Abstract:

This dataset contains width and length measurements of islands in Terrebonne Bay, Barataria Bay, and Breton Sound in Louisiana from 1989-10-24 to 2019-03-30. This dataset expands upon the publication Turner, R. Eugene, G. McClenachan, A.W. Tweel 2016. Islands in the oil: Quantifying salt marsh shoreline erosion after the Deepwater Horizon oiling. Marine Pollution Bulletin 110: 316-323. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.06.046. This dataset differs from the original 2016 publication by extending the date range from 2012 to 2019 and providing exact dates of the images used for the erosion calculations in the manuscript. The morphology of the islands sometimes changed enough that new locations of the land-water interface were established if the island eroded. Where possible, a few new locations for the widths and length were established and entirely new measurements made from the beginning of aerial image to 2019. Some islands completely eroded since 2012 or the point used for measuring relative distance was no longer visible.

Suggested Citation:

Turner, R. Eugene. 2021. Measurements of islands in Terrebonne Bay, Barataria Bay and Breton Sound of Louisiana from 1989-10-24 to 2019-03-30. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/n7-t9re-9293

Purpose:

To determine if the dimensions of islands changed in response to oiling, how much shoreline was lost, if the losses were temporary, and if recovery/restoration occurred.

Data Parameters and Units:

Worksheet "Length" Length in meters (east to west) for 42 islands. Data is organized by station: Station identifier, Lat (deg, dec min), Long (deg, dec min), month (numeric 1-12), day (numeric 1-31), Year (YYYY); Worksheet “Width” Width in meters (north to south) for 43 islands. Data is organized by station: Station identifier, Lat (deg, dec min), Long (deg, dec min), month (numeric 1-12), day (numeric 1-31), Year (YYYY).

Methods:

Publicly-accessible and credentialed aerial imagery in GoogleEarth was utilized to measure the width (east to west) of 43 islands and length (north to south) of 42 islands using the linear measurement tool. Detailed methods can be found in Turner, R.E., G. McClenachan, and A.W. Tweel. 2016. Islands in the oil: Quantifying salt marsh shoreline erosion after the Deepwater Horizon oiling. Marine Pollution Bulletin 110: 316-323. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.06.046.

Provenance and Historical References:

Turner, R.Eugene, G. McClenachan, and A.W. Tweel. 2016. Islands in the oil: Quantifying salt marsh shoreline erosion after the Deepwater Horizon oiling. Marine Pollution Bulletin 110: 316-323. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.06.046.

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