“BIRDSEYE VIEWS” AND OTHER MULTIMEDIA TOOLS FOR COMMUNICATING AND TEACHING ABOUT COASTAL GEOLOGY: THE GEORGIA COAST ATLAS PROJECT

Although paper-based atlases are useful as map-centered sources of information, an online, open-access digital atlas reaches many more users, while also creating new educational opportunities. In this spirit, the Georgia Coast Atlas project, produced cooperatively by the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and Department of Environmental Sciences at Emory University, attempts to redefine the concept of a traditional atlas. The main goal of this public-scholarship project is to create an online source about the Georgia coastline focusing on its barrier islands to benefit educators, conservationists, students (K-12 and college), and the general public. A website created for the project (www.georgiacoastatlas.org) uses digital maps of the Georgia coast for interactive learning about its geological, ecological, and human dimensions. The prototype for the project focused on Sapelo Island, a composite Pleistocene-Holocene barrier island with a complex geological, ecological, and human history. The digital map of this island uses clickable icons to link to text, photos, and edited videos. Some videos incorporate aerial-drone video footage of Georgia coastal environments, such as beaches, dunes, salt marshes, and forests. These videos in particular help users to better appreciate intertwined coastal processes, such as longshore drift, storm-washovers, tidal exchanges, ecological responses and controls to sediment movement, organismal effects on sediments, as well as the effects of human alterations of environments. More specifically, the atlas includes: 360° panoramas of coastal environments; gigapans of aerial and on-ground locations; time-lapse videos of coastal processes (such as tidal fluctuations); and audio-annotated videos describing coastal environments. Digital content also allows for continually updating the atlas with new information, particularly as it relates to effects of climate change on coastal environments. Parts of the atlas have already used for an upper-level undergraduate course on barrier islands, and we expect it will benefit other educational institutions in their teaching about intersections between coastal geology and human use of coasts.