Map showing the area proposed for ShoreZone mapping (in red) with FY13 funds from the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative funds; the coastline with existing ShoreZone imagery and mapped data in blue; and the coastline with existing ShoreZone imagery that remains to be mapped in green. This imagery was collected in either 2006 (Bristol Bay survey July 19-23, 2006) or 2011 (Southwest Alaska/Alaska Peninsula May 16-21, 2011).
This project provided systematic coastal habitat imagery and mapping for the Alaska Peninsula shoreline following the Alaska ShoreZone Mapping Protocol and made these products web-accessible. The completed mapping product is available on the ShoreZone website in a searchable dataset. Individuals and communities can query coastal habitat information for use in coastal zone planning. Mapped features include features such as shore types and morphology (e.g., dunes, beaches, and estuaries), intertidal biota (e.g., salt marshes, eelgrass beds, kelp beds) and man-made features (e.g., seawalls, docks). In addition to the dataset, the web-accessible, high resolution low-tide imagery (video and photos) complement the mapped data. This imagery can be downloaded and is widely used to support agency planning and inventory programs as well as being available to the public to plan their recreational boating or subsistence hunting trips. LCC-funding will contribute to mapping ~1,900 km of shoreline.
This data summary report provides information on geomorphic and biological features of 1,905 km of shoreline mapped for the 2011 coastal survey of Southwest Alaska. The habitat inventory is comprised of 3,000 along-shore segments (units), averaging 635 m in length (note that the AK Coast 1:63,360 digital shoreline shows this mapping area encompassing 1,785 km, but mapping data based on better digital shorelines represent the same area with 1,905 km stretching along the coast).
Sediment-dominant shore types (Shore Types 21-30) are common along 1161.8km (61%) the shoreline. Of these, wide sand and gravel flats (Shore Type 24) are the most common, mapped along 401.9 km of shoreline (21.1% of the total study area). Bedrock shore types (Shore Types 1-5) are uncommon with only 9.8% mapped. Organic shore types, usually dominated by fine sediment and marshes, are mapped along 83.1 km (4.4%) of the study area.
In terms of Habitat Types (a combination of substrate and exposure that is indicative of associated benthic communities), wave energy is the dominant structuring processes (93% of the shoreline), with mobile stubstrate (591 km) being the most abundant. Repeatable assemblages of biota that can be recognized from the aerial imagery are termed biobands; 17 biobands have been mapped in the Southwest Alaska study area to date. The most widely distributed biobands are: Dune Grass (79%), Rockweed (43%) and Banacles (42%).
Man-modified shorelines (Shore Types 32) are common around populated areas; 1% of the entire shoreline. The most common types of shore modification observed are riprap and landfill (10.7 km and 7.9 km respectively). Most anthropogenic features are concentrated in the larger communities of Sand Point and King Cove.
