Long-term Monitoring of Living Shorelines

Erosion along Galveston Bay’s shoreline has exceeded 4 feet per year in many areas. Living Shoreline (LS) restoration techniques have been developed as an ecologically friendly alternative to hardened structures like bulkheads. Vegetated wetlands form a buffer between high-energy water and adjacent land, limiting or reversing shoreline erosion. In 2023, researchers at Lee College, partnering with the University of Houston – Clear Lake, the Galveston Bay Foundation, and Black Cat GIS & Biological Services obtained funding from the Galveston Bay Estuary Program to compare the ecosystem services and overall health of wetlands with different types of shoreline protection. They compared marsh protected by hardened structures, marsh protected by living shorelines, and reference undisturbed marsh at three Living Shorelines sites (LVS) within the Galveston Bay system to attempt to assess the resiliency and functional aspects (biotic and abiotic) of these small-scale restoration projects. 

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