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The Division of Coastal Resources Management’s (DCRM) Shoreline Monitoring Program studies beach sites to integrate coastal erosion findings into the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Island’s (CNMI) coastal planning and decision making. Northern Marianas College (NMC) NSF-ATE interns, Catherine Calma and Eloise Lopez ,have greatly contributed to field data collection since the beginning of their internship. They have been surveying beaches using the adopted Berger Level methodology, which measures elevation throughout a shoreline profile. To do this, one person sites and records elevation from the headstake (i.e. designated, semi-permanent starting point) to the beach toe (i.e. the point submerged during high tide but exposed during low tide). Measurements of these heights are taken at intervals of 10 ft and at every shoreline feature (i.e. the starting and ending of vegetation, wrackline, and waterline). In one of the photos, Catherine is reading the measurement of the rod level through the Berger Level. Eloise adjusts the rod level and then, she reports the distance and shoreline features. The data is entered into Excel and it is used to generate a beach profile, which provide visualizations of shoreline change over time.The interns are under the mentorship of DCRM’s Coastal Planner, Mary Fem Urena.

NMC 2020
Eloise Lopez (NMC)
Catherine Calma (intern) with NMC
Catherine & Eloise NMC interns (2020)
Catherine & Eloise (NMC) 2020
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