Janet Silbernagel, UW-Madison, (608) 265-8093, jmsilber@wisc.edu

Spatial narratives have been framed as conceptual tools for synthesizing multiple forms of bioregional knowledge for community-based decision-making and stewardship. While the spatial narrative has been useful in several research and outreach applications, it has not yet been truly operationalized as a digital “geotool” or evaluated for its utility for citizen engagement and spatial literacy. In this project, researchers are partnering with the Applications Prototype Lab of Esri, a global leader in geographic information systems solutions, to develop a spatial narrative geotool application that allows coastal community groups to form digital spatial narratives for their own estuary-based bioregions and place-based issues. The project will evaluate citizen experiences and engagement in coastal estuaries with the geotool through a social science research design. With new modes of place-based learning, social media and participatory decision-making, spatial narratives could be valuable in advancing spatial literacy and thoughtful dialogue around environmental sustainability in coastal communities. R/SCD-05

This three-year project is in partnership with Minnesota and Michigan Sea Grant. Specialist Gene Clark will develop a beach information system where Great Lakes beach users will have immediate access to an unprecedented amount of data about beaches, including bacteria monitoring, harmful algal blooms, wave heights, water temperature, weather data and rip current forecasts. All of these pieces of information can help beach users decide if today’s the right day to go to the beach, but nowhere is all of this information synthesized in one place. This project will bring these disparate sources of information together into a single “Beach Report” that users can sign up to receive in any of a multiple of formats. Examples of potential formats include Twitter notices, RSS feeds, e-mail alerts and Facebook notices. Funding source: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. A/GLRI-2

Sandra McLellan UW-Milwaukee(414) 382-1700, mclellan@uwm.edu

Indicators of fecal pollution of beaches include E. coli, used historically in the Great Lakes, and enterococci. Past studies demonstrate that sand acts as a reservoir for E. coli, which hampers beach-monitoring programs by introducing these bacteria into beach water in the absence of a primary source of fecal pollution. This project will evaluate the persistence and potential for growth of enterococci in sand, especially compared with new alternative indicators such as Bacteroides sp. and Lachnospiraceae sp. The researchers will use culture and qPCR detection methods to discriminate between viable cells in sand reservoirs or accumulation of nonviable cells that are detected with DNA-based methods. They will also examine the role of the microbial community in excluding fecal bacteria and evaluate microbial community structure at contaminated and non-contaminated beaches. Microbial community structure may serve as an overall “indicator” for beach ecosystem health. R/HCE-10

Stephen Ventura, UW–Madison, (608) 262-6416, sventura@facstaff.wisc.edu

Coastal web atlases have emerged as an important resource to help organize and present maps and data about coasts and make them more relevant to decisionmaking about coastal management. The Wisconsin Coastal Atlas (WCA) will serve as the primary portal to geospatial data about the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior coasts of Wisconsin. It will be organized into four sections—maps, tools, learn and search. The primary Web-mapping interface will provide an overview of the Wisconsin coastal zone. A gallery of additional mapping interfaces will provide customized perspectives related to specific coastal issues. The atlas will allow users to search a catalog of coastal geospatial data. The catalog for the atlas will connect to distributed catalogs maintained by other data custodians, allowing discovery, assessment and download of a network of coastal geospatial data. In addition, the WCA will serve as a gateway to spatial decision support tools relevant to the Great Lakes and as a site to learn more about coastal issues and places. The research undertaken as part of this project will frame the WCA as an important building block of an eventual Great Lakes coastal atlas and will promote adaptive management of the Great Lakes at an ecosystem scale. R/SCD-1

Erica Young, UW-Milwaukee, (414) 229-3257, ebyoung@uwm.edu

Future sustainability of coastal communities demands a reduction of nutrients in effluents from wastewater treatment plants, and population growth is increasing pressure on communities’ infrastructure to manage and treat waste water. Algal species like Cladophora can tolerate and take up high concentrations of nutrients, and this can be exploited for nutrient remediation of wastewater. The researchers have already shown in laboratory tests that Cladophora can deplete sewerage effluent of soluble reactive phosphorus to <5 ug/L and also provide a good biomass feedstock for biofuels production, offering combined sustainability benefits for use in remediation of wastewater. This project aims to develop algal nutrient remediation of wastewater that will provide cost savings to coastal communities and offer more sustainable options to improve lake ecosystem health. R/SCD-06

Wisconsin's Water Library has reading lists on many different topics.  Take a look at the coastal planning and development reading list.