Year: 2019
Project(s):
Relevance
The community of South Padre Island, Texas, has a history of confronting strong storms and responding to their impacts. Over the last 50 years, four major hurricanes have impacted the small, low-lying barrier island community, exacting moderate to severe damage from the Gulf shoreline to the Laguna Madre. Hurricanes Ike (2008) and Dolly (2008) greatly impacted South Padre Island, causing structural and environmental damage and weakening the seasonal beach-tourism economy upon which the community relies.
Response
With support from Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant, the city of South Padre Island revised its Comprehensive Plan to include a Shoreline Master Plan. The Shoreline Master Plan provides a list of broad, interrelated goals that enhance or support existing education, tourism, conservation and public access projects within the city. Each goal is accompanied by recommendations that build upon commitments from the city's previous planning documents and the knowledge gained from results of a public planning meeting.
Results
South Padre Island adopted the Shoreline Master Plan, which promotes resilience and preserves adjacent aquatic habitats that serve to attenuate water level rise and storm surge. Maintaining this vital storm buffer minimizes damage to hard structures and lessens the overall flood risks to upland areas of the island. Storm buffering helps ecosystems withstand disturbances. Additionally, conservation of ecologically important lands will ensure that future development will take place in more resilient locations.
Recap
The city of South Padre Island, Texas, developed a Shoreline Master Plan that identifies and preserves aquatic habitats (such as wetlands and mangroves) that provide protection from sea level rise and storm surge. (2019)