2017 Coastal Master Plan: Strategy for Selecting Fish Modeling Approaches

Coastal restoration involves the alteration of environmental conditions that result in direct and indirect responses of individual fish and shellfish. These environmental effects from restoration include changes in hydrology, water quality, and physical habitat. Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan relied on quantifying changes in habitat for life stages of selected species. The goal is for the fish models eventually used in the 2017 Coastal Master Plan to provide a quantitative analysis of how the effects on hydrology, water quality, and physical habitat on individuals (both direct and indirect effects) translate into local and regional population and food web responses. This report is a scoping document on the strategy for selecting and applying fish models for the 2017 Coastal Master Plan. The development of the strategy is an important part of the process towards developing a systematic, transparent, and logical scheme for including fish models in the 2017 Coastal Master Plan.