The following paper about the spatiotemporal and weather effects on the reproductive success of piping plovers has been recently accepted for publication by Ecology and Evolution.
Guild, R., X. Wang, S. Hirtle, and S. Mader. Spatiotemporal and Weather Effects on the Reproductive Success of Piping Plovers on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Ecology and Evolution, accepted on May 31, 2024.
More details will come soon once the paper is published.
Title: Landcover-based detection of rapid impacts of extreme storm on coastal landscape
Journal: Science of The Total Environment
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173099
Abstract: On September 24, 2022, Post-Tropical Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Atlantic Canada and caused unprecedented damages to the coastal communities and ecosystems therein. The aftermath triggered local government and communities in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada to rethink current policies and practices for coastal protection in the context of climate change. This historic hazard represents the escalating frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that globally threaten coastal regions, accelerating coastal erosion and endangering communities. This study employs landcover-based detection to assess rapid storm impact of Fiona on coastline of PEI using Sentinel-2 satellite images, to gauge the efficacy of landcover-based detection and quantify storm-induced coastal environmental changes. Our results indicate that, following Fiona, over 51 km2 coastal land loss due to the erosion at beach foreshore and inundation at tidal flat, and over 11 km2 sand dune loss mainly on the PEI north shore. This constitutes a 3.5 % loss of coastal land resources within the 1798 km2 PEI coastal zone. Fiona also caused over 194 km2 area in coastal buffer zone showed temporal fluid-mud from the eroded sediments of sand dunes, cliffs, and tidal flats, suggesting the significant sediment loss from vertical structures in addition to the direct retreat. The landcover-based method can be regarded as a valuable tool for the storm impacts on coastal environments. Based on the coastal change pattern, more sustainable coastal protection and adaptation measures should be developed, focusing on reducing hydrodynamic intensity and improving erosion capacity, with consideration of the increasing likelihood of more intense and frequent storm events in a warming climate.
The following paper about the projections of temperature-related indices in Prince Edward Island has been recently accepted for publication by Scientific Reports.
Maqsood, J., X. Wang, A. Farooque, and R. A. Nawaz. Future Projections of Temperature-Related Indices in Prince Edward Island Using Ensemble Average of Three CMIP6 Models. Scientific Report, accepted on May 29, 2024.
More details will come soon once the paper is published.
The following paper about the impacts of post-tropical storm Fiona on PEI’s coastal landscape has been recently accepted for publication by Science of the Total Environment.
Pang, T., X. Wang, S. Basheer, and R. Guild. Landcover-Based Detection of Rapid Impacts of Extreme Storm on Coastal Landscape. Science of the Total Environment, accepted on May 7, 2024.
More details will come soon once the paper is published.
Title: Assessing social-ecological vulnerability and risk to coastal flooding: A case study for Prince Edward Island, Canada
Journal: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104450
Abstract: Traditional flood risk assessment studies mainly looked at potential exposures and damage to human settlements, without considering the whole social-ecological systems. This study presents a comprehensive flood risk assessment considering hazard characteristics, exposure, and vulnerability of social-ecological systems in the coastal areas of Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. An indicator-based multi-criteria analysis method is adopted to estimate vulnerability and risk index for each local census block in the affected area under two scenarios (flood without climate change and flood with climate change). The result shows that the vulnerability and risk scores vary along the coastal area, with higher scores in the central and western regions. Social elements contribute more to vulnerability and risk index compared to the ecological elements in both urban and rural areas. The study also discussed the potential application of the risk assessment results for developing appropriate flood risk management strategies for coastal communities and vulnerable ecosystems.