Active Sand Volumes at Rockaway Peninsula and Fire Island, New York and Seven Mile Island, New Jersey

As part of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)-funded Monitoring Hurricane Sandy Beach and Marsh Resilience in New York and New Jersey project (NFWF project ID 2300.16.055110), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) used bathymetric and geophysical data to monitor the post-restoration evolution of shorefaces and assess the active sediment volume, or the volume of sediment that could contribute to beach and shoreline behavior over annual to decadal time scales, at two post-Hurricane Sandy beach and marsh restoration sites in New York and New Jersey. These data and derived ecological resilience metrics will be used to assess the cost-effectiveness and ecological benefits of the restoration techniques and evaluate how the restored parts of the coast have changed through time. Geophysics-derived beach morphologic features, including the sand volume of the shoreface, help define coastal vulnerability to storm impacts and long-term shoreline change. These datasets include the Seven Mile Island, NJ, Rockaway Peninsula, NY, and Fire Island, NY shorefaces and encompass NFWF restoration project 41991 (Increasing Seven Mile Island’s beach resiliency, New Jersey) and NPS-1A (Mitigate Impacts from Artificial Groin to Jacob Riis Beach to Restore Habitats and Recreation Resources) as well as the National Park Service (NPS) Fire Island National Seashore, which was identified by USGS SPCMSC as a control area (USGS-GS2-2B) that was not directly restored.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated May 24, 2024, 18:20 (UTC)
Created May 24, 2024, 18:15 (UTC)
Data Maintainer Julie Bernier
Email Address jbernier@usgs.gov
Metric Category Ecological
Metric Class Elevation, Beach Geomorphology, Shoreline
Resilience Grant NPS-1A, NFWF-41991
Reporting Years 2021, 2015, 2023, 2019, 2018, 2014
States and Territories NY, NJ
Measurement Stage Monitoring