Port Fourchon is a vital staging area for Gulf of Mexico energy production located in the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary System, a biologically and economically productive ecosystem bounded by the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers. This is one of the most fragile and rapidly evolving landscapes in the United States, making the port and surrounding communities highly vulnerable to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change. The port plans to deepen its channel to 50 feet, generating millions of cubic yards of sediment and seeks to beneficially utilize this sediment to develop natural and nature-based solutions to help protect it from the impacts of climate change. To accomplish this goal, an Environmental Competency Group consisting of coastal scientists, residents, and key stakeholders was convened to develop and evaluate a series of ecosystem restoration and sediment management strategies that will maximize social and ecological co-benefits of these solutions and enhance the resilience of Port Fourchon and the surrounding communities. This group utilized a participatory modeling process to develop a fully integrated landscape and ecosystem evolution model that was used to forecast long-term changes to the landscape and wetland vegetation communities resulting from the co-developed restoration strategies. The outcomes of this research demonstrate the effectiveness of a systematic co-development approach to wetland restoration and sediment management in the vicinity of Port Fourchon and provides approaches and tools that can be adapted for use elsewhere to develop holistic solutions that maximize benefits and enhance resilience.

Scott Hemmerling is a Senior Research Scientist with The Water Institute of the Gulf, focusing on research related to climate adaptation and community resilience. A cultural geographer with more than twenty years of experience investigating the impacts of environmental change on coastal communities, his recent work is focused on developing approaches to incorporate local knowledge into assessments of community resilience and quantifying the social value of ecosystem restoration projects. Dr. Hemmerling is also the author of A Louisiana Coastal Atlas, a geographical study examining the effects of historical social, economic, and environmental stresses on community resilience.

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