Florida Trustees Approve Plan to Update Coastal Sensitivity Index Maps

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The sun sets over a Gulf Coast beach in Florida.

The Florida Trustee Implementation Group has approved the Monitoring and Adaptive Management (MAM) Implementation Plan (PDF, 12 pages) for the Coastal Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) Mapping of the Florida Gulf Coast project. 

Environmental Sensitivity Index maps and datasets provide a summary of coastal resources that can be utilized by restoration managers in their decision-making process when proposing and selecting restoration projects. These maps should be updated every five to 10 years to account for natural and manmade factors that change the coastal landscape over time, such as sea level rise, storms and coastal development.   

During the next five years, this project will update ESI maps for the Florida Gulf regions (Panhandle, Northwest Peninsula, Southwest Peninsula, and South Florida) and develop a publicly accessible ESI webpage. The updated maps will better inform restoration, oil spill response planning, and damage assessment. 

This project is being allocated $1.5 million and will be funded using unallocated interest funds from the Florida Trustees. These funds will be assigned to the Florida TIG MAM allocation, thereby increasing the allocation from $10,000,000 to $11,473,993. 

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