Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment

Publication Date

2015-11-01

Time Period

2015-11-01

Watson, Amanda, Reece, Joshua, Tirpak, B.E., Edwards, C.K., Geselbracht, Laura, Woodrey, Mark, La Peyre, M.K., and Dalyander, P.S., 2017, Data for Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7BC3WR8.

Climate, sea level rise, and urbanization are undergoing unprecedented levels of combined change and are expected to have large effects on natural resources—particularly along the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico. Management decisions to address these effects (i.e., adaptation) require an understanding of the relative vulnerability of various resources to these stressors. To meet this need, the four Landscape Conservation Cooperatives along the Gulf partnered with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to conduct this Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA). Vulnerability in this context incorporates the aspects of exposure and sensitivity to threats, coupled with the adaptive capacity to mitigate those threats. Potential impact and adaptive capacity reflect natural history features of target species and ecosystems. This dataset is designed to inform land managers, researchers, and decision makers about the relative vulnerability across individual species and ecosystems and how that vulnerability varies spatially across the Gulf region for each. One anticipated application of this information is in project and proposal review, as a means to identify vulnerable resources that may require a greater level of scrutiny to ensure sustainability. Similarly, using this information to broadly evaluate where increased conservation effort should be directed to reduce vulnerabilities (i.e. adaptation) is another intended use of these results. From a research perspective, high variability in assessors’ individual scores for specific aspects of the assessment help identify where uncertainties exist that should be the target of further investigation. The authors caution that these results should not be applied at scales below the subregion without careful consideration.

ScienceBase WMS

ScienceBase WFS

• Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative
• LC MAP - Landscape Conservation Management and Analysis Portal

Data source

Input directly