In_CoaST (Intertidal Coastal Sediment Transport Research Unit)

Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
What the facility does

Coastal and fluvial sediment transport, sediment analysis, historical and contemporary morphodynamics

Areas of expertise

The Intertidal Coastal Sediment Transport (In_CoaST) Research Unit seeks to examine the interactions and feedbacks that occur between topography, biota, hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes and the resultant adjustment of intertidal morphology. Of particular interest is the response of intertidal environments to changes in forcing functions (e.g. wind, waves, currents, sediment, vegetation, topography, tidal energy and climate changes) and how human activities (e.g. coastal engineering, tidal power development) impact this response. The unit includes a suite of state-of-the-art, autonomous instrumentation pods that can provide simultaneous measurement and visualization of sediment transport, deposition, erosion and vegetative processes in the coastal intertidal zone, including historical analyses. It is complemented by a comprehensive sedimentological lab with a Coulter Multisizer 3 instrument.

Research services
  • 3D flow velocity
  • Sediment transport and concentration
  • Grain-size analysis
  • Organic-matter and carbon-content analysis
  • Coastal evolution
  • Low-altitude aerial photography (blimp)
  • Coastal wetland restoration
Sectors of application
  • Environmental technologies and related services
  • Ocean industries

Equipment

Function

Coulter Multisizer 3

Particle analysis, size distribution

Nortek velocimeters (3 ADVs)

3D velocity at point and depth

Nortek shallow-water acoustic Doppler probe (1 ADCP), upward facing

3D velocity water column, acoustic backscatter, depth

Nortek Vectrino ADV

3D velocity and bottom tracking, high resolution, lab only

ISCO automated suspended sediment water sampler

Timed bottle samples of water and suspended particulate matter

Muffle furnace and drying oven

Water content, organic-matter content by loss on ignition

Optical backscatter (OBS) probe (2)

Suspended-sediment concentration

RBR XR-420 logger

Temperature, salinity, turbidity

RBRduet3 T.D|wave 16 submersible temperature and depth sensor (5) Temperature, depth, waves, tides
RBRsolo3 D|wave 16 depth sensor (10) Temperature, waves, tides

Campbell and Hoskin portable meteorological stations (2) 

Wind speed, direction, temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure

SonTek RiverSurveyor M9 and HydroSurveyor Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) 3D velocity water column and acoustic backscatter and depth

Water level loggers (13)

In situ measures of water depth

  • CB Wetlands and Environmental Specialists (CBWES) Inc.
  • Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture
  • Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal
  • Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Bedford Institute of Oceanography)
  • Ecology Action Centre
  • Dalhousie University

Title

URL

Making Room for Wetlands https://www.transcoastaladaptations.com/making-room-for-wetlands
Making Room for Movement https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c83d5c63560c33561cc74de/t/61af943a0624555b127356c0/16388967…
NSERC ResNet – Landscape 1: Bay of Fundy Dykeland Futures https://www.nsercresnet.ca/landscape-1---bay-of-fundy.html
Makadunyiswe Ngulube’s research is helping Nova Scotians adapt to rising sea levels https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/02/28/news/student-studies-how-plants-can-soften-devastating-…

The ecology of innovation 

http://springboardatlantic.ca/success-stories/the-ecology-of-innovation

Energy production affects Nova Scotia’s coastal ecosystems: how? 

http://www.smu.ca/webfiles/SmartsNewsletterSpring2011

Far-field effects of energy extraction on salt marsh hydrodynamics and depositional processes in the Minas Basin (Fundy Energy Research Network)

http://fern.acadiau.ca/custom/fern/document_archive/repository/documents/176.pdf