Beach Profile Monitoring

Because of high erosion rates and the proximity of Irving Eco-Centre’s structures to the beach, it was recommended by the Scientific Advisory Committee that a monitoring program be initiated in 1999.

Objectives of the project
Four major objectives have been proposed for the dune profile monitoring project on the Bouctouche spit site, they are the following:

• Establish survey lines which are representative of the different sectors found on this 12 km system.
• Survey these lines twice a year as a means to monitor long term changes in the morphology of the dune.
• Detect tendencies in the dynamics of the system, for example, erosion or accretion on the different sectors of the dune spit.
• Monitor the evolution of a large breach.

The lines were first surveyed in August1999 and continue to be surveyed at least twice a year. The variation in elevation is plotted against the distance along the profile. The profile at the first survey line was located a few meters in front of the Interpretation Centre. Although only a year of data has been gathered, a slight retreat of the dune crest is visible between August 1999 and December 2000. Data from the storm, October 29, 2000 will also be added in a future report and should reveal a significant retreat of the crest.

The data revealed that some errors had been made, and some basic elevation information was missing. Results could not be interpreted for all survey lines. Unfortunately there was a variation in starting point in the profile data collected by different people. All survey lines have two posts. Some surveys were started at the outer post (east) and others at the outer (west) post. A standard data sheet with instructions will be prepared for next year to ensure this problem is resolved. Data gathered to date will be reevaluated to correct this error.

All posts need to be correctly geo-referenced in order to find or replace them. Since the Irving Eco-Centre is not equipped with a GPS system, some of this information had been obtained by Dr. Forbes of the Geological Survey of Canada. This data has to be verified in the field.

Also, obtaining precise elevation is necessary as a starting point to plot the results. According to Dr. Forbes, the elevation data previously obtained through some work he had conducted in fall 1999 has to be verified for its accuracy. A complete report will be available in 2001 .