Establishment of Operational Guidelines for Texas Coastal Zone Management
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A multidisciplinary team has been functioning at The University of Texas at Austin since 1971 to develop, apply, and evaluate methodology for considering environmental and economic effects of alternative Coastal Zone Management policies. The region encompassed by the Coastal Bend Council of Governments served as the test site for this project; special emphasis has been in the area around Corpus Christi Bay--Nueces, San Patricio, Aransas, and Refugio Counties. The principal purpose of the Bureau of Economic Geology task force of the multidisciplinary team was to provide an environmental baseline against which to measure the effects of economic and demographic development in the Corpus Christi area and probable differences among several hypothetical management policies. Operational criteria, which form this baseline, the systematic approach by which the locational effects of expansion were determined, and examples of the environmental impact of development are contained in this report.
Forty land and water areas have been delineated in the Corpus Christi area, each with like capabilities to withstand similar kinds and rates of use or activity without losing an acceptable level of environmental quality. These data have been augmented by: (1) documenting the kinds, rates, and impetus of changes in dynamic shoreline environments; (2) relating engineering test results gathered by public agencies and private firms to physically defined land capability units on the Coastal Plain and in the bays; and (3) determining the distribution, amount, and quality of ground water available in the Corpus Christi area, and possible consequences of withdrawal of the ground water.
Land and water resource data and current (1970) land-use data were digitized for automated processing from maps at a scale of 1:125,000. Environmental assessment is in terms of the kinds, amounts, and relative percentages of land and water resources and land-use types affected by growth in the Corpus Christi area.