Long Term Vertical Monitoring For Poplar Island Restoration

Site:

Poplar Island, Chesapeake Bay, MD

Purpose(s):

(1) Provide scientists with valuable insight into the process of maintaining coastal elevation with respect to sea level as a constructed wetland matures,
(2) Test terrestrial LiDAR as a first critical step in establishing protocols to allow the technology to be used as a tool to detect coastal elevation change as part of sea level rise.

Summary:

The US Army Corps of Engineers has been rebuilding Poplar Island as an environmental sanctuary and to demonstrate the beneficial use of dredge material for many years now. To monitor the elevation of the island, and the success of the project, greater vertical accuracy and spatial resolution of the wetland surface elevation was needed. NGS has established vertical bench marks in a newly constructed wetland at the Poplar Island Environmental Restoration Site. The bench marks served as survey control for the ground truthing component of the pilot project using a terrestrial Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) scanner to obtain a high resolution digital elevation model of a vegetated intertidal wetland. The wetland bench marks were also used to test a recently modified Surface Elevation Table (SET) that has been built to geodetic standards. The SET will be used by researchers from University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science(UMCES) to obtain millimeter-level changes in the sediment surface elevation at Poplar Island over time, providing insights into the ability of the constructed wetland to keep pace with local sea level rise.

View Larger Map <