Tracking Coastal Geomorphological Change: an …...National coastal parks and wildlife refuges are...

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1253 Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 64, 2011 Tracking Coastal Geomorphological Change: an application of protocols to collect geotemporal data sets at the national level in the US N. P. Psutyand T. M. Silveira†Marine and Coastal Sciences Rutgers University, Sandy Hook, New Jersey 07732, USA [email protected] ; [email protected] ABSTRACT Psuty, N. P. and Silveira, T. M., 2011. Tracking Coastal Geomorphological Change: an application of protocols to collect geotemporal data sets at the national level in the US. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 64 (Proceedings of the 11th International Coastal Symposium), 1253 1257. Szczecin, Poland, ISSN 0749-0208 The US National Park Service and the US Fish & Wildlife Service have joined forces in monitoring the geotemporal elements of their coastal land holdings. They have adopted a common protocol for tracking the position of the shoreline, 1-D, in and adjacent to their lands, as well as adopting a common method for collecting profiles, 2-D, and 3-D elevation models. In an unprecedented move, the two agencies are working together to build a coastal Geodatabase that will provide quantitative measures of seasonal, annual, and long-term changes in their coastal holdings. The data will be valuable in supporting decisions in their General Management Plans as well as the Comprehensive Conservation Plans. About 20 parks and refuges are involved in this first phase of coastal monitoring. Additional index words: Coastal monitoring, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service; Geodatabase Introduction National coastal parks and wildlife refuges are highly dynamic systems and geomorphologic change of the beach-dune topography is a basic concern to issues of resource management as well as visitor experience. Driven by the general predictions of impacts caused by global climate change, sea-level rise, and potential storminess generated in one of the reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Nicholls et al. 2007) as well as the specific forecasts for the mid-Atlantic portion of the United States (Najjar, et al. 2000; Titus et al., 2009), a Federal agency response is emerging. In recent years, there has been a development of programs to monitor and analyze coastal change among several US agencies with coastal holdings with the goal of generating an extensive and integrated data set intended to support decision-making directed at management objectives incorporated in General Management Plans (National Park Service) and Comprehensive Conservation Plans (Fish and Wildlife Service). The Inventory and Monitoring Program in the US National Park Service (NPS) has established the Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network (http://science.nature.nps.gov/im) and has given it the lead role in creating the methodology and geodatabase structure for four coastal parks in the northeastern US (Fig. 1). Among its initial efforts was the identification of a series of vital signs (Stevens et al. 2005) that could be tracked via prescribed procedures. High on the list of vital signs that were both capable of being monitored and returning high value for the investment were elements of coastal geomorphology that respond to a variety of natural and cultural driving forces. The goal of tracking the coastal geomorphological features led to the establishment of monitoring and reporting protocols defined and described in Psuty et al. (2010a; 2010c) that were based in fundamental scientific principles and were capable of being conducted by Park personnel. Application of the outcomes of the monitoring are intended to assist in understanding the spatial patterns of change and the natural and cultural resources at risk, thus leading to improved decision making in protecting the landscape for future generations. The US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is a second Federal agency that is embarking on a structured program to monitor changes in its coastal refuges and it has chosen to apply the same protocols as the Park Service to create similar data sets for at least fifteen of its coastal refuges in the northeastern portion of the US in its initial efforts (Fig. 1). As defined in its Coastal Program (www.fws.gov/northeast/ecologicalservices/), the FWS is committed to inventorying and monitoring the habitat resources and to understanding the vectors of change in its coastal wildlife refuges and to managing the refuges to sustain the variety of resources incorporated therein. In particular, shoreline change has been shown to affect the supratidal macrofauna in potential nesting sites for rare and endangered shorebirds (Sobocinski et al. 2010), a highly-valued refuge resource, as well as limiting the zones needed by nesting turtles. The FWS early identified Potential Resources of Concern throughout the refuges in the northeastern US and is generating data in support of Comprehensive Conservation Plans appropriate to the refuges (www.fws.gov/northeast/planning/policy.html). At the local level, areas such as the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge have very recently produced a Comprehensive Conservation Plan that stressed the importance of conserving and protecting their habitats that include a diversity of wetlands, beaches, and coastal dunes (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2010). Part of the plan is the creation of a solid data base that tracks locations of nesting sites and relates them to conditions of sediment input from adjacent updrift locations. Journal of Coastal Research SI 64 1253 - 1257 ICS2011 (Proceedings) Poland ISSN 0749-0208

Transcript of Tracking Coastal Geomorphological Change: an …...National coastal parks and wildlife refuges are...

Page 1: Tracking Coastal Geomorphological Change: an …...National coastal parks and wildlife refuges are highly dynamic systems and geomorphologic change of the beach-dune topography is

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Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 64, 2011

Journal of Coastal Research SI 64 pg - pg ICS2011 (Proceedings) Poland ISSN 0749-0208

Tracking Coastal Geomorphological Change: an application of protocols to collect geotemporal data sets at the national level in the US

N. P. Psuty† and T. M. Silveira‡ †Marine and Coastal Sciences Rutgers University, Sandy Hook, New Jersey 07732, USA [email protected]; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Psuty, N. P. and Silveira, T. M., 2011. Tracking Coastal Geomorphological Change: an application of protocols

to collect geotemporal data sets at the national level in the US. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 64 (Proceedings of the 11th International Coastal Symposium), 1253 – 1257. Szczecin, Poland, ISSN 0749-0208 The US National Park Service and the US Fish & Wildlife Service have joined forces in monitoring the geotemporal elements of their coastal land holdings. They have adopted a common protocol for tracking the position of the shoreline, 1-D, in and adjacent to their lands, as well as adopting a common method for collecting profiles, 2-D, and 3-D elevation models. In an unprecedented move, the two agencies are working together to build a coastal Geodatabase that will provide quantitative measures of seasonal, annual, and long-term changes in their coastal holdings. The data will be valuable in supporting decisions in their General Management Plans as well as the Comprehensive Conservation Plans. About 20 parks and refuges are involved in this first phase of coastal monitoring.

Additional index words: Coastal monitoring, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service; Geodatabase

Introduction National coastal parks and wildlife refuges are highly dynamic

systems and geomorphologic change of the beach-dune topography is a basic concern to issues of resource management as well as visitor experience. Driven by the general predictions of impacts caused by global climate change, sea-level rise, and potential storminess generated in one of the reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Nicholls et al. 2007) as well as the specific forecasts for the mid-Atlantic portion of the United States (Najjar, et al. 2000; Titus et al., 2009), a Federal agency response is emerging. In recent years, there has been a development of programs to monitor and analyze coastal change among several US agencies with coastal holdings with the goal of generating an extensive and integrated data set intended to support decision-making directed at management objectives incorporated in General Management Plans (National Park Service) and Comprehensive Conservation Plans (Fish and Wildlife Service).

The Inventory and Monitoring Program in the US National Park Service (NPS) has established the Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network (http://science.nature.nps.gov/im) and has given it the lead role in creating the methodology and geodatabase structure for four coastal parks in the northeastern US (Fig. 1). Among its initial efforts was the identification of a series of vital signs (Stevens et al. 2005) that could be tracked via prescribed procedures. High on the list of vital signs that were both capable of being monitored and returning high value for the investment were elements of coastal geomorphology that respond to a variety of natural and cultural driving forces. The goal of tracking the coastal geomorphological features led to the establishment of monitoring and reporting protocols defined and described in Psuty et al. (2010a; 2010c) that were based in fundamental scientific principles and were capable of being conducted by Park personnel.

Application of the outcomes of the monitoring are intended to assist in understanding the spatial patterns of change and the natural and cultural resources at risk, thus leading to improved decision making in protecting the landscape for future generations.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is a second Federal agency that is embarking on a structured program to monitor changes in its coastal refuges and it has chosen to apply the same protocols as the Park Service to create similar data sets for at least fifteen of its coastal refuges in the northeastern portion of the US in its initial efforts (Fig. 1). As defined in its Coastal Program (www.fws.gov/northeast/ecologicalservices/), the FWS is committed to inventorying and monitoring the habitat resources and to understanding the vectors of change in its coastal wildlife refuges and to managing the refuges to sustain the variety of resources incorporated therein. In particular, shoreline change has been shown to affect the supratidal macrofauna in potential nesting sites for rare and endangered shorebirds (Sobocinski et al. 2010), a highly-valued refuge resource, as well as limiting the zones needed by nesting turtles. The FWS early identified Potential Resources of Concern throughout the refuges in the northeastern US and is generating data in support of Comprehensive Conservation Plans appropriate to the refuges (www.fws.gov/northeast/planning/policy.html). At the local level, areas such as the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge have very recently produced a Comprehensive Conservation Plan that stressed the importance of conserving and protecting their habitats that include a diversity of wetlands, beaches, and coastal dunes (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2010). Part of the plan is the creation of a solid data base that tracks locations of nesting sites and relates them to conditions of sediment input from adjacent updrift locations.

Journal of Coastal Research SI 64 1253 - 1257 ICS2011 (Proceedings) Poland ISSN 0749-0208

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Federal agency initiative to monitor coastal geotemporal change

Together, the NPS and the FWS have embarked on a structured program to collect shoreline and coastal topographical data that are consistent and comparable. They are establishing a locally-produced data set that will provide vectors of geotemporal change to guide management and support decision-making.

Methods

Knowledge of the change in shoreline position is a basic issue at all coastal locations to assist in applying appropriate management decisions due to conditions in the Federal holdings as well as impacts from structures and sediment manipulations at updrift locations. As a result, both agencies are collecting shoreline position in a systematic manner, seasonally and annually, using highly accurate Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment, according to the new protocols. Shoreline change analysis is accomplished through the application of the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (Thieler et al., 2009) and the Shoreline Change Mapper (Psuty et al., 2010b) to calculate vectors of change by way of mean values standard deviations, and a variety of trend analyses. Both software applications work within the ESRI ArcGIS environment. Another component of the monitoring program in the agency landholdings involves the installation of survey benchmarks with very accurate XYZ positioning and the systematic gathering of repetitive profiles of the beach/dune topography with RTK-GPS equipment, as a means to monitor the evolution of the coastal morphology as it is displaced. And, a third element in the monitoring program is applied to areas of special concern (defined by the managers of each unit) where high-resolution topographic data collection is conducted with an RTK-

GPS unit to build digital elevation models and track volume changes in a spatial context. These two survey methods produce data-sets that are used to develop topographical profiles and elevation models, providing the necessary elements to derive areas, volumes, and volumetric changes and, thus, information on the beach-dune system’s temporal and spatial variation.

Results

The most basic element of coastal change is the variation of shoreline position through time. The application of the 1-D protocol collects shoreline position in early spring and late fall that is subsequently used to establish the short-term seasonal variations, as well as the net annual changes, and longer term trend changes. The assembled data are analyzed spatially to portray the geographical component of shore progression, such as the condition along Assateague Island (Fig. 2) where a joint effort by the NPS and the FWS are tracking the effects of a managed inlet at the northern boundary and the highly variable condition at the distal margin of the dynamic barrier island. Localized erosion is presently driving efforts to moderate the rates of erosion near the inlet by disposal of dredged sediments to augment the island’s sediment budget, and by decisions to re-locate aspects of infrastructure at the distal margin rather than erect barriers to the changes.

The application of 2-D monitoring has been applied in several of the NPS holdings to provide additional information on changes in beach width and in dune position and form (Fig. 3). Fire Island National Seashore has a record of beach-dune profiles that extend back to 1981 at 26 sites.

Figure 1. Sites of protocol application, National Park areas and Fish & Wildlife refuges.

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They are tied to local monuments and have been used to track foredune migration and cross-section area erosion and recovery (Psuty et al., 2005). Each of the National Parks and many of the Wildlife Refuges is establishing a series of documented monuments that will form the foundation for datum-based beach-dune profiles, and in some cases extend trans-island to track barrier migration as well as beach and dune changes. Importantly, the 2-D profiles characterize the cross-shore variations and contribute to an evaluation of the beach and dune variability as a resource and as they affect wildlife habitat.

The dimensions and distribution of the shoreline and topographical changes are related to sediment supply and sediment budget in an alongshore context, documenting the input of sediment from updrift of the parks and refuges and its effect on the evolution of the coastal geomorphology. The 1-D and 2-D data sets are being collected for the length of the parks and refuges and will be an important contribution to understanding the vectors of change.

The application of 3-D monitoring is directed to areas of special concern, whether monitoring a natural resource at risk because of destruction of a habitat or impending erosion of a cultural amenity such as a parking lot or visitor’s center. The 3-D monitoring generates information about sediment volume changes in both an alongshore and cross-shore direction (Fig. 4). The data are used to create digital elevation models and changes in elevation through time, or changes in the distribution of volume through time. In this monitoring, the buffering effect of foredunes and the high berms can be tracked and evaluated. The needs for beach nourishment can be quantified and defined, and the impacts of episodic events can be measured. The 3-D protocols produce a direct measure of volume changes.

Conclusions

The systematic collection of coastal topographical information at a multi-scale geotemporal level is and will be contributing to the establishment of a monitoring program that will provide highly accurate portrayals of the short-term and long-term variation of the coastal characteristics of the parks and refuges. Importantly, the monitoring will trace the geomorphological evolution of the beach and dune system as it responds to impacts of global climate change and sea-level rise, and will contribute to the scientific

Figure 2. Shoreline displacement from Fall 2009 to Spring 2010 along Assateague Island, incorporating National Park holding to the north, and Fish and Wildlife holding to the south (Psuty et al. 2010).

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Figure 3. Dune-Beach profile development collected as part of the 2-D monitoring program

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foundation for resource-management decision-making. The creation of the coastal geodatabases at this scale and frequency in the NPS and FWS programs is unique among the national and state agencies. It is programmed to produce a data set that is highly structured and supportive of geotemporal analyses. It creates comparable data sets that reduce measures of uncertainty and provide guidance to managers of the Federal coastal resources

References Najjar, R.G., H.A. Walker, P.J. Anderson, E.J. Barron, R. Bord, J.

Gibson, V.S. Kennedy, C.G. Knight, P. Megonigal, R. O'Connor, C., D. Polsky, N.P. Psuty, B. Richards, L.G. Sorenson, E. Steele, and R.S. Swanson, 2000. The potential impacts of climate change on the Mid-Atlantic coastal region. Climate Research, 14: 219-233.

National Park Service, Inventory and Monitoring: Discovering and protecting America’s natural heritage Accessed on August 30, 2010, at: http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/.

Nicholls, R.J., P.P. Wong, V.R. Burkett, J.O. Codignotto, J.E. Hay, R.F. McLean, S. Ragoonaden and C.D. Woodroffe, 2007: Coastal systems and low-lying areas. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 315-356.

Psuty, N.P., J.P. Pace, and J.R. Allen, 2005, Coastal Foredune Displacement and Recovery, Barrett Beach Talisman, Fire Island, New York, USA, Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie. Supplementband 141, pp. 153-168.

Psuty, N.P., M. Duffy, J.F. Pace, D.E. Skidds, and T.M. Silveira. 2010a. Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network geomorphological monitoring protocol: part I-Ocean shoreline position. Natural Resource Report NPS/NCBN/NRR-2010/185. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, 146p.

Psuty, N.P., T.M. Silveira, and D.E. Skidds, 2010b. Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network Geomorphological Monitoring Protocol: Part II—Coastal Topography. Natural Resource Report NPS/HTLN/NRR—2010/xxx. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.

Psuty N.P., T. M. Silveira, and A. Love. 2010c. Shoreline change Along Assateague Barrier Island: Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network Assateague Island National Seashore Trend Report, 2005-2010. Natural Resource Data Series NPS/NCBN/NRDS—2010/0__. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.

Sobocinski, K. L., J.R. Cordell, and C.A. Simenstad, 2010. Effects of shoreline modifications on supratidal macroinvertebrate fauna on Puget Sound, Washington beaches. Estuaries and Coasts 33: 699-711.

Stevens, S., B. Milstead, M. Albert, and G. Entsminger. September 2005. Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network Vital Signs Monitoring Plan. Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR-2005/025. National Park Service. Boston, Massachusetts, 114p.

Elevation Map

October 2009

465 357m3

Elevation Map

November 2009

464 293m3

Difference in elevation

Oct09

Nov09

+5.50 m (NAVD88)

-0.33 m(NAVD88)

+2 m (accretion)

-2 m(erosion)

E±0.25m

300m

Figure 4. Difference in elevation values produced by a storm event, comparing October 20 and November 17, 2009, Sandy Hook, Gateway National Recreation Area

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Thieler, E.R., E.A. Himmelstoss, J.L. Zichichi, and A. Ergul. 2009, Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 4.0—An ArcGIS Extension for Calculating Shoreline Change. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1278. Available online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1278/.

Titus, J. G., K. A. Anderson, D.R. Cahoon, D.B. Gesch, S.K. Gill, B.T. Gutierrez, E.R. Thieler, and S.J. Williams, 2009. Coastal sensitivity to sea-level rise: A focus on the Mid-Atlantic region. U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C, 298 p.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2007. Strategic Plan, Fiscal Year 2007 to 2011. FWS/DOI, Northeast Regional Office, Hadley MA, 210 p. accessed at:

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/coastal/pdfs/Final%20rR5%20Partners%20and%20Coastal%20Strategic%20Plan%20.pdf

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, September 2010. Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Comprehensive Conservation Plan. Virginia Beach VA, 510 p.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Northeast Region Ecological Services, Coastal Program. Accessed on August 30, 2010, at: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ecologicalservices/

Acknowledgements

This effort is supported by the Coastal and Barrier Network of

the National Park Service, and the special support by Sara Stevens, Program Manager, and by the Northeast Region of the Fish & Wildlife Service, under the very capable direction of Jan Taylor, Regional Refuge Biologist. The two agencies and their representatives identified herein are prime movers in the coastal data gathering programs.