Development and implementation of a citizen-science drone based coastal change monitoring program in the Great Lakes region

Keywords: coastal erosion, coastal resilience, citizen science, drones, coastal geomorphology
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 47

Abstract

High-resolution spatio-temporal data are needed to improve coastal management
programs, particularly along the Great Lakes where lake level fluctuations pose
challenges to coastal decision-making and planning. Unfortunately, there is a paucity
of coastal change monitoring datasets, particularly those that document event-scale
changes over a large spatial scale. This paucity of data is compounded by the large
size and range of shore types throughout the region. Drone data collected by citizen
scientists are a potential solution to this challenge. However, no citizen science coastal
change monitoring program exists in the Great Lakes region, nor does a
comprehensive drone-based coastal change monitoring programs exist anywhere in
the United States. To inform the development of drone-based citizen science
programs, the goal of this paper is to describe the development and implementation of
a citizen science coastal change monitoring program along the Great Lakes shores of
Michigan. The citizens participating in this project generate imagery in two ways: (1)
the submission of photos of coastal changes or hazards via a web app developed for
the project called PicShores and (2) drone collection of survey-quality aerial imagery
for use in the generation of orthomosaic images and digital elevation models (DEMs).
We present the methods utilized to develop the citizen science monitoring program,
some initial findings from the citizen science monitoring, and explore some challenges
and next steps for the program.