Tampa Bay Living Shoreline Suitability Model Results

In recent years, considerable attention has been focused on the effects of sea level rise in Tampa Bay, FL. Erosion and loss of habitat are concerning to public and private stakeholders. Living shorelines offer a great alternative to armored shorelines by providing natural materials that buffer wave action, absorb storm impacts, filter pollutants, and provide food and shelter for fish, shellfish, and wading birds. Tampa Bay Environmental Restoration Fund (TBERF) and Gulf of Mexico Alliance: Habitat Restoration Team (GOMA) funded the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWC:FWRI) to apply the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) Living Shoreline Suitability Model (LSSM) to different portions of the Tampa Bay estuarine system. The LSSM results in recommended Best Management Practices for shoreline segments within the study area. This dataset represents the shoreline of Tampa Bay estuarine system divided into segments based upon user-defined environmental attributes that are used as inputs to the VIMS LSSM. It includes additional fields that were calculated as results of the LSSM. The output and the highlight of this dataset is the "BMPallSMM" field, which represents the recommended Best Management Practices for that segment of shoreline based upon the user-defined input variables.