In the fading lights of December on the beach of Sober Island, NS, Robin Metcalfe and a team of other citizen scientists set up a device that points east down the sand.
This beach surveyor – made of wing nuts, curtains, and a pocket level tied with elastic straps – measures the slope of the beach, monitoring how it changes over time.
It is part of a series of measurements that Metcalfe, who is the captain of the team, and other citizen scientists are using to document the changes taking place in this coastal area. Metcalfe also has an automatic weather station and rain gauge at his house five minutes down the road, to monitor weather and rainfall.
“The community aspect is very important because it gets people out to the beach in December,” he says. “It takes a certain commitment.”
The measurements are part of a monitoring project that began this summer, collecting weather data and monitoring four beaches in the Sheet Harbor area.
“The idea with our project is that people will start to understand the beach,” says Camilo Botero, a researcher who works at Dalhousie.
On Sober Island, NS, citizen scientists take monthly measurements using a device called a beach profiler. (Dave Laughlin/CBC)
Botero, who is from Colombia, started the project after realizing that there was little attention paid to citizen science on Nova Scotia’s beaches.
“If we really want to transfer climate action, and we really want people to start preparing better, and if we want to improve coastal governance, we need people to get involved. [and] the best way is… if you go directly to the beach.”
‘It builds community’
In its first phase, the project was largely funded by the Church of England.
Reverend Marian Lucas-Jefferies, coordinator of the Diocesan Environmental Network, an environmental group of the Anglican diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI, said supporting the project is in line with the church’s commitment to preserving the quality of the environment.
Lucas-Jefferies said the Network helped secure money from the church for weather stations and other parts of the project, and provided links to churches on the Eastern Shore. Building those connections — as well as relationships with other people doing the same work in far-flung places, like Argentina and the Solomon Islands — is an important part of the networking role.
Robin Metcalfe checks the independent weather station and rain gauge he uses to monitor conditions at his home, as part of a beach monitoring network. (Dave Laughlin/CBC)
“One of the things about citizen science … is that people learn to take action in times of climate change. It’s empowering and it builds community among people, and that’s another thing. of our goals.”
In its first six months, the project has included setting up coastal weather teams to measure coastlines using coastal imagery and other observations, and recording weather data from households people on the East Coast.
Botero says the main takeaway from the project so far is how little information there was about one of Nova Scotia’s wildest coastal areas.
“The amazing thing about the data is that there was no data at all. It was amazing.”
Camilo Botero, a researcher working at Dalhousie University, started the project after realizing that there was little scientific attention paid to residents of Nova Scotia’s beaches. (Contributed by Camilo Botero)
Before the project, there were only two Environment Canada stations, two weather stations and one rain gauge in the area from the Canso Causeway to the Eastern Passage.
There was also a lack of information on the diversity of coastal vegetation. In a scan of the scientific database, Botero did not find any scientific information on the species of plants found on the East Coast.
The lack of data is also an advantage, Botero says. The Eastern Shore now has triple the number of weather stations and doubled the number of rain gauges, and teams are completing monthly surveys of the four beaches.
“There was a big gap,” he says. “Now we have – we don’t have as much data as we would like to have – but at least we have more information than before.”
Next year, Botero says the plan is to add more measurements for monitoring, including tides and animals, and plans to add more weather units to the Eastern Shore.
Finally, Botero says that more data on coastal changes not only provides scientific information, but increases people’s knowledge of their environment.
“It changes the information we have but also the identity as people relate to the beach,” he says. “Our goal is that in two or three years we will have enough information to start identifying different methods so that the community will be better prepared for climate-related events,”
Kate Sherren is a professor at Dalhousie University’s School of Materials and Environmental Studies. (CBC)
Going forward, the project aims to add more monitoring groups. It will also be part of a multi-year research project involving universities in Nova Scotia and Quebec.
Kate Sherren is the director of the School of Materials and Environmental Studies and Dalhousie University runs the TransSECT project, which is made up of 14 small projects in the area.
He says monitoring work on the Eastern Shore was a good fit for TransSECT, which is researching how coastal communities are responding to climate change, including coming up with their own solutions.
“Anything that gets people more engaged with a changing environment is great,” he says. “One of the challenges we have with people who are willing to make big changes or accepting policy changes … is in the people’s experience of those changes, whether they are the ones looking at those changes and what they mean.”
A project like the Eastern Shore surveillance project would encourage people to watch what’s going on, Sherren says.
“To help people know more or see their place in a different way, I think that’s powerful.”
As for Metcalfe, he says he plans to continue being a part of the project to monitor the future, and that he has already seen the community build
Citizen scientists measure the slope of a beach using a beach map. (Dave Laughlin/CBC)
“It is in our interest to protect the environment, but we have to do it in a way that takes into account how people live with the environment, including livelihoods.
“With coastal monitoring, it means that we have members of the community who are directly involved in collecting data and seeing what is happening with climate change.”
Ultimately, Metcalfe says this can boost confidence, even at a time when changes in the environment can feel negative.
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