunes created, moved, and shaped.

Speaker Biography: Tim May is a Registered Landscape Architect with more than 35 years of experience in management, design, production and construction observation for projects, including parks, trails, amenity centers, hike and bike trails, recreational facilities and homeowners’ associations. Since joining Halff Associates in July 2016, he has successfully assisted in the land planning and zoning of several large-scale master projects, including the park master planning, design and project management of Isla Blanca Park, South Padre Island, Texas.

8:50 am TEXAS COASTAL EXCHANGE; DEVELOPING A REGIONAL MARKETPLACE FOR BLUE

CARBON SEQUESTRATION CAPACITY IN TEXAS COASTAL WETLANDS Presented by Dr. Azure Bevington ([email protected])

Co-authors: Jim Blackburn, Elizabeth Winston Jones

The Texas Coastal Exchange (TCX) concept evolved from research by Rice University’s SSPEED Center, with the intent to establish a system to pay landowners for keeping low-lying coastal lands in their natural state by monetizing ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, which occurs at high rates in coastal wetlands and prairies.

The TCX marketplace was established in late 2018, and currently facilitates the purchase by individuals, families, and corporations of carbon sequestration capacity, on a metric ton of carbon dioxide/acre/year basis, from participating landowners. All of whom are all located along the along the upper and mid Texas coast. The objective is to establish a voluntary marketplace where the external costs of sequestering carbon dioxide emissions are given a monetary value, therefore





supporting the landowners who are providing the sequestration capacity as well as the overall preservation of regional ecological health and continued conservation and restoration of coastal wetlands and prairies.

Much of the current acreage available for carbon sequestration along the Texas Coast is tidal salt and brackish marsh. The productive grasses in these wetlands remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester carbon in the soil very rapidly. This form of sequestration, often referred to as blue carbon, is an important component of national and international carbon inventories. Expanding awareness of this important process, and allowing consumers to place a value on this and other ecosystem services, is the goal of Texas Coastal Exchange. The inventory of carbon sequestration capacity within TCX is based on values reported in the scientific literature and evaluation of wetland types currently being conserved by participating landowners.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Azure Bevington is the Science and Technical Director for the Texas Coastal Exchange. Dr. Bevington is a coastal ecologist, focusing on coastal wetlands and estuarine systems, and has worked throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coasts investigating the relationship between environmental forcings and wetland dynamics, such as vegetation community change and organic accretion. She previously worked in research and coastal restoration at Louisiana State University, where she also completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences.

9:10 am CARBON CAPTURE AND SEQUESTRATION (STORAGE) – CCS: A CLIMATE CHANGE

MITIGATION STRATEGY FOR THE NEAR‐OFFSHORE NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO

Presented by Ramon Treviño ([email protected])

Co-authors: Susan D. Hovorka, Timothy A. “Tip” Meckel, Emily C. Moskal

Sea level rise and increased storm severity from global climate change will damage coastal environments and communities. As a low‐lying coastline regularly impacted by tropical cyclones, the Texas coast can benefit from climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. One mitigation strategy is CCS, carbon capture and sequestration (or storage). CCS captures CO2 from point sources, concentrates it to a dense phase, transports it to selected sites, and injects it to depths between 1000 m and 3000 m (~3300 ft and 10,000 ft, respectively) in rock units qualified to retain large volumes of fluid in isolation from shallower resources and the earth’s surface. An important vehicle for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) CCS research has been the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP), which were established in 2003 “to develop the technology, infrastructure, and regulations needed to implement large‐scale CO2 storage in different regions and geologic formations.” The Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC) at the University of Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology participated in two of the RCSPs, the Southwest Regional Partnership (SWP) and the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB). As part of SECARB, GCCC led an experiment at Denbury Onshore, LLC’s Cranfield Field near Natchez, MS, which monitored CO2 storage of over 5.3 million metric tons (MT) of CO2 at depths >3200 m (~11,000 ft) using many different tools and methods. The RCSPs focused on geologic sequestration (GS) onshore. GCCC is interested in 1) onshore and 2) offshore, deep, sub‐seabed GS. The advantages of Offshore GS are: 1) few or no freshwater




aquifers; 2) single landowners (i.e., federal or state governments), and 3) more efficient and effective monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) technologies. In 2010, GCCC received grants from DOE and the Texas General Land Office to study the feasibility of deep, sub‐seabed GS beneath Texas’ offshore waters. The study identified up to 86 Gigatons (billion metric tons) of CO2 storage capacity near many of the U.S. largest CO2 point sources. Subsequent DOE‐sponsored GCCC studies along the upper Texas and western Louisiana coastlines have identified specific sites (e.g., abandoned oil and gas fields) that could receive tens of MT of CO2. In 2018 DOE selected GCCC to lead a partnership modeled on the successful RCSPs to further study the CCS potential of near‐shore state and federal waters of Texas and Louisiana. The 5‐year “GoMCarb” Partnership includes industry, academia and government. It will undertake five activities: 1) offshore GS resource characterization; 2) risk assessment, simulation, and modeling; 3) MVA and assessment; 4) infrastructure, operations and permitting; and 5) knowledge dissemination. The Partnership will assemble the knowledge base required for secure, long‐term, large‐scale CO2 GS with or without enhanced hydrocarbon recovery and will identify and address knowledge gaps, regulatory issues, infrastructure requirements, and technical challenges associated with offshore CO2 GS.

Speaker Biography: Ramón Treviño has a BS (Texas A&I) and MS (UT Arlington) in Geology and an MBA (U. of Oklahoma). He has experience as a subsurface geoscientist in industry and academia. Since 2007 he’s been a project manager at GCCC.

9:30 am STEWARDSHIP OF SUBMERGED PREHISTORIC CULTURAL RESOURCES AND BEACH

NOURISHMENT AT MCFADDIN BEACH, JEFFERSON COUNTY, TEXAS Presented by Dr. August G. Costa ([email protected])

Co-authors: Richard A. Weinstein, Quin Robertson, Kelly Brooks

Since 2017, Coastal Environments, Inc., (CEI) has facilitated new archeological investigations related to submerged cultural resources at the McFaddin Beach (41JF50) prehistoric site in Jefferson County, Texas. This work was triggered by federal and state cultural resources laws related to ongoing beach-nourishment efforts in the vicinity. CEI was contracted by APTIM and LJA engineering, Inc., via the Texas General Land Office (TGLO) in support of archeological stewardship obligations connected to this undertaking. This paper will review what is known about the McFaddin Beach site and the preliminary results of ongoing investigations related to beach-replenishment activities, including archeological monitoring of dredge spoil and geoarcheological assessment of offshore borrow pit vibracore samples. The unique archeological circumstances behind this project will be of interest to those seeking to source sand on the near-offshore region, where ancient submerged landscapes and now-drowned prehistoric archaeological sites may be impacted.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Gus Costa is Vice President of Moore Archeological Consulting, Inc., and Southwest Regional Director of Archeology at Coastal Environments, Inc. Gus specializes in cultural resource preservation and mitigation. His primary research focus is prehistoric archeology and geo-archeology.




10:10 am OYSTER REEF ENHANCEMENT AND INNOVATIONS ALONG THE TEXAS COAST

Presented by Cameron Perry ([email protected])

Over the past 20 years, Texas bays and oyster reefs have been impacted by several major hurricanes, heavy harvest pressure, and numerous other stressors that have greatly reduced their populations and the overall acreage of oyster reef habitat. Traditional oyster reef restoration projects have been successful; however, they have continued to be impacted by the above reference stressors, particularly increased harvest pressure and siltation from storm event. As a result, The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with NRDA Trustees, Texas Parks and Wildlife Coastal Fisheries, and other stakeholders has been investigating methods to improve resiliency of reefs in several estuarine systems along the Texas coast.

The first project at Half Moon Reef utilized large cultch in reef rows to restore habitat to a highly degraded area. The 3-dimensional segmented reef complex included large stone that would be stable in storm events, elevated from the bay bottom to reduce sedimentation impacts, and also be less conducive to degradation by oyster harvesting. This project has proved successful and oyster habitat has thrived since construction. The large cultch used for the reef also creates secondary benefits by providing interstitial spaces between the rocks that can be utilized by juvenile fish and crabs, which enriches the biodiversity of the oyster reef and adjacent areas.

Subsequently, TNC has embarked on oyster reef enhancement projects in Copano Bay and Galveston Bay that will incorporate “sanctuary reef” similar in design to Half Moon Reef in association with areas of new reef more conducive to harvest from commercial fisherman. The harvestable reef design is also being adapted based on work by TPWD to provide more vertical relief, which will thereby increase resiliency from storms/siltation as well as lessening impacts from harvest pressure.

This presentation will discuss the new reef design concepts and their applicability within Texas Bay systems. The engineering aspects of the project that include site selection, design, and performance will also be reviewed. The Copano Bay project will be under construction during the time of the conference so an up to date assessment of the project can be presented. Long term monitoring strategies, goals, and performance metrics will be provided.

Speaker Biography: Cameron Perry is the Coastal Practice Lead with HDR Engineering, Inc. A graduate of Texas A&M University Galveston with a B.S. in Maritime Systems Engineering, Perry spent six years working in Florida and the Caribbean on various beach nourishment, dredging, and coastal projects. In early 2004, he joined HDR Engineering, Inc. in Corpus Christi, Texas and has been performing numerous shoreline protection, nourishment, numerical modeling, coastal design and marsh restoration projects.




10:30 am MONEY MATTERS: MAJOR FUNDING PROGRAMS FOR TEXAS COASTAL

RESTORATION PROJECT Presented by Jane Sarosdy ([email protected])

Implementing projects to restore, protect, and enhance the many resources of the Texas coast has always been a financial challenge. But a number of factors have led to an unprecedented recent influx of funding for Texas coastal projects. Legislative actions by Congress and the Texas legislature, legal actions stemming from the Deepwater Horizon incident (DWH), and the federal response to recent hurricanes have created millions of dollars in funding opportunities for selected coastal restoration projects.

The need to respond to land loss caused by tropical weather systems, relative sea level rise, and the development of offshore energy resources have prompted legislative action. Programs like the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) and the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) were established by Congress to address coastal damage caused by activities related to offshore energy development. The Texas legislature established the Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act (CEPRA) program in the GLO to address alarming rates of coastal erosion following several tropical weather systems that hit the Texas coast in the late 1990s. The CEPRA program provides funding for beach renourishment, shoreline stabilization, dune restoration, habitat restoration, research studies, and other projects related to erosion response.

The settlement of criminal charges and civil legal claims arising from DWH resulted in several large funding allocations to Texas for coastal restoration. Congress passed the RESTORE Act, which allocated coastal restoration funding to the five states affected by DWH from the civil penalties paid in connection with the incident. Each Gulf state also received restoration funding allocations from criminal penalties imposed on parties responsible for DWH through a program administered by NFWF. The Gulf states also received allocations from the responsible parties to compensate for the natural resource damages caused by DWH through the DWH Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustee Council. Through several different programs, these allocations are providing project funding, and will do so for many years into the future.

Other programs, from the GLO’s Coastal Management Program (CMP) grant program to NOAA’s Coastal Resiliency grants, also provide funding to address coastal restoration needs. This presentation will discuss the history of the major Texas coastal funding programs, the events that led to increased funding in recent years, and the nature and status of the current programs.

Speaker Biography: Jane Sarosdy is the senior consultant and president of Sarosdy Consulting. Prior to founding Sarosdy Consulting, she worked as an attorney at the Texas General Land Office (GLO), serving as director of the Coastal Law Team and legal advisor to the Texas CMP, and then as director of the GLO’s NRDA Trustee Program. As the GLO’s NRDA trustee, Ms. Sarosdy worked with the DWH NRDA Early Restoration Trustee Council, served as a natural resource consultant for the GLO with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), and assisted the Texas member of the RESTORE Council to establish the state’s RESTORE program. Through Sarosdy Consulting, she has helped clients achieve designation for future funding through TCEQ’s RESTORE Bucket 1 program. Her clients have also obtained funding from NFWF and from the DWH Texas Trustee Implementation Group. Jane received a B.A. in English from Tulane University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where she served as Senior Articles Editor for the Stanford Law Review.




10:50 am OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE PRE-CONSTRUCTION, DESIGN AND

ENGINEERING OF THE SABINE-TO-GALVESTON COASTAL STORM RISK MITIGATION PROJECT

Presented by Dr. Shubhra Misra ([email protected])

The presentation will focus on several technical opportunities and challenges in the ongoing pre-construction, engineering and design phase of the Sabine-to-Galveston (S2G) Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) project being undertaken by USACE, Galveston. With a total design and construction cost of nearly $ 4 Billion, the S2G CSRM project is the largest civil works project in the history of the USACE, Galveston district. Various aspects of the CSRM project which are at the cutting edge of flood risk mitigation will be discussed, including Compound Flooding, Engineering with Nature, and Response-based Coastal Hazards Assessment.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Shubhra Misra is a Hydraulic Engineer with USACE, Galveston. He is presently the USACE H&H-Coastal lead for the Sabine-to-Galveston Pre-construction, Engineering and Design project. Prior to USACE, Shubhra worked at Chevron, AECOM, COWI and HPA (now JACOBS) on coastal and marine projects globally. Shubhra received his MCE and PhD degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering (with a focus on Coastal Engineering) from the University of Delaware. He is a registered P.E. in Texas.

11:10 am COLLABORATING TO ADDRESS NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION Presented by Jason Pinchback ([email protected])

The Texas Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution Program is a partnership with multiple state agencies and coastal communities to implement programs and policies that will enhance the management and resiliency of water resources in coastal communities by decreasing stormwater flows and lessen pollutant loads. The Texas General Land Office is leading efforts to finalize the Texas Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution Program, which is an initiative of the Texas Coastal Management Program. The program is expected to be finalized in September 2019 and full implementation will initiate thereafter.

Program goals are to manage pre-development runoff, develop water quality controls, limit impervious areas, develop retrofit plans, avoid conversion of areas susceptible to erosion, preserve areas for water quality benefits, limit disturbance of natural drainage features, and inspect on-site disposal systems to ensure proper function and maintenance.

Speaker Biography Jason Pinchback is a Manager with Coastal Resources at Texas General Land Office.





11:30 am CORPUS CHRISTI ENTRANCE CHANNEL JETTY REPAIR AND IN-BAY BENEFICIAL USE

SITE CONSTRUCTION Presented by Coraggio Maglio ([email protected])

The presentation will describe several on the upcoming projects occurring in Corpus Christi Bay. The USACE is restoring Hurricane Harvey damage to the north and south Entrance Channel Jetties and the associated concrete walkways. There are several innovative features of this restoration project that will optimize the expenditure of Emergency Construction Funding. The Corpus Christi Navigation Channel is currently being deepened as part of this project most of the material is being beneficially used to build marsh and wetland features. The design and purpose of these sites will be discussed.

Speaker Biography: Coraggio Maglio is the Branch Chief Hydraulics and Hydrology at the USACE Galveston District. He is a Professional Engineer specializing in coastal processes, and freshwater and estuarine systems. He attained a Masters in Ocean Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology, as well as a Bachelors of Natural Sciences from New College of Florida.

1:10 pm THE 2019 TEXAS COASTAL RESILIENCY MASTER PLAN

Presented by Chris Levitz ([email protected]), Joshua Oyer, Marissa Dotson

This presentation will give an overview of the 2019 Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan (Resiliency Plan)—the Texas General Land Office’s (GLO’s) comprehensive, statewide plan to improve the Texas coast by identifying large-scale needs that “tell the story” of the current state of the coast and drilling down to individual project-level identification and implementation. The current version of the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan was published in March 2019 and is the second iteration of the GLO’s Resiliency Plan. The presentation will describe the GLO’s future vision for coastal resiliency now through the next iteration of the Resiliency Plan in 2023.

Through more than seven years of statewide coastal resiliency planning, the GLO has developed a framework to assess coastal vulnerabilities for both current and future conditions, identify priority projects, and integrate the Resiliency Plan into funding streams available for project implementation. Within this broader framework, the methods the GLO has created range from a programmatic model, used to systematically sort and filter projects related to coastal resiliency, to repeatable stakeholder engagement processes, used to create meaningful discussions and elicit project evaluations from the GLO’s Technical Advisory Committee (a group of over 200 coastal experts from a variety of coastal-related disciplines). Specific to the 2019 planning process, the GLO developed a list of 123 prioritized ‘Tier 1’ projects recommended for implementation to increase Texas coastal resiliency.

The presentation will detail some of the data-driven assessments of habitat and land cover change projected over the next 80 years due to just one major coastal vulnerability, relative sea level rise, using the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM). It will also explain the basis of assessing value added by coastal environments through considering ecosystem services. Still ongoing is modeling work to describe the expected benefits (through reducing economic damages) of large-scale wetland restoration and beneficial use of dredged material by mitigating





storm-induced flooding. This modeling work continues to be refined through ongoing efforts to better defend how environmental resilience bolsters community resilience.

For community-resilience-based efforts, the presentation will describe some of the means used to defend the value added by infrastructure to the coastal economy, as well as how coastal resources benefit human enterprises. The 2019 Resiliency Plan, on a regional basis, expresses the socioeconomic value of Texas coastal cities and communities, and identifies priority projects needed to better protect coastal infrastructure and, above all, human life.

Speaker Biography: Chris Levitz is a Coastal Engineer Manager in Water Resources with AECOM. He has experience working on an assortment of civil engineering projects, including work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Texas General Land Office, United States Corps of Engineers and many other clients. He specializes in the design of coastal structures and hydraulic analysis, which includes knowledge of federal and local regulatory requirements associated with coastal and riverine flood events.

2:10 pm GALVESTON BEACH PROJECTS, RESEARCH, AND UPDATED SEDIMENT

MANAGEMENT PLAN Presented by Reuben Trevino ([email protected])

This presentation will provide an overview of the Galveston Park Board’s approach to adaptively managing a dynamic sediment deficit coastal system, include a review of the Park Board’s recent research projects to update the “Galveston Island, Texas, Sand Management Strategies-2016” report, cooperatively developed by the Park Board and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineer (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), in Vicksburg. This presentation will update recent efforts to fund research through grant applications and strategic partnerships, also included in the presentation will be a review of completed, current, and planned beach nourishment projects detailing planning considerations, implementation difficulties, potential unintended consequences and their relationship/impact to other beach and research projects. The presentation will give an in-depth look at the process followed by the Park Board to determine project and grant priorities and highlight other restoration projects apart from beach nourishment that also contribute to the health of the Island’s beaches.

Speaker Biography: Reuben Trevino has been an Eagle Scout since age 15 his experiences led to his concern for preservation and restoration of the great outdoors, and more specifically our coastal areas. Trevino participated in multiple research projects while earning a BS and Masters in Biology. He is a certified TX Master & Coastal Naturalist, and former member of the TX Sea Grant Advisory Committee. He worked for the City of South Padre Island from 2008 – 2015 managing their Coastal Resources Program. In February 2016 he began his accepted a position with the Galveston Park Board of Trustees as the Director of Operations.




2:30 pm HYDRODYNAMIC AND SEDIMENT TRANSPORT MODELING FOR TPWD PERRY R. BASS

REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Presented by Dr. Yu‐Chun Su (YCSu@lan‐inc.com) Joseph Scarborough ([email protected])

Providing professional services to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN) prepared a draft Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) pertaining to recommending modifications or replacement options for the existing seawater intake and pump infrastructure at the Perry R. Bass Marine Fisheries Research Station (PRBMFRS). The PER involved documenting and summarizing existing hatchery infrastructure and operations, developing and presenting seawater intake and pump station options, and evaluating location alternatives and recommending a pump station location. Presently, two intake structures, located at the end of a jetty and along the shoreline of Matagorda Bay (southwest of Palacios, Texas) serve as the backbone to hatchery operations. The existing pump intake and infrastructure exhibit acute signs of degradation attributed to storm surge, biofouling, corrosion, sedimentation, debris, and age.

The PER included a two‐dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic and sediment transport modeling effort to help evaluate the existing conditions and proposed alternatives. The transport of sediment in Matagorda Bay is driven by 2D hydrodynamic process affected by wind, waves, currents, dispersion, and vertical sediment resuspension and settling. This presentation will include the following subjects: collection of data needed for model development and calibration, including, historical shoreline changes, wind, water quality, water levels, freshwater discharge, and soil data; bathymetric survey for 2D model grid development; field sampling to collect sediment data for model calibration including effects of Hurricane Harvey on the sampling effort; ADCIRC (Advanced CIRCulation) modeling by the University of Texas at Austin to provide boundary conditions; CMS‐Flow model development, setup, and calibration/validation; coupling between CMS‐Flow and ADCIRC; modeling scenarios and results. Animation files generated by the modeling effort will also be presented.

The 2D modeling effort identified a flow pattern from the east along the shoreline towards the existing jetty. Suspended sediments were transported south along the east side of the jetty toward the existing jetty intake whose wet well functioned like a settling basin. The modeling results indicate that sediment transport near the tip of the jetty is quite active, and extending the intake along the jetty further out would only continue the problem out farther into the bay. The results also show that the west side of the jetty has weak current velocity due to shielding effects by the jetty and the seagrass area. Any suspended sediments entering the west side of the jetty are expected to settle there, as evidenced by the presence of the seagrass area. The modeling results were then provided to TPWD and the intake design team to help determine suitable locations for the proposed new intake that would minimize sedimentation issues.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Yu‐Chun Su / Joseph Scarborough.

Dr. Su received his Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin in 1991 with dissertation on modeling the transport of floating debris in the ocean. He has more than 25 years of experience in hydrodynamic and water quality modeling including coastal modeling. He is currently the EWRE Technical Director for Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN).

mailto:YCSu@lan%E2%80%90inc.com




Joseph is a Project Manager for Port and Coastal Services at LAN. He has more than 18 years of experience with the design of waterfront and coastal structures. His BS and MCE are from the University of Houston and both are in Civil Engineering.

2:50 pm EVALUATING UAS SURVEYING FOR MONITORING OILING EVENTS ON THE TEXAS

COAST

Presented by Dr. Michael J. Starek ([email protected])

Co-authors: Jacob Berryhill

When a pollutant such as oil washes upon a beach, it is important to monitor its position as cleanup operations are performed. Historically, beach oiling events have been monitored using the Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique (SCAT). While these practices can monitor whether or not oiled beach is present, they are ineffective at precisely and accurately determining the amount of sediment accretion or erosion that may have occurred thereby burying or removing oiled sediment, respectively. Such traditional “field surveying” methods are also labor intensive and costly. These facts encouraged an interest in examining structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry implemented with a small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) as an alternative approach for monitoring beach oiling. The main goal of this analysis is to quantify the level of beach elevation change detectable with UAS-SfM photogrammetry based on various georeferencing and control methods.

A sandy beach study site on Mustang Island located along the Texas Gulf coast was used as a test bed for this experiment. Four georeferencing schemes for the UAS data are evaluated for their ability to resolve surface elevation change: (1) traditional ground control target network; (2) RTK GNSS geotagging of acquired imagery using real-time broadcast solutions from a virtual reference station (VRS) network; (3) RTK and PPK GNSS geotagging of acquired imagery using a local base station; (4) on-board geotagging using a single-channel, non- differential GNSS. Surveys were performed daily for three consecutive days at low tide using both UAS and terrestrial lidar that serves as a “ground truth” measurement source. Single flight and temporal changes in elevation computed from the UAS surveys were compared and RMSE values computed to quantify vertical accuracy of each UAS survey method. In this presentation, examples of UAS videography and rapid processing for scouting of oiling events will be shown along with results from the UAS-SfM field experiment. For the latter, emphasis will be on the accuracies of the different survey methods employed to map beach elevation for buried oil change detection.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Michael J. Starek is an Associate Professor in Geospatial Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) and Director of the Measurement Analytics (MANTIS) Lab with the Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science. Dr. Starek holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida and was formerly a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow of the U.S. Army Research Office in affiliation with North Carolina State University. His research focuses on the merging of geomatics, remote sensing, and geospatial computing for precise measurement and analysis of natural and built environments.




3:10 pm CLASSIFYING COASTAL IMAGERY WITH MACHINE LEARNING

Presented by Dr. Anthony Reisinger ([email protected])

Co-authors: Amy Unruh, Phillipe Tissot, Lak Lakshmanan

This talk describes the use of machine learning (ML) to classify types of shoreline areas based on aerial imagery. Our methodology lets us predict the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) of shorelines within the images, specifically how sensitive a particular type of shoreline would be to an oil spill. We compared two different types of aerial photographs: oblique and orthorectified. For oblique shoreline photos, field of view (FOV) areas of each photo were spatially modeled and all ESI shoreline values that were within the modeled FOV area were joined to the photos. For orthorectified aerial photos, a grid was overlaid on the imagery and ESI shorelines; both were extracted for each grid cell and joined together.

To build our classification models, we used Google Cloud AutoML Vision which allows to build accurate custom models from a relatively small image dataset by leveraging transfer learning and Neural Architecture Search. We first experimented with a single-label version of the oblique image set with the label referred to a single primary shoreline type included in the image. The AutoML UI allows easy visual inspection of model training and evaluation results. From inspection of the false positives we were able to determine that this first model often predicted coastline types that were present in the image but did not match the single label. It seemed likely that this dataset was a better fit for a multi-label classification approach. AutoML also supports multi-label classification, and so we generated a multi-label version of the same dataset, and trained a new model. This multi-label model showed significantly higher accuracy than the first, the single-label model.

We also compared model accuracy across the two different types of image datasets. We found that prediction accuracy using oblique imagery models was higher than that for orthorectified imagery models. We attribute the oblique imagery models' higher performance to the larger geographic coverage of the oblique imagery, and the inclusion of vertical information in these images.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Anthony Reisinger is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Coastal and Marine Geospatial Sciences at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. He earned a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from The University of Texas at Brownsville, and a Ph.D. in Coastal Marine Systems Science from the Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. His research is focused on coastal geology and ecology where he combines remote sensing, GIS, field surveys, and machine learning to measure and understand coastal change from an ecological and geological perspective. Currently, Anthony’s research is focused on impacts of sea-level rise on the coast and oyster habitat modeling. He also serves as a subject matter expert for Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative.




Poster Presentations WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND MODELING OF POENISCH PARK WATERSHED

Presented by Jennifer Williams ([email protected])

Co-authors: Jose Congo, Jensen DeGrande, Philippe Tissot

In coastal cities, recreational water quality can be substantially impacted by stormwater runoff leading to beach advisories and potential health hazards. The Poenisch Park beach, a segment of Corpus Christi Bay (assessment unit 2481CB_06), was placed on the 2014 Texas Water Quality Inventory and the 303(d) list of impaired waters for not meeting the contact recreation single sample criteria of no more than 25 percent of the measured values exceeding 104 CFU/100mL for the indicator bacteria (Enterococcus). A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), which is a process with goals to restore impaired waters, was initiated. Components of a TMDL include modeling and monitoring of the supporting watershed. For this study, our analysis was initially based on historical Texas Beach Watch (TBW) water quality measurements. These historical measurements were complimented by flow rate and water quality measurements at the Poenisch Park stormwater outfall. Results showed that there are two distinct components to the water quality impairment in this segment: runoff from the adjacent watershed and a dry weather load of unknown origin which is estimated as 68 Colony Forming Units/Most Probable Number (CFU/MPN) for this study. All precipitation information for the study was based on Multi-sensor Precipitation Estimates (MPE). Based on the TBW data, a statistical analysis of the correlation between measured indicator bacteria (Enterococcus) concentrations in nearshore water and precipitation within the watershed showed that elevated bacteria levels tend to occur within 72 hours following the onset of precipitation . The analysis identified 409 wet weather sampling events . Indicator bacteria concentrations for these wet cases had a mean of 401 CFU/MPN and a median of 35 and 33 percent (136 cases) of the concentrations exceeded the threshold of 104 CFU/MPN. There were 275 dry events with mean indicator bacteria concentrations of 68 CFU/MPN, a median of 10 CFU/MPN, and 12 percent (34 cases) exceeding the 104 CFU/MPN threshold. During the study, measured indicator bacteria (Enterococcus ) concentrations at the stormwater outlet ranged between 17,329 MPN to 155,310 MPN for the three events sampled for water quality. While measured indicator bacteria (Enterococcus) concentrations in the nearshore bay waters were between 228 MPN to 55,000 MPN. Three modeling approaches are being carried out for the watershed all based on the same MPE time series. The numerical model takes into account the stormwater network, the simplified step model assumes that 1/2 of the outflow is concurrent with precipitation followed by 1/3 and 1/6 of the runoff 1 hour and 2 hours later, and the purely statistical model linking directly precipitation and bay water quality measurements. Two of the modeling approaches predict runoff volume and load at the stormwater outlet. Both models are based on the same informational land use map that includes runoff and event concentration loads based on the respective land uses. Measurements at the stormwater outlet showed that the simple step model predicted flow rates adequately. Although model evaluation is still ongoing, a main recommendation of the study is to avoid recreational contact at the start of precipitation within the watershed and up to 72 hours after the end of the precipitation event.

Speaker Biography: Jennifer Williams is an Environmental Science Major at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi and an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Conrad Blucher Institute. For the past year, Ms. Williams has been working on measuring, analyzing, and reporting on the water quality data of the Poenisch Park urban watershed.




Acknowledgement

This work is made possible by grants from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, “One Total Maximum Daily Load for Indicator Bacteria in Corpus Christi Bay at Poenisch Park Corpus Christi, Texas Segment 2481CB, Assessment Unit 2481CB_06” Contract No. 582-16-60059.

EMERGING LITTORAL SURVEYING TECHNOLOGIES FOR COASTAL RESILIENCE AND DURABILITY

Presented by Christopher Reynolds ([email protected])

Co-authors: Dr. Michael J. Starek

The Coastal Bend region has always been susceptible to coastal storms and inundation activity with the most recent being Hurricane Harvey. Combined with the average daily wind speed in the double digits this increases the vulnerability of the region to more recurrent inundation events. These flooding events can cause roads that are near the beach to be flooded and subsequently impassable which could cut off a valuable evacuation route. This project uses emerging Littoral surveying technologies such as Real- time kinematic Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys, Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) and Unmanned Ariel Systems (UAS) using Structure from Motion (SfM) to aid in the planning and design of an innovative solution for enhancing the resiliency of a roadway along the western shore of the Laguna Madre in Corpus Christi, Texas to extreme weather. The objective of this project is to provide geospatial support through the collection and analysis of the geospatial field data to supply information of the exposed topography, vegetation, subtidal bathymetry. Additionally, this project will look to compare the accuracies of the data produced through these emerging methods to each other.

Speaker Biography: Christopher Reynolds is a research assistant with the Measurement Analytics Lab. Christopher is a graduate student in the Geospatial Systems Engineering Program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He has experience with producing deliverables for a variety of clients ranging from local engineering firms to the United States Department of Defense.

HIGH-RESOLUTION BARE-EARTH TOPOGRAPHIC DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL (DEM) OF THE TEXAS COAST

Presented by Claire R. Pollard ([email protected])

Co-authors: Lihong Su, Mukesh Subedee, Marissa Dotson, Brach Lupher, Dr. James C. Gibeaut, Dr. Anthony Reisinger

The Harte Research Institute used sea level rise, storm surge, and wave modeling to provide quantitative information regarding the impacts of relative sea level rise (RSLR) and enhanced storm surge caused by higher sea level and changes in land cover. A seamless high-resolution, 3-m, topographic digital elevation model (DEM) of the Texas coast was developed for the land-surface elevation and slope inputs required for the Sea Level Affecting Marsh Model (SLAMM). The DEM was also used to update the computational mesh required for the ADvanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) and Simulating Waves in the Nearshore (SWAN) model. The elevations in the 3-m DEM represent the topographic bare-earth surface. The dataset is a fusion of 35 airborne topographic light detection and ranging (lidar) surveys acquired by various surveyors





between the years 2005 – 2016. The landward extent of the lidar surveys selected for creation of this DEM was determined by the boundary of the ADCIRC computational mesh. A scalable and efficient algorithm was developed to process the lidar surveys to create the seamless DEM. This DEM can be updated as newer lidar data becomes available and will be useful for other models of Texas coastal environments that require high-resolution topographic data.

Speaker Biography: Claire R. Pollard is a Coastal Geoscientist in the Coastal and Marine Geospatial Lab at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. She received her BS in 2009 from Texas State University with honors in Physical Geography and a minor in Photography, and her MS in 2017 from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Environmental Science. ♦

Upcoming Events Sept. 18-20: Florida Shore & Beach Preservation Association (FSBPA) Annual Conference.

Hutchinson Shores Resort & Spa, Hutchison Island, FL. www.fsbpa.com.

Oct. 22-25: ASBPA’s National Coastal Conference. Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel, Myrtle Beach, SC. www.asbpa.org.

Nov. 12-13: NCBIWA Annual Conference. Holiday Inn Resort in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Details at http://www.ncbiwa.org/events.

March 24-26, 2020: ASBPA Coastal Summit. ASAE Conference Center, Washington, DC. ♦

Break out your digital cameras! It’s time to tap into your inner Picasso and find the picture that is worth a thousand words and share it with our friends that read The Strand Line. We would like to start including pictures from our members in the newsletter of places and faces on our Texas Beaches.

You may send your pictures via email to any of the newsletter committee members. We look forward to the individual perspectives that make our coastline beautiful and show our readers the diversity that makes our beaches special.

Please enjoy these recently submitted photographs of the Texas coast.

http://www.fsbpa.com/

http://www.asbpa.org/

http://www.ncbiwa.org/events

The Strand Line - Texas ASBPA · 2019-06-17 · The Strand Line. Summer Edition. Volume 11, Issue...

Documents

Transcript of The Strand Line - Texas ASBPA · 2019-06-17 · The Strand Line. Summer Edition. Volume 11, Issue...