Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) and the Coastal Reference Monitoring System (CRMS)

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CWPPRA is Federal legislation enacted in 1990 to identify and fund site-specific projects to create, restore, protect, or enhance coastal wetlands. The National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) maps trends, patterns and the effectiveness of restoration strategies using color infrared aerial imagery acquisition, land-water classification and habitat mapping.

In 2003, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) implemented the Coastal Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the CWPPRA projects. The CRMS established 390 1-km² monitoring sites across Louisiana’s coastline. The NWRC can provide imagery acquisition and land-water classification for the 390 sites to assess coastal restoration projects across Louisiana’s entire coastline.  This program is funded through CWPPRA and schedules imagery acquisition and land-water analysis on a 3-year cycle.   Imagery is acquired using Intergraph’s Z/I Imaging Digital Mapping Camera (DMC) for 1-m resolution stereo imagery.  

Author Name
William Jones
Author Email
jonesb@usgs.gov