Historical and Projected Coastal Louisiana Land Changes

Figure 13. 1990 to 2000 spatial trend data set for northwestern Vermilion Bay in southcentral Louisiana.
Images of the entire coast show that movement of coastal sand bodies around the barrier islands
continues with fragmentation in areas where restoration has not occurred. A complex pattern of
erosion and land building at the Gulf of Mexico shore can be seen from Marsh Island to Sabine
Pass (fig. 5) because of mudflat accretion from the Atchafalaya and the effects of jetteries and
other coastal structures on sediment transport pathways.
The outlines of many restoration and marsh creation projects are readily apparent in the data as
areas of land gain, such as in the Labranche wetlands (fig. 14), on west of Grand Terre Island
(fig. 10), the Isles Dernieres, and with beneficial use projects near Southwest Pass (fig. 8), and
in the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge adjacent to West Cove (fig. 15). Gains are also apparent
from beneficial use of dredged material projects and from crevasse splay projects in the active
Mississippi River Delta along Southwest Pass (fig. 8). However, at the coastwide scale, the main
areas of land gain are associated with the Atchafalaya and Wax Lake Outlet deltas (fig. 12)
where delta building processes continue.
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