Shoreline monitoring toolbox: protocol implementation and data management

The Shoreline Monitoring Toolbox provides standardized approaches to monitor shorelines in the Salish Sea. The online toolbox was launched in August 2014 (wsg.washington.edu/toolbox) and includes more than 15 protocols for physical and biological monitoring, such as beach profile, sediment size, beach wrack, birds, insects, fish, and wrack invertebrates. In the last few years, citizen science groups have been incorporating protocols into their shoreline monitoring plans, and there is now a need to develop resources that will further toolbox implementation and broaden application through creation of a centralized database for use by toolbox user groups. We will review aspects of protocol development and training, data management, and how results are and will be communicated in the future. We will also provide case study examples of analyzing data, and how data can be used to illustrate both status and trends, and effectiveness of beach restoration. An emphasis of toolbox users has been to monitor the effectiveness of shoreline armoring removal, which is generating information that can be used in guidance to encourage more and better informed armor removals. By developing and maintaining a database that can house data as collected and encourage future analyses, results from individual monitoring projects can be combined and more effectively communicated to broad audiences