Task 3-Coastal Transect Mapping and Landform Change

The area encompassed by Task 3 includes various coastal regions of the Great Lakes, with initial focus on several sites with coastal erosion hazards along the east margin of Lake Michigan.

The objectives of Task 3 are listed as follows:

1) Improve automatic procedures of extracting cliff tops and toes;

2) Conduct sensitivity assessment of the automatic procedure of extracting cliff tops and toes to the length of the transect;

3) Validate automatic results, and determine the maximum error/accuracy needed to describe and quantify the scale and magnitude of cliff erosion and failure in the Great Lakes region;

4) Investigate cliff morphology metrics and their correlation to cliff erosion rates and failure;

5) Characterize and map the geology of cliffs along the shores of the Great Lakes region;

6) Determine if/how sediment lithology, structure, and texture correlate with cliff erosion rates and failure;

7) Develop a framework for cliff vulnerability risk assessment;