Friday, October 11, 2019

Public, Private Sectors Fill Data Gap, Support Coastal Resiliency

This week, federal, state, and academic partners, including NGS, are observing more than 48 local survey control points with GPS equipment, from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to the Delaware Bay. Along parts of the Mid-Atlantic coast, sea levels are rising faster than the global average, and coastal communities need accurate data on the contributions of local land motion to sea level rise. But there is a national data gap on vertical land motion. Now, organizations across the Delmarva area, including NOAA, have partnered to use low-cost GPS measurements to monitor local subsidence rates. The survey will be repeated annually over the next five years with the goal of measuring local rates of vertical land motion at the millimeter per year scale. The study will also attempt to discern the "footprint size" of a local subsidence hotspot in Hampton Roads. Data from the project will be publicly available.

For more information, contact: Philippe Hensel