Essex and Ipswich are playing a sizable role in the state’s monitoring of coastal conditions and flooding.
Through the installation of new overland flood sensors and an offshore wave buoy, researchers plan to record information related to flooding conditions in the region.
The Stone Living Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston is expanding its Real-Time Monitoring Network with the deployment of two new “Hohonu” overland flooding sensors in Essex and a new offshore wave buoy in Ipswich Bay.
The lab is a collaboration of UMass Boston, Boston Harbor Now, along with city, state and federal partners.
Dr. Katie Dafforn, director of the Stone Living Lab and Distinguished Professor of Coastal Resilience at UMass Boston, said the lab is committed to research and outreach designed to help vulnerable coastal areas adapt to climate change.
“The expanded Real-Time Monitoring Network marks a leap forward in fulfilling that mission, especially with the intuitive, easy-to-navigate dashboard that makes all this data readily accessible and visually understandable for all kinds of stakeholders,” Dafforn said.
In total, the project will see the installation of 10 new overland flood sensors and two offshore buoys that will measure wave conditions at locations from Cape Ann to Boston, down to Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
The new instruments are designed to more than double the reach of the lab’s monitoring network — filling in major gaps in ocean and flood monitoring.
The expanded monitoring will provide local leaders, climate scientists and residents with publicly accessible, real-time and localized data about where communities might face damaging floodwaters at high tides and during coastal storms.
In Essex, one overland sensor is being permanently installed near Great Marsh Brewing Company on the Main Street Causeway (Route 133) and a second device will be a “mobile sensor,” to be installed in a new location every 4-6 months. Another overland sensor is being installed at Collins Cove in Salem.
“The town of Essex is very pleased to be chosen to host a site as part of the Real-Time Flood Monitoring Network,” said Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki. “This installation fulfills a critical goal found within the town’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plan while contributing data that will be helpful to coastal resilience planners in other jurisdictions and organizations.”
The new wave buoys, deployed in Ipswich Bay and off Mattapoisett in Buzzard’s Bay, provide 24/7 monitoring of wave height, frequency and direction. The wave buoys can be used for long-term modeling and also provide early warnings of possible coastal flooding.
Joe Christo, chief resilience officer at the Stone Living Lab and Boston Harbor Now, said the monitoring network provides more opportunities to understand where coastal flooding is happening while helping climate experts plan for and adapt to a changing climate.
“Projects like this do not happen without close partnerships and we are so thankful to have many great partners throughout Massachusetts and beyond that we collaborate with on this work,” he said.
Data collected by the network is publicly available on new dashboards that can be found at www.stonelivinglab.org/dashboards.
“We are looking forward to linking to the digital dashboards that will be offered for our own planning and research purposes and for the benefit of the public and others,” Zubricki said.
Stephen Hagan may be contacted at 978-675-2708, or shagan@gloucestertimes.com.