to: Pete Sprague, Assembly President

Members, Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly

THRU: Dale Bagley, Mayor

THRU: Jeffrey Sinz, Finance Director

THRU: Max Best, Planning Director

FROM: Kevin Williamson, Planner

SUBJECT: Ordinance 2002-19-24. CIAP Grant: Coastline Mapping and Modeling

DATE: November 7, 2002

The Kenai Peninsula Borough is anticipating receiving approximately $80,000 from the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) to begin a coastal erosion study.

To address continued significant property and habitat loss, especially on the southern peninsula coast, the Kenai Peninsula Borough planning staff wrote a proposal to develop a coastline map from Anchor Point to Kachemak Bay using Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and GIS. The grant application was in response to CIAP funds made available under the Competitive Grant Program administered by the Alaska Coastal Management Program and the Department of Governmental Coordination.

The majority of these funds will be for LIDAR imagery. LIght Detection And Ranging uses the same principle as RADAR. The LIDAR instrument transmits light out to a target. The transmitted light interacts with and is changed by the target. Some of this light is reflected / scattered back to the instrument where it is analyzed. The change in the properties of the light enables some property of the target to be determined.

LIDAR, when combined with differential Global Positioning System (GPS) positioning methodology, is capable of producing a high-resolution topographic map or DEM. With contours of laser-acquired topography, we should be able to make an objective and repeatable determination of shoreline position, which is fundamental to all erosion studies.