Attendee Survey Results from the April and May 2020 Gulf Islands National Seashore Workshop

“The Gulf Islands Sediment Budget Needs Assessment Workshop” was a two-part event, held virtually, in April and May 2020, and included representatives from Federal and State agencies. The focus of the workshop was to identify and prioritize specific research needs that address seafloor change and sediment transport along barrier islands and adjacent inlets at the GINS. The workshop series sought to identify available scientific data, knowledge gaps, resources, and capabilities. Twenty-four people participated in the April 23–24, 2020 session (Seekamp and others, 2022). The April workshop, consisting of NPS and USGS staff, identified and documented research and data needs and priorities related to sediment transport and budgets at the GINS. A Qualtrics (https://www.qualtrics.com/) online survey questionnaire, which used an iterative sequence of elicitation (deliberation of results), was used to assess perceptions of the importance and urgency of GINS-specific research and data needs. Survey responses were analyzed for mean scores and visualized on topical area scatterplots for the facilitated deliberations (Seekamp and others, 2022). The survey questionnaires were structured using themes: cultural resources, natural resources, geomorphology and sediment, mapping and modeling, and policy and management. Participants were asked to rate each research and data need relative to the other needs within the theme. The response scales for importance and urgency were presented as a side-by-side matrix and measured on scales labeled: “not at all (1)”, “slightly (2)”, somewhat (3)”, “very (4)”, and “extremely (5)”. Participants were instructed to skip survey items (specific research and data needs) that they did not feel qualified to evaluate; these entries appear as blank cells in the tabular datasets. A total of 121 questions were included in the survey. Of the 24 participants attending the April workshop, 20 people completed the final elicitation survey (83 percent response rate).

The May 27 and 28 workshop convened regional agency and non-governmental partners, 57 participants were in attendance. This session explored regional research and data needs and the prime concerns of external partners related to the priorities established at the previous [April 23–24] workshop. Following the final elicitation from the April workshop participants, the list of research and data needs was truncated to include only those qualitatively identified as “most important and urgent” by NPS and USGS staff for use in the May workshop (Seekamp and others, 2022). At the end of the May workshop, a final Qualtrics online-elicitation survey questionnaire was administered to collect perceptions of the “most important and urgent” regional research and data needs and evaluations of the workshop (see Appendix tables 4.1 and 4.2 in Seekamp and others, 2022). A total of 78 questions were included in the survey. Of the 57 participants at the May workshop, 23 completed the final elicitation survey (40 percent response rate).