The purpose of this project was to assess the spatial distribution of anthropogenic environmental hazards in the Louisiana coastal zone and implications of those hazards for coastal resources and restoration efforts. Several state and federal environmental databases publicly available on the internet were selected for inclusion in this study. The hazard sites were mapped in a Geographic Information System by geocoding addresses obtained from the databases. Sites with unmatched addresses were mapped to zip code centroid. Hazard types in databases lacking spatial data at the address level were totaled and mapped by parish. Buffers were created at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 mile radii of hazard sites to assess the proximity of state and federal coastal restoration projects and the distribution of Land Use and Land Cover types within the buffers. The federal databases were more comprehensive than the state databases, but the compatibility among all of the databases varied. The most comprehensive database was the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) which, unlike any of the other databases, included chemical names and quantities releases as well as geographic coordinates. The TRI did not contain any toxicity data; therefore outside sources must be consulted to use the data for risk assessment. In general, hazard sites were distributed along major commerce corridors, especially waterways, and near populated areas. Because these hazard types appear to follow human settlement patterns, the cumulative risk posed by these facilities will continue to grow in concert with the growing coastal population. The negative externalities associated with the needs of a growing coastal population stand in stark contrast to coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana and, if left unchecked, may stand as a roadblock to the success of those efforts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11132006-112930 |
| Date | 13 November 2006 |
| Creators | Kroninger, Melissa Ann |
| Contributors | Stephanie Moret, Margaret Reams, Michael Wascom, Paul Templet |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11132006-112930/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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