GEOSPATIAL DATABASE FOR GEOLOGIC HAZARD MITIGATION FOR COASTAL ALABAMA

The Alabama coast has experienced rapid development since the early 1980’s and has become a popular tourist, residential, and recreational area. Development has been particularly intense near the sandy beaches along Morgan Peninsula and Dauphin Island. Many areas along the coast are of concern because of shoreline erosion and inadequate storm protection. Hurricanes Danny and Georges caused considerable loss of beach and dune sand in 1997 and 1998, respectively, and were the catalyst for significant beach renourishment projects. Maintaining the popular beaches and dunes along the Alabama coast will require significant sand resources to be available for beach and dune renourishment.

To address these issues, the Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA) in cooperation the U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service has developed a geospatial database built around a Geographic Information System (GIS). The database consists of 25 GIS coverages organized into four datasets: Sand Resources, Hurricanes and Inundation, Offshore, and Onshore. In addition to the GIS coverages, the database also includes digital columnar section diagrams of 129 offshore vibracore samples, 11 offshore foundation borings and 41 surveyed beach shoreline profiles. These analog data have been integrated directly into the GIS in ready-to-print portable document file (PDF) format. For users of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) ArcView GIS software, a custom ArcView project has been developed by the staff of the GSA to view and analyze the datasets. This has all been incorporated in an interactive CD-ROM that includes the projects, data, Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) compliant metadata, diagrams and viewing software.