Efforts to enhance resilience planning along Maine’s coastline are underway, focusing on the need for updated coastal bluff maps. These maps are essential as bluffs constitute 48 percent of the state’s extensive 5,000-mile coastline, yet many current maps are over two decades old and lack vital information regarding development, erosion, and bluff stability.
Collaborative Approach to Mapping
The Maine Geological Survey, Maine Sea Grant, and the University of Maine engineering group are collaborating to improve the precision and accuracy of coastal bluff maps. This initiative aims to equip coastal managers with detailed data necessary to effectively plan and permit resilient shoreline protection systems. The partners are employing modern technologies to address the gaps in existing data.
By integrating remote-sensing data with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) land cover and Coastal Ocean Reanalysis (CORA) data, the team has established a consistent and continuous dataset across the coastal zone. This includes the extraction of mean wave direction and significant wave height data from CORA, which helps to map wave energy patterns along Maine’s coastline.
Supporting Hazard Assessments
This analysis serves as a vital baseline for understanding wave dynamics and variability, which is crucial for ongoing hazard assessments and resilience planning efforts along the coast. The newly acquired wave data will also be incorporated into an updated version of the Maine Geological Survey’s Living Shorelines Decision Support Tool. This enhancement will provide more precise metrics for planning living shorelines, further supporting the state’s efforts in coastal resilience.
As coastal bluff erosion continues to pose challenges, the update of shoreline maps and the development of accurate data are essential in strengthening Maine’s resilience planning efforts.
Source: NOAA
