New Hampshire Volunteer Beach Profile Monitoring Program (VBPMP): Implementation, Field Methods, and Data Processing

The New Hampshire (NH) Volunteer Beach Profiling Monitoring Program (VBPMP) monitors beach elevation profiles at multiple stations along the NH Atlantic coast on a near-monthly basis using the Emery method. The program grew from three monitoring stations in 2016-2017 to thirteen stations across six beaches in 2018, with an additional station added in 2022. The overarching goal of the VBPMP is to assess the stability of New Hampshire’s Atlantic beaches over multiple years to determine seasonal changes and long-term trends using citizen science methods. Included in the assessment of beach stability are erosional or accretional trends, response to storms, and comparisons between beaches with differing morphology, sediments, and infrastructure (e.g., seawalls or dunes). Presented in this report are the methods used by the NH VBPMP for establishing profile stations, collecting beach elevation profiles based on the Emery method, recording, and uploading field data, and taking field photographs. The methods used for processing profile data after collection by volunteers is also described, including data review and quality assurance, datum corrections, plotting elevation profiles, sediment volume computation, and determination of mean profile elevations. Finally, examples of data products created for sharing with the public are presented. Grant no. NA10NOS4000073