The USGS, NPS, and NASA are collaborating to create new remote sensing-based capabilities for coastal studies and natural resources management, and to apply those capabilities within interdisciplinary research on national seashores. Aircraft lidar (light detection and ranging) remote sensing techniques are being combined with new analysis methods to examine 1) fine scale topography and three-dimensional topographic change, and 2) vegetation community structure and wildlife habitats within national seashores. The objectives of our USGS-NPS-NASA project are to: 1) Create a mass processing system for NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) lidar surveys that allows the rapid generation of a suite of lidar data products suitable for diverse scientific applications. 2) Develop and test new methods for the lidar-based recognition of cultural features, the categorization of surface types, and the investigation of coastal geomorphic change. 3) Develop and test new methods for the three-dimensional mapping of coastal vegetation communities and wildlife habitats. 4) Undertake interdisciplinary investigations of the feedbacks between surficial geological processes and wildlife habitat change, wildlife behavior, and the success of plant and animal species of concern to NPS natural resource managers. 5) Investigate and compare rates and styles of long-term shoreline and geomorphic change across the range of natural coastal environments within the National Park system while also providing valuable information for park resource management.

In support of NPS natural resource management, and in cooperation with the NPS Vital Signs Program, our USGS-NPS-NASA project is also generating a suite of information products for northeastern U.S. National Seashores based upon periodic aircraft remote sensing (lidar, multispectral scanning, digital aerial photography) surveys.