University Calendar
A Multi-Scale Monitoring Program in the Northeast Region of the National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service
About Dr. Norbs Psuty
Nobert Psuty is a coastal geomorphologist whose research encompasses the dynamics of the coastal zone, incorporating process-response studies of beaches, coastal dune processes and morphology, sediment budget studies, barrier island dynamics, estuarine sedimentation, and sea-level rise.
About the Seminar
Several Federal agencies with coastal land holdings in the northeastern U.S. have embarked upon a monitoring program to gather metrics of change in the landscape. Through workshops, presentations, position papers, and webinars, they have identified a series of ‘vital signs’ that are indicators of vectors of change and that are important contributors to management of their cultural and natural resources. Among the ‘vital signs’, the highest ranked indicators were shoreline position and coastal topography. Given the identification of these highly-valued variables, procedures of data collection, data verification, and data analysis were developed to guide the monitoring program concerned with these geomorphological features within their holdings. Protocols have been developed to generate data sets in one-dimensional (shoreline position), two-dimensional (beach-dune profiles), and three-dimensional (areal topography, sediment budget) formats.
Throughout the region, the data are gathered in the same way, with the same equipment, and within a similar temporal window. Thus, they are comparable in their products and they are building a significant regional geodatabase. Importantly, they compose a local and a regional scientific foundation for management decisions regarding the vectors of change that affect the cultural and natural resources within the agency coastal landholdings. Examples of the collection and application of the geomorphological datasets are presented that have been and are being used in support of management decisions.