Satellite-derived barrier response and recovery following natural and anthropogenic perturbations, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
Remote Sensing
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- More information: Publisher Index Page (via DOI)
- Data Release: USGS data release - Coastal Land-Cover and Feature Datasets Extracted from Landsat Satellite Imagery, Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
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Abstract
The magnitude and frequency of storm events, relative sea-level rise (RSLR), sediment supply, and anthropogenic alterations drive the morphologic evolution of barrier island systems, although the relative importance of any one driver will vary with the spatial and temporal scales considered. To explore the relative contributions of storms and human alterations to sediment supply on de-cadal changes in barrier landscapes, we applied Otsu’s thresholding method to multiple satel-lite-derived spectral indices for coastal land-cover classification and analyzed Landsat satellite imagery to quantify changes to the northern Chandeleur Islands barrier system since 1984. This high temporal-resolution dataset shows decadal-scale land-cover oscillations related to storm–recovery cycles, suggesting that shorter and (or) less resolved time series are biased toward storm impacts and may significantly overpredict land-loss rates and the timing of barrier mor-phologic state changes. We demonstrate that, historically, vegetation extent and persistence were the dominant controls on alongshore-variable landscape response and recovery following storms, and are even more important than human-mediated sediment input. As a result of exten-sive vegetation losses over the past few decades, however, the northern Chandeleur Islands are transitioning to a new morphologic state in which the landscape is dominated by intertidal envi-ronments, indicating reduced resilience to future storms and possibly rapid transitions in mor-phologic state with increasing rates of RSLR.
Suggested Citation
Bernier, J., Miselis, J.L., and Plant, N., 2021, Satellite-derived barrier response and recovery following natural and anthropogenic perturbations, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: Remote Sensing, v. v. 18, no. 18, 3779, 27 p., https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13183779.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Satellite-derived barrier response and recovery following natural and anthropogenic perturbations, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana |
| Series title | Remote Sensing |
| DOI | 10.3390/rs13183779 |
| Volume | v. 18 |
| Issue | 18 |
| Publication Date | September 21, 2021 |
| Year Published | 2021 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Contributing office(s) | St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center |
| Description | 3779, 27 p. |
| Country | United States |
| State | Louisiana |
| Other Geospatial | Breton National Wildlife Refuge |