Gulf of Mexico Regional Sediment Budget

Abstract

Abstract Development of dynamic regional sediment management (RSM) plans is needed for future planning, construction, and monitoring of wetland and barrier island restoration. Broadly speaking, RSM refers to the optimum use of various sediment resources (littoral, estuarine, and riverine) in an environmentally effective and economically feasible manner. Coordination of the supply and demand sides of sand resources in a comprehensive manner will be required as project planning develops and evolves. The sediment budget is a planning tool that provides an accounting of sediment sources, sinks, and pathways as well as engineering activities and sediment budgets have generally been characterized as conceptual, interim, and operational depending upon the quality of the data, the level of analysis, and the uncertainty associated with the volume fluxes in the sediment budget. This paper summarizes existing sediment budget data for the entire Northern Gulf of Mexico. The purpose of this work has been to compile av...