Plum Island Estuary and Parker River Salt Marsh Conceptual Units

Conceptual marsh units delineate the Plum Island Estuary and Parker River salt marsh complex based on surface elevation geoprocessing. The U.S. Geological Survey created this data to assess coastal wetland vulnerability and ecosystem service potential following the Hurricane Sandy Science Plan. Flow accumulation and surface slope analysis were used to define unit boundaries and drainage points.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal wetland vulnerability to physical factors based on delineated marsh units.
• Assessing ecosystem service potential of salt marshes based on unit boundaries and drainage characteristics.
• Forecasting coastal change hazards for wetland areas based on surface elevation and slope data.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative U.S. Geological Survey.
• Delineation is based on scientific geoprocessing of surface elevation data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

United States Geological Survey

Collection Method

Geoprocessing of surface elevation data to define conceptual units based on flow accumulation and slope.

Geography

Plum Island Estuary and Parker River salt marsh complex, Massachusetts, USA