Progressive Charlestown — URI, R.I. Sea Grant, DEM, municipal partners invite public to take part in shoreline monitoring program

From left, Jennifer Ogren, assistant administrator for Rhode Island State Parks; Pam Rubinoff, coastal resilience specialist for the URI Coastal Research Center and R.I. Sea Grant; and graduate student Sarah Schechter pose with the CoastSnap shoreline monitoring cradle at Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly. (URI Photos by Michael Salerno)

Nov 17, 2022

Barrington, South Kingstown, Westerly (but not Charlestown) are CoastSnap kickoff municipalities

New equipment at three Rhode Island coastal sites now enables the public to use smartphones to take photos that could help government collect data on climate change impacts such as flooding and erosion, and ultimately inform practical planning and projects to address them. 

In the vein of “community scientist” education efforts, this program provides the state and a municipal cadre – the towns of Barrington, South Kingstown, and Westerly – an opportunity to engage communities in “app” based shoreline monitoring.

Using the equipment – a cell phone cradle – that has been installed at the three coastal locations, people can take photos at the sites and upload them to CoastSnap, an app for online photo collection and crowdsourcing. The set cradle position at each site ensures that all photos are taken from the same view and can be combined into time-lapse video sequences showing shoreline change. Change can occur, for example, with flooding and erosion tied to strong storms, tides, and sea-level rise.

The public is welcome to participate as shoreline monitors by visiting the municipal CoastSnap sites: Latham Park in Barrington, East Matunuck State Beach in South Kingstown, and Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly. Instructional signage is on-site at each location to guide picture taking and uploading to CoastSnap, an online platform created by the University of New South Wales, Australia, and active in 22 countries.

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