Living Shoreline Site Suitability Model Output for the Texas Coast

Living shorelines are an environmentally friendly method to reduce shoreline erosion. They increase the ecosystem services of the area, improve the land/sea connectivity, are aesthetically pleasing, and have far fewer maintenance costs than shoreline armoring. Additionally, they can be less costly to install than armoring projects depending upon the exact design parameters. The Living Shoreline Site Suitability Model (LSSSM) is a geospatial model that combines various input parameters to determine which sites are best suited to living shoreline or hybrid stabilization methods and which are not.

The Harte Research Institute (HRI) created the LSSSM which provides geospatial information on the suitability of applying living shoreline solutions for erosion control and environmental enhancement along bay shorelines of the Texas coast. This rule-based model uses five factors to consider living shoreline use suitability: bathymetry, exposure to wave energy, type of shoreline, shoreline change rate (erosion rate), and distance to the nearest channel. The model provides four broad categories of living shorelines options to be implemented along the Texas coast. The four categories include Soft Stabilization (marsh grass plantings), Hybrid Stabilization (breakwaters, submerged oyster shell beds, reef balls, articulated blocks or mats, and riprap), Retrofit: Soft Stabilization, and Retrofit: Hybrid Stabilization. This dataset tool can be utilized to determine where a living shoreline may be suitable and to identify the best living shoreline methods to use given the unique conditions at a specific section of the coastline.

The data package has two shapefiles – one showing four regions as defined in the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan (TCRMP) and the other showing LSSSM output of shorelines on the Texas coast. The filed name “Output” in the attribute table of the model output shapefile presents the recommended living shoreline type for each shoreline section. If the "Output" field is empty, it means there was not enough data to classify and assign any living shoreline type for that section of shoreline.