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Get SMART: A new computer model, SMART, helps coastal managers predict the outcome of proposed salt marsh restoration projects.
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Project Title: Salt Marsh Assessment and Restoration Tool (SMART)
Research Location: Wells, Maine
Shaped by tidal ebb and flow, salt marshes are among the most productive of ecosystems. They 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 and pool with freshwater, which makes it vulnerable to invasive species. Today more than 350 tidally of these restricted 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.
Researchers are refining a user-friendly computer model, the Salt Marsh Assessment and Restoration Tool (SMART), to inform the design of restoration projects seeking to reestablish tidal flow and return an area to its native salt marsh habitat. Developed with input from coastal managers, SMART will use remote sensing technology such as aerial photography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to acquire some of the data needed to run the model. Managers will be able to customize SMART for a site's hydrology, elevation, vegetation, and salinity. When they enter a proposed change, such as removing a culvert or installing a bridge, 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.
Researchers validated an earlier version of SMART at two previously restored Gulf of Maine sites. When they input pre-restoration conditions and the changes that had been made to restore tidal flow, the SMART model predicted, with 96 percent accuracy, how much salt marsh habitat had been recovered.
Researchers are making 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. Researchers 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, from Dr. Konisky: rkonisky@wellsreserve.org.
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Project Coordinator(s)
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Jeff Rogers, Ph.D.; GeoSyntec Consultants
978.263.9588; jrogers@geosyntec.com Ray Konisky, Ph.D.; Wells NERRS 207.646.1555, ext. 101; rkonisky@wellsreserve.org |
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NERR Reserve(s):
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Wells, Maine
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| For more information: |
Dolores Jalbert Leonard 603.862.3685; dolores.leonard@unh.edu |