National Coastal Monitoring Network

There are four coastal regions in Canada: the Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific and Great Lakes. The GSC maintains coastal monitoring sites in the first three regions and along Lake Winnipeg but none along the Great Lakes. Repetitive field observations, photographs and surveys provide baseline information about short-term, long-term, and cyclic shoreline changes. Information collected at the sites is archived as part of a national coastal data base and is used to assess shoreline response to changing natural conditions, to human activities, and for establishing management guidelines within the coastal zone.

The GSC has limited resources to monitor the Coastline of Canada. If you have knowledge about changes along a stretch of coast or observe the impacts of a storm, you can contribute to our knowledge about coastal stability.

Coastal Monitoring sites are short segments of shoreline selected for repetitive surveying of physical change. They are selected because they represent a particular:

1. shore type, e.g. cliff, beach, marsh
2. geographic area, e.g. North Shore, PEI
3. process environment, e.g. large tides, Bay of Fundy,
4. unique feature; e.g.pingo, or
5. previous study site, where detailed surveys provide good baseline data.

A unique series of numbers have been assigned for identifying coastal monitoring sites in each province and territory of Canada (Table 1). For provinces or territories where there are a large number of monitoring sites on specific islands, subsets of numbers have been assigned to specific islands. For example, in Nova Scotia, site numbers 1500-1999 were assigned for use on Cape Breton Island and numbers 2000 to 2499 along mainland Nova Scotia. To date there are less than 200 monitoring sites in any one province or territory.

Table 1: Numbers assigned to shore monitoring sites in Canada according to province and territory

Province/territory	Site Numbers
Newfoundland	1 to 499
New Brunswick	500 to 999
Prince Edward Island	1000 to 1499
Nova Scotia	1500 to 2499
Quebec	2500 to 2999
Ontario	3000 to 3499
Manitoba	3500 to 3999
British Columbia	4000 to 4499
All Territories (North West Territories, Yukon & Nunavut)	5000 to 5999

The location of shoreline monitoring sites are shown on a series of maps. A photo, survey history and who to contact for further information is available for each site by clicking on individual site location buttons on the maps or by selecting monitoring site names.

For example, in Nova Scotia a total of 123 monitoring sites (marked by red dots) have been resurveyed. Repetitive shoreline measurements which span 15 or more years are available for 56 sites (15 on Cape Breton and 41 on the mainland). Samples of the type of information collected at shore cliff and beach sites are presented using two examples (Conrads Beach and Story Head) from the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.

Within each shore monitoring site, a series of surveys are used to characterize and map across-shore and longshore profiles or specific coastal features. To maintain consistency and accuracy of repetitive surveys, wood or metal control markers are established within the site e.g on the backshore or top of a shore cliff or on individual survey lines. A more complete description of how a coastal monitoring site is established and how physical changes are measured is presented in Establishing a cliff monitoring site.

Objects marking control survey stations are called monuments or markers. A survey marker has some or all of the following properties: prominence, stability and definite location. The Geodetic Survey of Canada recommends using the term marker rather than monument in all future references to control survey stations. They further recommend that the term benchmark be reserved for vertical control markers. We have used marker and benchmark synonymously. Survey markers used in coastal surveys are metal rods with an aluminum cap at the top. Each cap is labelled with "Geological Survey of Canada" and a unique number from 001 to 1000. Metal reinforcing rod (r-bar), fence posts (t-bar), and wooden ( 2x2 stakes) are other objects pounded into the ground as survey markers. Rock cairns are also used in the Canadian Arctic because of the presence of permafrost. In coastal surveys the markers have been conventionally labelled with positive numbers seaward and negative numbers landward. For example on a cliff survey line if the original markers were BM 1 and BM2 then as the cliff eroded and new markers were added farther landward they would be labelled BM 0, then BM -1 and BM -2.

In southern Canada many of the site control markers have been surveyed into a provincial or national survey network but only a few have been surveyed in the Arctic. Information for re-establishing, or relocating the site control markers is provided in a separate benchmark data base which is not yet available on Coastweb but can be obtained by contacting David Frobel.

Repetitive observations and surveys provide information about where changes are occurring; the magnitude of physical changes; seasonal variations in shoreline morphology; impacts of waves and/or sea ice during storms and the time it takes for a shoreline to recover to its pre-storm condition. Other information collected during each survey include: variations in cross-shore sediment composition, vegetation and the presence of specific features, e.g. dune, berm etc; flood levels and evidence of hazards such as washover channels and breaches cut through barrier beaches. Samples of the type of information collected from a cliff (Story Head) and beach site (Conrads Beach) on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia are presented.