Beginning in November of 2023 I led a project to develop a public-facing resilience planning tool for the Town of Gosnold, Massachusetts, in coordination with the University of Rhode Island Environmental Data Center. The Town was interested in updating their original tool to reflect the most recent remote sensing data available at the time, as well as provide additional functionality.

Gosnold is spread across the Elizabeth Islands in Buzzards Bay. Each island is relatively unique geographically, but they share in the risk that rising sea levels pose to island communities globally. The focus of this vulnerability is primarily on wharf infrastructure and the collection of bridges that connect some islands together. A change analysis revealed signficiant coastal erosion along some of the cliffs, some of which may approach 20 meters in height.

A side-product of this project was that I discovered how well high-resolution LiDAR is able to reveal subtle anomalies in the landscape. In working with Dr. David Gregg, of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, we discovered long-disused, unbound agricultural fields. We also were able to pinpoint the exact location of an old Revolutionary War-era fort on Naushon Island.