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Unique Collaborative Land Use Study Enters Field Research Phase

Scientists in South Carolina - the ninth fastest-growing state in the nation - and Georgia race against time to examine the effects of land use.

How does land use influence ecosystems? And what role does rapid growth and development along the Southeast coast play? Various contaminants enter the coastal water system, but how do they affect our biological resources? And what can land use planners do to mitigate the effects on our environment? These are some of the questions that researchers involved with the Land Use - Coastal Ecosystem Study (LU-CES) endeavor to answer.

After several planning sessions, workshops, and user-panel meetings, scientists have begun their field research. LU-CES-a five-year, multidisciplinary research and outreach program funded by the NOAA Coastal Ocean Program, S.C. Sea Grant, and GA Sea Grant-has scientists from South Carolina and Georgia working collaboratively to examine how land use and land use change affect marine resources, and to provide a better understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships of land use activities on coastal ecosystems. Products created out of the LU-CES program will help community leaders, municipal land use planners, and natural resource managers identify, prioritize, and minimize the effects of land-use activities on marine ecosystems. Says Rick DeVoe, co-principal investigator and executive director of the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, "LU-CES comprises the best and brightest researchers in South Carolina and Georgia. This study will yield tremendous, cohesive scientific information in a format that decision-makers can understand and use. Those who are involved with land use policy will be able to make informed, scientifically-supported decisions."

Although the southeastern U.S. presently has one of the smallest coastal populations in the country, the region is expected to experience unprecedented growth in the coming decades. Increases of both residents and visitors are now occurring at the highest rates in the nation, and the enormous influx of tourists, retirees, and new residents is transforming the southeastern coastline. This growth is placing enormous pressure on coastal resources, watersheds, and the adjacent coastal ocean. Communities have built subdivisions, condominiums, motels, shopping centers, golf courses, new bridges, and roads to accommodate this growth - adding additional pressures on the region's marine resources.

This map, based on an integrated GIS model, is part of the Urban Growth Prediction Project at Clemson University. Researchers at the Clemson Institute for Economics and Community Development estimate that 1 million new residents will move to South Carolina in the next 30 years, and many of these people will reside in coastal areas such as Charleston and Beaufort counties. (The Okatie watershed studied by LU-CES researchers is located in Beaufort County.) Larger view.

LU-CES research will focus on the central South Atlantic Bight, along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, and field research will initially be focused on the Okatie River watershed in South Carolina. The Okatie River is a relatively undeveloped watershed that winds through the Coastal Plains region of South Carolina in Beaufort County. However, existing and planned developments may significantly alter the character of this watershed. Later in the study, the Satilla River in Georgia will be examined. The Satilla River is an expansive system in which the semi-diurnal tide extends 100 kilometers upriver, and contains the largest salt marsh of any Georgia estuary.

The map detail is a zoomed-in view of some sampling sites located in the Okatie watershed. Research teams collect water and ground-core samples, and then analyze the samples for toxic contaminants, physical attributes, hydrology, geochemistry, and nutrients. Image courtesy of the Geographic Information Processing Lab at the University of South Carolina. Larger view.

LU-CES scientists recently completed the first full year of field investigations. They are focusing their studies on the salt marsh-tidal creek ecosystem, and the ecological processes therein that drive the transport, fate, and effects of materials entering the marine environment. Researchers are examining the system's land use patterns, physical attributes, hydrology, geochemistry, nutrient dynamics, surface and groundwater characteristics, toxic contaminants, and ecological effects on marine dwellers such as grass shrimp, juvenile clams, and oysters. The overall goal of LU-CES is to develop science-based predictive, decision-making tools that integrate changes in land use patterns with effects on hydrodynamics, transport processes, and ecosystem function to assist in planning for sustainable coastal land use and resource management.

A critical part of this study involves standardizing data collection efforts and developing science-based information products. LU-CES scientists are developing a Web-based data and information hub to facilitate the exchange of data, findings, and relevant products among participating scientists and with resource managers and community leaders responsible for making land use decisions. An important goal of LU-CES is to enhance interactions between scientists and decision-makers to ensure that the research data generated can be used for the development of products, such as models, maps, and assessment techniques, required for local planning and resource management. "LU-CES is partly about collecting scientific information in new and focused ways, but it is also about how the information is packaged and used," says Dr. Gary Kleppel, State University of New York professor and LU-CES co-principal investigator. "Libraries are full of information. But information only becomes valuable to Society if it can be used by Society. LU-CES will provide novel flexibility in the area of information delivery that will address the needs and sophistication levels of a variety of users."

The LU-CES Web site will feature an Internet Map Serving application, which permits the site user to view and manipulate map data in an easy-to-use interface.

To date, LU-CES scientific teams have prepared nine State-of-Knowledge (SOK) Reports, providing comprehensive technical reviews of what is known about the relationship between land-use activities and the condition of marine resources in the southeast U.S. region. These and a State-of-Knowledge synthesis document are published on the LU-CES Web site at http://www.lu-ces.org.

The S.C. Sea Grant Consortium is administering the LU-CES program with funding provided through a competitively approved grant number NA960PO113 by NOAA's Coastal Ocean Program. The program is a collaboration among scientists and staff from the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, GA Sea Grant, State University of New York-Albany, Clemson University, University of South Carolina, NOAA/NOS Charleston Laboratory, S.C. Department of Natural Resources Marine Resources Research Institute, Beaufort County, Georgia Institute of Technology, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia, University of Massachussetts-Dartmouth, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

[2/15/02]

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