The project will complete an extensive mapping of coastal change along the entire coastline of the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC). The work will provide important baseline information on the distribution and magnitude of landscape changes over the past 41 years. The extent of change to the coastline and to coastal features, such as spits, barrier islands, estuaries, tidal guts and lagoons, is known to be substantial in some areas along the coast (e.g., portions of the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta), although the extent of change along the full Bering Sea coast is not well documented. With this analysis, changes can be summarized for different land ownerships or other units to assess the extent of recent habitat loss. Hotspots of change identified by the wide coverage of the mapping proposed in this study will provide guidance on selecting areas for monitoring or for more intensive research (e.g., terrain sensitivity analysis).
