Katrina's Impact Frames Meeting of Barrier Island Scientists in Biloxi
April 12, 2006
OCEAN SPRINGS - With the impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in mind, scientists will meet in Biloxi this week to set priorities for research about preserving barrier islands and their role in protecting the mainland.
Guiding a visit to Horn Island so that participants can see how Katrina affected the island’s dunes and plant life will be Dr. Greg Carter, chief scientist of the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Geospatial Center in Ocean Springs, and his Southern Miss graduate students.
Carter is among invited researchers from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions who will confer about barrier islands and their ecological and economic importance Thursday through Saturday at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino.
The meeting is hosted by the Barrier Island Consortium, a project supported by the National Science Foundation and led by Dr. William Smith of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Participants are scientists who study barrier islands along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States as well as other locations around the world.
“The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 emphasized the importance of barrier islands but also raised a lot of questions about the research needed to help preserve them,” Smith said. “For example, we need a better understanding of how barrier islands recover after extreme events like Katrina and how continued coastal development and a warming global climate may affect their stability.”
Consortium participants include the University of Southern Mississippi, Wake Forest, Texas A&M University, Tulane University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Rhode Island, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Instituto de Ecologia in Veracruz, Mexico.
Carter said the Southern Miss geospatial center at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory is particularly interested in how images taken from satellites and aircraft can be used to study changes that occur on barrier islands over months, years and decades.
“Satellite images and aerial photography give us a tremendous amount of information," Carter said. "They allow us to measure changes that occur on the islands much more effectively than ground measurements alone, and they give us valuable historical records to compare with the present-day condition of the islands.”
Smith noted that raising public awareness is key to the survival and health of barrier islands.
“This is a planning venture” Smith said. “It’s critical that we plan ways to communicate the importance of barrier islands to the public and the importance of taking action based on sound science to preserve barrier islands. If we help the islands, the islands will help us.”
