Teaming for Interdisciplinary Research Pre-Seed Program

Coastal communities are threatened by intense hazards and often must rely on infrastructure for protection. Traditional or gray infrastructure tends to be harmful to the environment and incapable of keeping pace with climate change. Natural infrastructure, which can take the form of natural ecosystems, restored habitat, and gray-green hybrid infrastructure, is an eco-friendly and adaptive alternative. Natural infrastructure systems can reduce wave and storm surge impacts, as well as provide other ecosystem services such as habitat provision and water filtration. It is crucial to monitor these systems to ensure that they are providing the services on which local communities rely and to know when management intervention may be necessary. Despite this, monitoring is often neglected, partially due to limited capacity and inadequate funding. We are interested in developing a creative and effective solution to this problem, while simultaneously promoting public engagement with coastal natural infrastructure, by combining art and STEM.

Figure 1: Artistic rendering of a sculpture within a salt marsh site and the types of data (species composition and vegetation height) that could be extracted from such images.

The goal of this project is to test a novel concept of utilizing an art installation within a natural infrastructure site to “crowd-source” monitoring efforts. Specifically, we aim to install a sculpture in a publicly-accessible location within a natural or restored coastal wetland. Associated with the sculpture will be a photo station with information about the project and natural infrastructure more broadly. The public will be encouraged to photograph the art from the station and upload the photos to a website. We will then compile the imagery and analyze it for ecological parameters that are relevant to the systems function as natural infrastructure. Such parameters include vegetation height, species composition, and habitat utilization. Researchers from the project team will investigate how the quantity and quality of ecological data compares to traditional monitoring approaches. Additionally, we will explore how the installation and associated information affects the opinions of the public towards natural infrastructure. If this approach proves to be an effective means of monitoring and community outreach, we would incorporate it into future natural infrastructure planning.

Prior to a full-scale installation at a coastal site, we plan to implement a proof-of-concept piece local to the University of Georgia’s Athens campus. This low-cost option will allow us to test some of the key unknown aspects, such as how to build the photo station to best encourage photographing and engaging with the art installation. Additionally, we will be able to develop image collection and analysis practices. The pre-seed grant will be instrumental in this proof-of-concept effort, thus laying the groundwork for the larger-scale initiative.

Team Lead

Clifton Woodson
bwoodson@uga.edu
Engineering
Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems

Team Members

Jeb Byers
jebyers@uga.edu
Odum School of Ecology

Michael Marshall
mmars@uga.edu
Lamar Dodd School of Art

Eric Marty
emarty@uga.edu
Odum School of Ecology

Daniel Coleman
Daniel.Coleman@uga.edu
Engineering
Institute for Resilient Infreastructure Systems

Holly Bik
hbik@uga.edu
Franklin
Marine Sciences