Coastal Resilience Newsletter

Greetings from the Coastal Resilience Team!

This month's newsletter contains:

Lake Michigan Water Level Update
Blog: Waves, Coastal Storms, & Erosion
Resource of the Month: Wisconsin Coastal Atlas
Community Story: Rosewood Beach Sand Nourishment Project
Training Opportunity: Seven Best Practices for Risk Communication Webinar

April Water Level Update

The water levels on all the Great Lakes still remain above their long-term monthly averages as of April 2020. Lake Michigan surpassed its record-high monthly mean for March previously set in 1986. This is the third monthly record set for Lake Michigan in our recent period of high water levels. Lake Michigan water levels increased by about three inches from March to April. Lake Michigan has resumed its seasonal rise and is expected to continue to rise over the next few months.

Here are five things to know about water levels on Lake Michigan for April 2020.

Go to full update

Waves, Coastal Storms, & Erosion

Coastal storms are an annual occurrence on Lake Michigan but this fall and winter season, Lake Michigan’s southeastern Wisconsin’s coastal communities experienced large storms that caused millions of dollars of damage. In this blog, we answer four questions that explore how water levels and coastal storms interact with each other and their potential impact on coastal hazards.

How do coastal storms combine with water levels to cause erosion?
What time of year are coastal storm impacts the greatest?
Is the intensity and frequency of coastal storms changing?
Are we seeing an unusually strong season of coastal storms this year?

Go to full blog

Resource of the Month

Wisconsin Coastal Atlas

The Wisconsin Coastal Atlas is a technology platform that enables people to better understand coastal issues, share coastal data and inform decision-making about sustainable use of the Great Lakes.

The atlas includes five elements:

maps
catalog
tools
learn
topics

The atlas serves as a gateway to interactive maps and decision support tools relevant to Great Lakes management and provides access to place-based learning resources about coastal issues in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Coastal Atlas is intended for use by coastal resource managers, planners, researchers, educators and coastal residents.

Coastal Resilience Stories from Around the Great Lakes

Rosewood Beach Sand Nourishment Project

Rosewood Beach in Highland Park, Illinois is a highly used, community asset. Due to the high water levels on Lake Michigan, the beach has experienced severe sand erosion. Despite an offshore, protective revetment, continued erosion could have put park structures at risk. An emergency beach nourishment project was approved by the Park Board of Commissioners to address erosion of the shoreline and swimming coves. This nourishment project was intended to mitigate erosion from the high water levels and severe storms. Before the project began, the beach receded nearly 45 feet. Work on the project began in October 2019.

Erosion of Rosewood Beach in Highland Park, IL

Photo Credit: Park District of Highland Park

https://www.pdhp.org/rosewood-beach-sand-replenishment-project/

Training Opportunity

Seven Best Practices For Risk Communication

NOAA's Office for Coastal Management is offering a free webinar training on Seven Best Practices for Risk Communication on Wednesday May 6th from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

This interactive webinar introduces participants to seven best practices, numerous techniques, and examples for communicating about coastal hazards. These practices use the fundamentals of behavior change to improve communication and the webinar adapts successful strategies from case studies of peers who have applied these best practices and techniques

More information can be found on the NOAA Digital Coast at:

coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/training/risk-communication.html

The direct link for registration is:

http://noaacsc.adobeconnect.com/sbprcmay2020/event/event_info.html

If you have any questions about Lake Michigan coastal hazards or how to approach, plan, and prepare for them, please contact

Adam Bechle

bechle@aqua.wisc.edu

608-263-5133

For more information, visit the Southeast Wisconsin Coastal Resilience Project website

University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute | (608) 262-0905 | 1975 Willow Drive, 2nd Floor, Madison, WI 53706