Get SMART
Model predicts the outcome of proposed salt marsh restoration projects

Challenge
Shaped by tidal ebb and flow, salt marshes are essential habitat for many species, and their ability to capture pollutants in stormwater runoff improves coastal water quality. Yet increased development places these vital habitats at risk. Roads, bridges, and other structures dissect salt marshes, restricting the flow of water and wildlife between ocean and marsh. This starves a marsh of sediment, causing it to sink, pool with freshwater, and become vulnerable to invasive species. Today more than 350 tidally-restricted salt marshes in the Gulf of Maine are candidates for restoration. Such projects can be costly, however, and coastal managers need the right tools to plan the best course of action—long before the first shovel hits the ground.

Response
With a CICEET grant, researchers are refining a user-friendly computer model: SMART, the Salt Marsh Assessment and Restoration Tool. Developed with input from coastal managers, SMART is designed to support projects seeking to reestablish tidal flow and return an area to its native salt marsh habitat. SMART uses remote sensing technology, such as aerial photography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to acquire some of the data needed to run the model.

Managers can customize SMART for a specific site’s hydrology, elevation, vegetation, and salinity. When they enter a proposed change into the model, such as removing a culvert, SMART calculates whether this will restore tidal flow to a level conducive to a healthy salt marsh. Managers also can forecast what will happen if no action is taken. As a result, SMART not only helps to determine which restoration techniques might work best for a given site, it also identifies which sites most require restoration, or are best-suited to recovery.

Impact
Researchers have made a version of SMART available to coastal managers throughout the Gulf of Maine, including those at the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, Maine and New Hampshire coastal programs, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Restoration Center for use at the federal level. They have held workshops and training sessions with state resource managers, and believe the model will also be useful in academic settings.

Although SMART’s ecological component is specific to New England’s salt marsh vegetation, the range of some species may make SMART useful as far south as the mid-Atlantic states. Adaptations of the model using different plant species could extend its applicability to other regions. A CD of an early version of SMART is available free, upon request.

Learn More
Dr. Ray Konisky
New Hampshire Nature Conservancy
T: (603) 659-2678
E: rkonisky@tnc.org