1. Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources
  2. Geoscience Data System

Field Activity 2024-004-FA

Identifier 2024-004-FA
Alternate names Marsh Island New Bedford 2024 - CED/AIM/EG
Purpose Monitor the hydrodynamics and sediment supply to a newly engineered system. Buzzards Bay Coalition and their partners have just completed Phase I of this project to create an engineered salt marsh on a former fill area. Sediment supply is a key factor in salt marsh sustainability with rising sea-level, this site provides a unique opportunity to study the establishment of the engineered system under the natural forcing of the tides and water flow.
Location Marsh Island site New Bedford Harbor, Acushnet River, Fairhaven, MA..
Summary We have deployed three instruments, on two fence-post mounted platforms and one bed-mounted platform, under the footbridge in the center of the channel on the seabed. The first fence-mounted platform contains a Sontek IQ+, which measures water velocity and flow every 15 minutes. This yields a volumetric water flux over each tide, and any net flux in/out during storms and rainfall events. Adjacent to this, connected with a power cable, is a submersible battery on a bed mounted fiberglass grate, weighted down with ~ 60 lbs. On the second platform, we have a YSI EXO2, which measures water depth, turbidity, salinity, pH, oxygen, fluorescent dissolved organic material, and chlorophyll every 15 minutes. Along with water samples, we can convert the turbidity signal to suspended sediment, and with the flow data, compute sediment fluxes in/out of the system. This platform also has an RBR Dwave, which measures wave height and period. These instruments will remain on-site for the duration of the experiment, which ideally will last until the system is completely vegetated and in a quasi-equilibrium. We will conduct site visits every 1-2 months to collect water samples, check the instruments, download data, and add battery power. Disturbance at the site will be minimal as the platforms will stay in place and the instruments will be temporarily removed. Water sampling will be conducted from the footbridge with a handheld sampler. We installed 2 wells at the site (Site A: 41.652024, -70.915786, depth below surface 72.5 cm; Site B: 41.651435, -70.914968, depth below surface 37 cm) to determine water levels in the subsurface. Installation was done with a sediment auger. During install we noted that sediments at Site A were sandy with phrag root chunks, underlain by a clay layer and Site B had heaving (liquified) sand at depth. Each well has a CTD (In-Situ AquaTroll 200) measuring conductivity, temperature and depth. A barometer was installed on the observation platform. All instruments are recording at 15 minute intervals. Aerial surveys using sUAS (small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems) will provide a bare earth elevation model using structure from motion photogrammetry and lidar technology to map the surface of Marsh Island. Vegetation models will be constructed from information collected from a micaSense Altum multispectral camera also flown over the newly constructed marsh. Ground control targets were placed to georeference the imagery. Surveys will be conducted at a minimum of twice per year to capture changes in topography and vegetation seasonally and on an annual time scale.
Info derived Time-series data of water level, currents, flow/discharge, waves, turbidity, and other water-quality parameters (temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen, pH, fDOM, blue-green algae). Supplemental water samples will be collected and analyzed for total suspended-sediment concentration and loss-on-ignition. Grain-size distribution will be determined from sediment samples collected the marsh creek bed. Aerial mapping will provide full elevation coverage and multispectral orthoimage data. Biochem time-series sensor data are groundwater well CTD measurements.
Comments This will be an ongoing study and would like it to be an event type field activity. Multiple Information specialists due to group overlap. Entries for this field activity are based on entries from Field Activity 2023-025-FA.
Projects
Platform
on foot
survey conducted on foot
Itinerary
Start Fairhaven, MA 2024-01-23
End Fairhaven, MA 2024-12-31
Days in the field 15
Activity events
Start date End date Description
2024-01-23 2024-01-23 Bo and Olivia turned around the Dwave, Exo, and IQ
2024-04-09 2024-04-09 S. Brosnahan and S. Ackerman visited site with UAS equipment and flew the M600 YellowScan Mapper+ (lidar and RGB camera) attached. Mavic and Anafi might be flown too. AeroPoints were deployed as ground control.
2024-04-22 2024-04-22 Jen O'Keefe-Suttles, Emily Tacke, Jin-Si Over, and Robert Bales visited the site. Wells were sampled and checked, the Exo and IQ under the bridge were serviced and replaced. Base station occupied the new PK nail on the bridge and the RTK equipment was used to take a transect across the channel and on the equipment.
2024-05-21 2024-05-21 Bo and Olivia connected IQ to new battery, downloaded data, changed "Record Multicell Data" setting to 1, and restarted data collection.
2024-05-22 2024-05-22 Swap well loggers, download barometer, surface water collection. Emily Tacke and Dakota Sievers
2024-06-20 2024-06-20 Tidal creek tidal sampling. Meagan Eagle Amari Johnson
2024-06-24 2024-06-24 Bo and Olivia turned around the Dwave, Exo, and IQ.
2024-06-25 2024-06-25 Tidal creek tidal sampling. Emily Tacke, Amari Johnson
2024-07-02 2024-07-02 Bo, Jen C, Seth, Amari (student), and Ezra (volunteer) did two sUAS flights with the Skydio X10 for a MIR aerial imagery data collect for photogrammetry. A GPS ground survey with the SP80 was also done.
2024-07-12 2024-07-12 Water sampling from bridge over the timeseries instruments on same interval as Exo. Water samples will be filtered for SSC and used to convert Exo turbidity (NTU) to SSC (mg/l). Personnel: Bo and Olivia
2024-07-19 2024-07-19 Tidal creek tidal sampling for geochemical constituents. Meagan Eagle Amari Johnson
2024-08-21 2024-08-21 S. Ackerman, J. Cramer, J. Over, M. Bartlett visited site with UAS equipment and flew the M600 with YellowScan Mapper+ (lidar and RGB camera) and the Altum (multispectral camera) attached. Also flew the new Skydio x10 (RGB and thermal camera). Mavic and Anafi might be flown too. AeroPoints were deployed as ground control. This fieldwork day was coordinated with researchers from the Buzzards Bay Coalition who are in the field this week doing vegetation and elevation surveys.
2024-09-17 2024-09-17 Bales and De Meo working at site under pedestrian bridge. Switching out dWave and Exo, downloading data from IQ and re-deploying. Collecting RTK data on new instruments and across the channel for IQ flow calculations.
2024-09-30 2024-09-30 Tidal creek tidal sampling. RTK wells. Retrieved well CTDs and barometer. Emily Tacke, Rachel Einecker
2024-10-15 2024-10-15 Change batteries and power setting on deployed IQplus. This should allow for longer deployments (up to 6mos). Steve Suttles and Bo Bales.
2024-12-17 2024-12-17 Switching out Exo and Dwave under bridge at MI site. Download IQ data and redploy with same batteries currently installed. RTK creek and collect water samples. Bales and De Meo
Bounds
West -70.91820717
East -70.91380835
North 41.6531785
South 41.64949085

Personnel

Organization
384 Woods Hole Road
Quissett Campus
Woods Hole, MA02543-1598
(508) 548-8700
Principal investigators Neil Kamal GanjuMeagan J EagleSandra M Brosnahan
Crew members
Seth Ackerman
Scientist, Staff
Steven E Suttles
Scientist, Staff
Eric D. Marsjanik
Scientist, Staff
Jin-Si R Over
Scientist, Staff
Olivia A De Meo
Scientist, Staff
Rachel L Einecker
Scientist, Staff
Information specialist(s)
Meagan J Eagle
Specialist, Information
Jennifer A O'keefe Suttles
Specialist, Information
Jennifer M Cramer
Specialist, Information
Robert D Bales
Specialist, Information
Emily J Tacke
Specialist, Information

Data types and categories

Data category: Sampling, Time Series, Imagery, Location-Elevation
Data type: Navigation, Mooring (physical oceanography), Chemistry, Geology, Geochemical Monitoring, Photo, Transects, LIDAR

Equipment used

Equipment Usage description Data types Datasets
Emlid RS3 Navigation 2
YellowScan Mapper + Navigation, Photo, LIDAR 1
Skydio X10 Navigation, Other Imagery, Photo 3
Bottom platform Mooring (physical oceanography) (no data reported)
Water sampler Chemistry (no data reported)
Sampling scoop Geology (no data reported)
In-Situ AquaTroll 200 (CTD) Geochemical Monitoring, Conductivity, Depth, Temperature (no data reported)
Altum-PT Photo 1
Aeropoint targets Navigation, Transects, Profiles 3
RTK Transects, Benchmarks (no data reported)

Datasets

Datasets produced in this activity

Dataset name Equipment Description Dataset contact
August GPS Points for UAS flights Emlid RS3 GPS ground check points taken in August during UAS flights to ground truth the bottom of the creek. Jin-Si R Over
July Skydio Orthomosaics Skydio X10 The Skydio images were made into digital surface model and a thermal and RGB orthomosaic using structure from motion. Jin-Si R Over

Datasets compiled from multiple sources

Dataset name Equipment Description Dataset contact
2024004FA_MI_Aug Emlid RS3 Lidar point cloud, elevation models, GPS data, imagery, and orthomosaics from multispectral and true-color aerial imagery data, collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on August 21st, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, digital surface model, digital terrain model and lidar point cloud. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over
2024004FA_MI_Aug YellowScan Mapper + Lidar point cloud, elevation models, GPS data, imagery, and orthomosaics from multispectral and true-color aerial imagery data, collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on August 21st, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, digital surface model, digital terrain model and lidar point cloud. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over
2024004FA_MI_Aug Skydio X10 Lidar point cloud, elevation models, GPS data, imagery, and orthomosaics from multispectral and true-color aerial imagery data, collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on August 21st, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, digital surface model, digital terrain model and lidar point cloud. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over
2024004FA_MI_Jul Skydio X10 RGB and thermal imagery, SfM products, and GPS data collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on July 2nd, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, and digital surface model. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over
2024004FA_MI_Aug Altum-PT Lidar point cloud, elevation models, GPS data, imagery, and orthomosaics from multispectral and true-color aerial imagery data, collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on August 21st, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, digital surface model, digital terrain model and lidar point cloud. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over
2024004FA_MI_Apr Aeropoint targets Lidar point cloud, elevation models, GPS data, and imagery and orthomosaic from true-color aerial imagery, collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on April 9th, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, digital surface model, digital terrain model and lidar point cloud. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over
2024004FA_MI_Aug Aeropoint targets Lidar point cloud, elevation models, GPS data, imagery, and orthomosaics from multispectral and true-color aerial imagery data, collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on August 21st, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, digital surface model, digital terrain model and lidar point cloud. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over
2024004FA_MI_Jul Aeropoint targets RGB and thermal imagery, SfM products, and GPS data collected during UAS operations at Marsh Island, New Bedford, MA on July 2nd, 2024. Contains CSV files of image and Aero Point locations, orthophotos, and digital surface model. Individual images are available from the Imagery Data System. Jin-Si R Over

Publications

Samples collected during this field activity

Images collected during this field activity, from the Imagery Data System

5362 images are associated with this activity.