Local, short-term tidal datums and salt marsh elevations for three coastal national parks: Assateague Island National Seashore, Fire Island National Seashore, and Gateway National Recreation Area-Sandy Hook Unit.
Rasmussen SA, Neil AJ, Bradley M, Lynch J. 2017. Local, short-term tidal datums and salt marsh elevations for three coastal national parks: Assateague Island National Seashore, Fire Island National Seashore, and Gateway National Recreation Area-Sandy Hook Unit.. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NCBN/NRR—2017/1462. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Three coastal parks in the Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network (NCBN) of the National Park Service (NPS) were impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012: Assateague Island National Seashore (ASIS), Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) and Gateway National Recreation Area (GATE). These parks have salt marsh ecosystems susceptible to future storms and sea level rise. To better understand how these dynamic systems may change, a series of water level loggers were deployed at different salt marsh sites within these three parks. The duration of these deployments ranged from 5-32 months. In 2014, the University of Rhode Island-Environmental Data Center (URI-EDC) partnered with the National Park Service Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network (NCBN) to collect elevation, water level and vegetation data at salt marsh sites at ASIS, FIIS, and GATE-Sandy Hook Unit. We calculated tidal datums, mean high water (MHW), mean low water (MLW), and mean sea level (MSL) from these data at each of these marsh locations combined with marsh surface elevations using Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS). Mean tidal datums from the short-term deployments and marsh surfaces were tied to a fixed orthometric datum (the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88)) (Geoid 12A) to insure inter-site comparisons and relatability to other data such as LiDAR.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Rasmussen, Scott; Neil, Andrew; Bradley, Michael; Lynch, James
- Date of Issue
- 2017-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ASIS , FIIS , GATE , NCBN , NRSS
- Keywords
- ASIS, Assateague Island National Seashore, elevation, Environmental Data Center, FIIS, Fire Island National Seashore, fixed orthometric datum, GATE, Gateway National Recreation Area, Hurricane Sandy, marsh surface elevations, mean high water, mean low water, mean sea level, MHW, MLW, MSL, National Park Service, NCBN, Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network, Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System, RTK-GPS, salt marsh, sea level rise, storms, tidal datums, University of Rhode Island, URI-EDC, vegetation, water level, water level loggers