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Speaker: James Gibeaut, Endowed Chair for Coastal and Marine Geospatial Sciences, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi

Host: John Goff

Title: Developing the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan through a Data-Driven and Stakeholder Process

Abstract: Texas recently completed the 2023 Coastal Resiliency Master Plan (TCRMP) for addressing vulnerabilities affecting society, ecology, and economy. Through elicitation from a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), analyses of environmental change, and modeling of sea level rise and storm surge impacts, action plans were developed to address one or more of eight vulnerabilities: gulf shoreline change; degraded or lost habitat; storm surge; bay shoreline change; degraded water quality; inland flooding; tidal flooding; and degraded water quantity.

TAC members scored the importance of each vulnerability for each coastal HUC 10 watershed. This information plus data and model analyses and information on how projects provide societal benefits, direct and indirect economic benefits, and ecosystem services is used by the TAC and TCRMP team, led by the Texas General Land Office, to assess how well a project may increase resiliency. In addition to presenting worthy projects, the TCRMP provides information and data that describe the dynamics of the Texas coast and linkages between natural and human systems. Geohazards maps showing current critical environments and processes, historical change, and how systems are projected to shift by 2100 help to transfer knowledge to stakeholders for use in planning efforts.