As part of its mission to document
coastal change, the USGS has been taking aerial photographs of the
coast before and after each major storm for the past 18 years to
assess damages to the natural landscape and the built environment.
A typical mission consists of approximately 10,000 photographs. The
digital photo-archive maintained by the USGS is a valuable
environmental record containing approximately 100,000 photographs
taken before and after 23 extreme storms along the Gulf and
Atlantic Coasts. At the same time, the USGS has been developing
mathematical models that predict the likely interactions between
storm surge and coastal features, such as beaches and dunes, during
extreme storms, with the aim of predicting areas that are
vulnerable to storm damage. Currently the photographs are not used
to inform the mathematical models. The models are based primarily
on pre-storm dune height and predicted wave behavior. If scientists
could "ground truth" coastal damage by comparing before and after
photographs of the coast, the predictive models might be improved.
It is not physically or economically possible for USGS scientists
to examine all aerial photographs related to each storm, however,
and automation of this process is also problematic. Image analysis
software is not yet sophisticated enough to automatically identify
damages to the natural landscape and the built environment that are
depicted in these photographs; human perception and local knowledge
are required. 'iCoast-Did the Coast Change?' (hereafter referred to
as 'iCoast') is a USGS research project to construct a web-based
application that will allow citizen volunteers to compare these
before and after photographs of the coast and identify changes that
result from extreme storms through a process known as
'crowdsourcing' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing). In
concept, this application will be similar to those of other citizen
science image comparison and classification projects such as the
Citizen Science Alliance's Cyclone Center project, (see
www.cyclonecenter.org), which asks people to classify types of
cyclones by comparing satellite images. There are two distinct
purposes to 'iCoast': (1) to allow USGS scientists to 'ground
truth' or validate their predictive storm surge models. These
mathematical models, which are widely used in the emergency
management community for locating areas of potential vulnerability
to incoming storms, are currently based solely on pre-storm beach
morphology as determined by high-resolution elevation data, and
predicted wave behavior derived from parameters of the approaching
storm. The on-the-ground post-storm observations provided by
citizens using 'iCoast' will allow scientists to determine the
accuracy of the models for future applications, and (2) to serve as
a repository of images that enables citizens to become more aware
of their vulnerability to coastal change and to participate in the
advancement of coastal science.
US Code:
43 USC 1701 et seq. Name of Law: The Federal Land Policy and
Management Act of 1976
US Code: 42
USC 5201 Name of Law: Disaster Relief Act of 1974
US Code:
46 USC 31 (a) and (b) Name of Law: The Coastal Zone Management
Act of 1976
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