NPS: Enhancing Coastal Resilience through Local Collaboration

This is just an announcement that NPS is continuing its current cooperative agreement with the Trustees of Boston University.

This is NOT a request for applications.

This is just an announcement that NPS is continuing its current cooperative agreement with the Trustees of Boston University.

The major product of this project will be a full coastal vulnerability report, assessing each
island cluster, for each of three SLR scenarios, and associated model output data products, maps,
and interpretive graphical products. We will also provide an interim summary of our progress
annually and pass across data each year as the project progresses so that it can be used by NPS
and stakeholders as soon as possible. The project analyses and report will assess the relative
vulnerability of each distinct coastal area of each island according to substrate resilience,
topography, and exposure to storms, Boston Harbor sediment dynamics, and possible threshold
crossings. The resulting analyses will include locally-scaled predictions that can then be tested
by simple monitoring such as: the vulnerability of seawalls to overtopping; the predicted
frequency of storm overwashing in primary dune and gravel overwash ridge areas; areas where
high volume overwash deposition events are possible; approximate bluff and shoreline retreat
rates for the modeled sea-level elevations; and most critically, areas where infrastructure and
cultural and natural resource vulnerability to storm impacts is highest. Simple indicators that can
be easily monitored will be identified (e.g. for absolute sea level, and/or frequency of inundation
of index sites), and thresholds to trigger management decision–making will be established.
Specific scientific deliverables from the cooperator will include simple but powerful metrics
including:
1. Beach and bluff retreat rates for selected areas of each of the three islands;
2. Authoritative, high accuracy map layers for:
a. Coastal substrate type (e.g. seawall, riprap, rocky bluff, glacial till bluff, cobble
beach, salt marsh etc.), and the relative resilience to dismantling/erosion of each;
b. The location and elevation of all significant cultural and natural resources and
visitor facilities;
c. Measured and predicted erosion and deposition areas in Boston Harbor and the
islands, including hot spots of scarp retreat; and
d. Predicted areas of high volume overwash deposition events.
The report will include, details of:
1. Areas where infrastructure and cultural and natural resource vulnerability to storm
impacts is highest;
2. The capacity for management success in protecting resources in high vulnerability
areas;
3. The predicted frequency of storm overwashing; and
4. Recommended monitoring sites and methods that could be used to provide early
warning of likely threshold crossings.