LITTLE DOVER — A new initiative to monitor coastline erosion along the Eastern Shore with the help of residents is in full swing.
“Traditionally, the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia has been the best-preserved natural area, and is recognized as the province’s wildest region,” coastal explorer and geographer Camilo Botero, who has partnered with the Anglican Parish of Port Dufferin on the project, told The Journal.
He added, “This is environmentally significant but challenging, due to [the area’s] sparse and aging population, making it harder to gather information.”
In early July, the coastal monitoring project, based on citizen science, began improving data collection on climate and coastal areas, including quadrupling the number of meteorological stations located between Musquodoboit Harbour and the Canso Islands.
Participants in the Anglican parish project received meteorological stations to install at their homes near coastal areas, enabling climatological forensic analyses during extreme weather events, such as rainstorms and hurricanes.
“By early August, an inventory of beach flora will begin to track invasive species and important dune plants like beach grass,” Botero said.
In August and September, oceanographic monitoring of wave height, speed and direction, coastal currents and beach profiles will begin. By September, he said they will start monitoring new beaches for sediment health, based on their beach profile – the golden parameter for measuring erosion.
“In sum,” said Botero, “by October the combination of meteorological data from those new stations, the biological inventories, the oceanographic data and the beach profiles, will help the community and the scientists to better identify the climate change impacts on the Eastern Shore.”
This community-driven effort highlights the power of collaboration that will be spread to more than 40 small villages along the Eastern Shore during the next four years.
“Thanks to these citizen scientists who live within the communities, everyone would have access to valuable data to conserve coastal ecosystems [and] be better prepared for the climate change effects and, consequently, protect the properties on the shore,” Botero said.
Residents can access the new weather stations for Moser River, Sheet Harbour and Little Dover at the following address: www.wunderground.com/weather.
