About the Project

Home to roughly one third of the Southeast's estuarine salt marsh acreage, South Carolina faces escalating local and state concerns over marsh vulnerability due to rising sea levels. Knowing that several informative metrics could be derived from remotely sensed data, a catalyst project utilized unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to assess existing marsh vulnerability metrics at multiple spatial scales at the two South Carolina reserves. In exploring the applicability of the existing metrics and thresholds, the team found that the unique nature of South Carolina’s salt marshes – largely Spartina alterniflora monocultures that vary spatially and temporally in terms of how sparsely vegetated or covered in water they are – result in higher Unvegetated to Vegetated Ratio (UVVR) thresholds, variability in Marsh Resilience to SLR (MARS), and variability in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculations. These findings have major implications for marsh management recommendations as decision makers use these metrics to estimate whether marshes are keeping pace with rates of sea level rise.

About this Resource

This project generated three datasets from field unmanned aerial system (UAS) imaging at two reserves in South Carolina. These project datasets include UAS imagery, ArcGIS layers representing multiple levels of resolution, and UVVR and other calculated metrics for both the ACE Basin and North Inlet-Winyah Bay Reserves. An overview of the project datasets and their accessibility is provided below. The dataset description provides more information about each dataset.

• UAS Imagery of ACE Basin NERR Wetlands and Water Levels: This dataset has been archived with the NERRS Centralized Data Management Office.
• UAS Imagery of North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR Wetlands and Water Levels: This dataset has been archived with the NERRS Centralized Data Management Office.
• Marsh Metrics for ACE Basin and North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERRs: This dataset will be made publicly available within two years of project completion or upon publication of the associated manuscript, whichever is sooner. Data will be archived in the interim with the NERRS Centralized Data Management Office (CDMO).

Questions about these datasets can be directed to the project lead:

Dr. Denise Sanger, ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve, [email protected]