ISN CEM

BeringWatch Coastal Erosion Monitoring App

The BeringWatch Coastal Erosion Monitoring (CEM) app enables community members to record quantitative measurements of coastal, river, and/or lake erosion using mobile devices.

The CEM app is part of an effort initiated by the Coastal Geoscience Program of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys and BeringWatch Community-Based Sentinel Monitoring Network to implement a program through which communities can more easily monitor and document local shoreline change.The technique combines existing methodologies of erosion monitoring in a new and innovative way to transform anecdotal reports of erosion into rigorous measurements that will create a quantitative record of shoreline change.

The information collected is meant to help communities in the future, when they need to know the specifics of the changes they're seeing for planning, grant-writing or other efforts. Despite the need for such information to fuel decision-making in a changing environment, Alaska’s extensive shorelines are inconsistently monitored and under-instrumented for the evaluation of coastal erosion. Alaska's local residents have the necessary local knowledge, motivation, and ability to help quantify rates of erosion in remote areas and the CEM app provides a useful tool to collect, store and transmit this information using the BeringWatch Community-Based Sentinel Monitoring Network.

For information on joining the BeringWatch Sentinel Network please contact the Aleut Community of St. Paul Tribal Government.