Abstract

Hurricane Michael damaged countless communities along the gulf coast - an area that is also home to sensitive habitat for imperiled species like the Choctawatchee beach mouse and Piping Plover. This web app lets users visualize the loss of coastal habitat in the wake of Hurricane Michael and overlay these areas with designated critical habitat for several species on the US Endagered Species List. As the severity and frequency of storms and natural disasters increase under climate change, the conservation of imperiled species will need to account for the effects of these events and how they may exacerbate ongoing threats to these species. Areas of loss were detected and mapped automatically using change detection algorithms developed by CCI.