Swan Island: Monitoring and Adaptive Management Plan
Abstract
Swan Island is a 10.12 ha island located in the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Because of its value as a natural wave break for the town of Ewell on nearby Smith Island, as well as the ongoing erosion and subsidence of the island, in 2019 US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)Baltimore District placed 45,873 m of dredged sediment and planted 200,000 marsh plants. This restoration provided an opportunity to quantify the engineering (that is, resilience) and ecological performance of the island, postplacement. The lack of quantitative data on the performance of natural features such as islands has led to perceived uncertainties that are often cited as barriers to implementation. To address these data gaps, a multidisciplinary collaboration of five government entities identified project objectives and monitoring parameters through a series of mediated workshops and then developed a conceptual model to articulate those parameters and the linkages between them. This monitoring and adaptive management plan (MAMP) documents those monitoring parameters and procedures and can serve as an example for other scales, regions, and research questions. Documenting research and monitoring efforts may help to foster widespread acceptance of nature-based solutions such as islands.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1177024
Entities
People
- Amanda S. Tritinger
- Brook D. Herman
- Danielle M. Szimanski
- Jeffery K. King
- Jenny Davis
- Joseph Z. Gailani
- Matt Whitbeck
- Michael T. Ramirez
- Paula E. Whitfield
- Rebecca R. Golden
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center