A resilient Massachusetts coast needs sediment.
Many of our most treasured coastal environments - beaches, salt marshes, and shellfish flats - are made of sediment. All of these environments need a continual supply of sediment to keep up with sea level rise. In many coastal areas, rivers provide most of the sand and silt to the coast, but that is not the case in Massachusetts. Parts of Massachusetts have few rivers, like Cape Cod and the Islands, and much of the rest of the state’s coastline is few by small rivers that do not have much sediment as they drain low elevation terrain with mostly sandy soils. As a result, many of our state’s beaches and salt marshes are supplied with sediment that is generated when coastal bluffs erode into the waves, making that material available to be transported along the shore to beaches and estuaries.
What is MGS doing?
MGS is working to figure out exactly how much sediment comes from coastal erosion. In areas where bluffs are armored to protect critical infrastructure, we are working to figure out how much sediment is being lost from the coast, and working on finding creative solutions to restore that lost sediment to protect our beautiful beaches and salt marshes.
Learn more about this project and download data at the project’s USGS ScienceBase page.
Funding from the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, part of the US Geological Survey.