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Coastline change is an ever-increasing area of interest with a multitude of research opportunities. The Coastie Initiative was developed with Parks Canada to crowdsource the collection of regular imagery of coastal morphology, building a large dataset for tracking shoreline change. Citizens can partake in this growing program by submitting a ‘Coastie’ through the web-based platform. At every site, a phone cradle, designed to standardize images, is accompanied by an informational panel and a QR code. Visitors can use the QR code to quickly access the submission wizard. After submission, the image is saved and awaits classification by researchers. The intended development of the project includes an achievement system to promote user retention, an automated classification system to eliminate manual labelling, and an ocean literacy stream as an effort to educate and inform the public. The initiative was launched during the fall of 2021 with 5 locations. The Coastie program is a collaboration that has developed from the global CoastSnap Community Beach Monitoring movement that began in Australia in 2017. Using the early prototype dataset, coastal change can be quantified from repeat geo-rectified images. These capture deposition/erosion of the beach and dune topography in response to ambient environmental conditions or higher energy storm events. This dataset will serve as a baseline to monitor how coastal systems respond to climate change, including sea level rise, change in storm activity, and reduction in sea ice coverage. The Coastie Initiative allows citizen scientists to influence coastline exploration participating alongside motivated researchers.

There has been a growing discourse within higher education to engage with Students as Partners (SaP) and to transform institutional culture by harnessing the strength of students and faculty working together. Engaging with SaP offers benefits to both students and faculty, yet there continues to be less research on SaP practices at the macro-degree level. The purpose of this study was to conduct a faculty-wide investigation of student-faculty partnerships within the Faculty of Science at a mid-sized university in Ontario, Canada. Through a mixed methods approach of surveys (n = 178) and semi-structured interviews (n = 10) with undergraduate students, we examined the types of student partnerships occurring within the Faculty of Science as well as gathered insights into students’ perspectives of the benefits and challenges they experience engaging in these partnerships. Collaborating with faculty on research projects, teaching assistantships, and being a student leader in an organization with faculty guidance were considered the most impactful partnerships among participants. Students also reported several social, personal, academic, and career-related benefits as a result of working in partnership with faculty members, while common challenges included barriers to engaging in activities, social barriers, power imbalances, difficult working environments, and personal challenges. By studying the benefits and challenges experienced by students, we provide advances towards creating an engaged learning environment that supports undergraduate student engagement, collaboration, and enhanced student-faculty relationships that in turn support recruitment and retention efforts.

WaterHCI (Water-Human-Computer Interaction) is a field of study and practice focusing on the design and creation of interactive devices, systems, and experiences at the intersection of water, humans, and technology. It is a relatively new field that originated in Ontario, Canada, in the 1960s, and was further developed at University of Toronto through a series of annual (de)conferences from 1998 to present. This year, at our 24th annual WaterHCI (de)conference, we focus our attention on ideas for creating spaces and places (e.g. Ontario-Placemaking\tma) that combine fun and frolic with health and wellbeing, nature and spirituality, research and teaching, and innovation, where we can touch and be touched by water.

The impact of storm surge on a barrier island tends to be considered from a single cross-shore dimension, dependent only on the relative elevations of the storm surge and dune. However, the foredune line is rarely uniform, and can exhibit considerable variation in height and width at a range of length scales ranging from tens of meters to several kilometers. LiDAR data from barrier islands in Texas and Florida are used to explore how shoreline position and dune morphology vary alongshore, and to determine how this variability is altered or reinforced by storms and post-storm recovery. Wavelet analysis reveals that a power law can approximate long-term shoreline change across all scales, but that storm-scale shoreline change ( 10 years) and dune height exhibit similar scale-dependent variations at swash (0-50 m) and surf zone scales (

The individual abstracts for this session are available to read in the PDF.

This short communication describes the development and application of analytical reasoning to quantify instability of an aeolian environment using scale-dependent information coupled with conceptual knowledge of process and feedback mechanisms. Specifically, a simple Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) for aeolian landscape instability was developed that represents conceptual knowledge of key biophysical processes and feedbacks. Model inputs include satellite-derived surface biophysical and geomorphometric parameters. FCMs are a knowledge-based artificial intelligence (AI) technique that merges fuzzy logic and neural computing in which knowledge or concepts are structured as a web of relationships that is similar to both human reasoning and the human decision-making process. Given simple process-form relationships, the analytical reasoning model is able to map the influence of land management practices and the geomorphology of the inherited surface on aeolian instability within the South Texas Sand Sheet. Results suggest that FCMs can be used to formalize process-form relationships and information integration analogous to human cognition with future iterations accounting for the spatial interactions and temporal lags across the sand sheets. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In the present study, GPR surveys are used to interpret the evolution of representative trough-blowouts within Padre Island National Seashore, based on the assumption that the bedding structures formed during blowout evolution cause reflections that can be recognized in radar transects (Everett 2013). These features do not definitively categorize environments however it is possible to assign specific stratigraphic features with phases of blowout evolution. In order to understand the surficial expression and extent associated with each phase aerial photographs from 1969 to 2010 and LiDAR data from 2005 and 2011 were used to help interpret the structures observed in the GPR surveys and create a three dimensional understanding of blowouts within Padre Island National Seashore

There is a paucity of field data to describe the transition in nearshore circulation between alongshore, meandering and rip current systems. A combination of in-situ current meters and surf zone drifters are used to characterize the nearshore circulation over a transverse bar and rip morphology at Pensacola Beach, Florida in the presence of relatively low energy oblique waves. Current speeds vary in response to the relative wave height ratio (Hs/h), which defines the degree and extent of breaking over the shoal. In the absence of wave breaking the nearshore circulation was dominated by an alongshore current driven by the oblique waves. As waves begin to break across the shoal (0.20.5), the meandering current is replaced by an unsteady rip circulation that moves offshore between the shoals before turning alongshore in the direction of wave advance outside the surf zone. The increase in wave dissipation is associated with an increase in very low frequency (VLF) variations in the current speed across the shoal and in the rip channel that caused the circulation to oscillate between an offshore and an alongshore flow. The unsteady nature of the nearshore circulation is responsible for 55% of all surf zone exits under these more dissipative conditions. In contrast, only 29% of the drifters released from the shoal exited the surf zone and bypassed the adjacent shoal with the alongshore-meandering current. While the currents had a low velocity (maximum of ~0.4ms-1) and would not pose a significant hazard to the average swimmer, the results of this study suggest that the transverse bar and rip morphology is sufficient to create an alongshore variation in wave dissipation that forces alongshore meandering and low-energy rip circulation systems under oblique wave forcing. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This chapter examines beach-dune interactions, the sediment transport, and morphological connection between beach and dune systems, from a process perspective. We introduce the components of beach-dune interactions from small to large temporal scales: process, tidal and storm, and Holocene. The chapter concludes by integrating the previously discussed concepts and introducing dominant beach-dune interaction models. Linking these processes over a range of spatial and temporal scales has proven quite difficult, remains an important focus of the science, and provides opportunity for future investigations. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Research experience for undergraduate (REU) programs are designed to recruit students to science and engineering research careers by allowing the students to conduct research with faculty mentors. International research experiences can enhance the research experience by allowing the student to conduct research in a unique environment and also provide the student with a more global perspective. This paper describes the outcomes of an international REU program in which students quantify hydrological and biogeochemical fluxes in a tropical montane forest in central Costa Rica. Having the students at a central research station location and focusing their research on a common research problem is an important aspect of an international REU program, to avoid a feeling of isolation and to ensure that the students remain safe in their research and during their free time. However, this shared experience can highlight differences among the faculty mentors and make the students evaluate their individual experience more critically. To better understand the relationship between the REU student and their faculty mentor(s), we conducted pre- and post-trip focus groups to understand the students' experience in the REU and the manner in which the faculty mentor can affect that experience and the desire to continue in research. Results of the pre-trip focus group suggest that the undergraduate students are most concerned about their projects and give little to no thought about the faculty mentor with whom they will be completing their research. Post-trip results from 2011 and 2012 suggest that mentors had a much greater impact on the experience than expected. Many students said that their future research/graduate school plans were affected by their REU mentor relationship, and that while they might not have considered the importance of faculty mentors before the research experience, they now recognize the mentor as a crucial aspect of a research project. Using a classification system commonly used in management research, the mentoring styles were classified with management classification styles as autocratic, democratic, or laissez-faire. The overall results suggest that the student-to-mentor relationship created through these authentic experiences is one of the most important aspects of REU programs, and that the mentoring style not only determines the research productivity of the student, but also appears to influence the decision of that student to conduct research in the future and/or attend graduate school. The mentoring style also affects research productivity and allows students to identify the characteristics they perceive as important to success in a graduate program. While this paper focuses on a single REU program, the results provide baseline data to examine the role of the faculty mentor across other REU programs and in decisions about graduate research by both the student and the faculty. Mentoring styles and student expectations of their mentors should be taken into consideration when developing a research experience and pairing mentors with prospective students. © 2013 National Association of Geoscience Teachers.

A series of geophysical surveys using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic induction (EM) were conducted at Padre Island National Seashore (PAIS), Texas to characterize barrier island transgression at a range of spatial and temporal scales. The first study (June, 2010 - January, 2011) used GPR and vibracores to investigate variations within the internal structure of various-sized foredunes along a 2.5 km length of the non-driving (restricted vehicular access) section of PAIS. Three representative foredunes with different heights were selected within the storm impact regime proposed by Sallenger (2000). A small (1.79 m), intermediate (2.69 m) and large dune (3.77 m) represent inundation, overwash and collision regimes, respectively. The second preliminary study (May, 2013) used the EM induction method to measure spatial variations in apparent conductivity across the intermediate dune site surveyed by GPR in 2010-2011. A 100 m long EM transect was conducted in close proximity to the 2010-2011 GPR survey area. Additionally, a new GPR survey was conducted along the same EM profile for comparison with the EM data as well as the GPR profile taken in 2010-2011. Currently, we plan to conduct several extensive GPR and EM surveys at regularly-spaced intervals (∼15 km apart) within the driving (vehicular accessible) section of PAIS and across the Laguna Madre wind-tidal flat system.

The height and extent of coastal dune recovery following extreme storms can exhibit considerable variability over short distances, leading to variable storm impact alongshore in National Seashores. The source of this variation is not well understood in general, and is not easily explained by contemporary dune models that ascribe dune height and development to regional variations in sediment availability and beachface slope. In this paper, LiDAR data from the Gulf Islands and Padre Island National Seashore are used to characterize the alongshore variation in dune morphology, and to identify how the variation is related to beach morphology and nearshore state. It is shown that the variation in dune morphology and storm impact in these parks is dependent on the alongshore correspondence of sediment supply and transport potential, which varies with the beach and nearshore state. It is further argued that dune development in the Gulf Islands National Seashore is transport limited by the reflective beachface, while in Padre Islands National Seashore, dune development is supply limited. In this respect, different post-storm management and development strategies are required to ensure dune resiliency.

Changes in bed elevation within the upper-swash zone are measured using ultrasonic distance sensors that can measure swash depths and changes in bed elevation at a resolution of ∼0.1 mm. Changes in bed elevation are examined relative to the depth-averaged Eularian flow velocity estimated using a cross-shore array of pressure transducers and distance sensors in the foreshore. Bed elevation change over the observed tidal cycle ranged from a net loss of 0.01 m mid-foreshore to a net gain of 0.18 m at the uppermost station in the swash zone. No statistically significant relationship is observed between the change in bed elevation and the higher order moments of the velocity as would be expected from an energetics model for either bedload or suspended load. Accretion occurs through thin (grain-scale) sediment drapes deposited following the relatively rapid uprush of swash bores formed through breaking across the fronting nearshore terrace at low tide. Erosion results from deeper swash with a strong backwash velocity that becomes increasinlgy common through high tide as wave breaking becomes increasingly focused on the lower to mid-foreshore. The balance of erosion and deposition is shown to to vary in response to water level fluctuatinos at tidal and sub-tidal scales.

In the future, Earth will be warmer, precipitation events will be more extreme, global mean sea level will rise, and many arid and semiarid regions will be drier. Human modifications of landscapes will also occur at an accelerated rate as developed areas increase in size and population density. We now have gridded global forecasts, being continually improved, of the climatic and land use changes (C&LUC) that are likely to occur in the coming decades. However, besides a few exceptions, consensus forecasts do not exist for how these C&LUC will likely impact Earth-surface processes and hazards. In some cases, we have the tools to forecast the geomorphic responses to likely future C&LUC. Fully exploiting these models and utilizing these tools will require close collaboration among Earth-surface scientists and Earth-system modelers. This paper assesses the state-of-the-art tools and data that are being used or could be used to forecast changes in the state of Earth's surface as a result of likely future C&LUC. We also propose strategies for filling key knowledge gaps, emphasizing where additional basic research and/or collaboration across disciplines are necessary. The main body of the paper addresses cross-cutting issues, including the importance of nonlinear/threshold-dominated interactions among topography, vegetation, and sediment transport, as well as the importance of alternate stable states and extreme, rare events for understanding and forecasting Earth-surface response to C&LUC. Five supplements delve into different scales or process zones (global-scale assessments and fluvial, aeolian, glacial/periglacial, and coastal process zones) in detail.