Niagara Coastal Community Collaborative

Our goal is always to optimize and expand local action to build a healthy and resilient Lake Erie coastal ecosystem that supports the community’s economic, recreational, spiritual, and environmental needs. As we leave 2021 in our rearview, we invite you to reflect on all the incredible work our community-based network of volunteers, supporters and members have undertaken over the past year, and beyond. Join us as we celebrate this work, and the folks that made it all happen!

Ongoing Collaborative Initiatives

Knowledge Brokering & Collective Impact

(2017)

Community-based Water Quality Monitoring

(2019)

Nature-based Shoreline Restoration

(2021)

2021 Initiative Spotlight

Check out the VAST Explore Page

2022 VAST Volunteer Sign-Up

Visual Assessment Survey Tool

The Visual Assessment Survey Tool, or VAST, evolved from the Cladophora algae monitoring surveys completed by Niagara Coastal’s members from 2018-2020. VAST was launched with funding from the Province of Ontario's Great Lakes Local Action Fund, and in partnership with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority and Niagara College.

By blending science, story-telling, and technology, VAST compiles crowd-sourced data to create a near real-time monitoring network tracking coastal conditions across the Great Lakes. Volunteers submit short surveys and images that have been taken at a consistent location over time, which are then compiled and uploaded to an open-data portal, accessible through our website. Coastal managers can use this data as a coastal decision support tool to make informed decisions surrounding policy and the strategic direction of the Great Lakes coasts. The survey data can also be used to indicate areas needing restoration or community action.

VAST officially launched August 5th, 2021, and thanks to our team of dedicated volunteers, has seen tremendous success. To date, VAST volunteers have collected and submitted over 400 surveys, totaling 1,900 shoreline photos. This data spans across 2 countries, 3 of the Great Lakes, and over 70 beaches. Currently, VAST has 3 active survey modules; tracking erosion, monitoring Cladophora algae washup, and monitoring aesthetic beach quality.

In addition to regular surveys completed by citizen scientists, the VAST initiative has been leveraging aerial drone technology to better understand the dynamic nature of shorelines. From June through December 2021, our team mapped 78 hectares of shoreline using drones from Niagara College. With this technology, accurate measurements can be taken to verify the rate of change reported through the citizen science surveys.

Without the dedicated efforts of our volunteer citizen scientists who have collectively contributed over 500 hours of their time surveying Great Lakes shorelines, none of this would have been possible. We will be continuing to expand and improve this initiative throughout 2022 so stay tuned!

Thank you for your support and dedication to ensuring healthy, resilient shorelines!

Get Involved!

Knowledge Brokering

Using the Collective Impact model developed by the Tamarack Institute, Nagara Coastal provides a local forum for organizations throughout Niagara by facilitating collaboration on Great Lakes Coastal issues. As a backbone support organization, we perform a knowledge brokering role throughout the region.

There are five central conditions of a collective impact model, these are; having a common agenda, a shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication between participants, and an organization providing back bone support. Niagara Coastal is a collective group of many other groups, and we work together to facilitate collaboration towards a healthy coast.

Do you have local knowledge or an environmental concern you think we should know about? Let us know by submitting your Coastal Concern below.

Submit Your Coastal Concerns

Community-based Water Monitoring

Thanks to funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Great Lakes Protection Initiative, and partnership with Niagara Coastal and Niagara College of Applied Arts and Technology, Swim Drink Fish established the Lake Erie - Niagara Monitoring Hub in 2019.

This hub has operated collaboratively through Swim Drink Fish and Niagara Coastal over the past 3 years, bringing low-cost, reliable water quality monitoring to swimming and recreational water sites throughout the Lake Erie North Shore in Niagara.

2021 marks the final year of Swim Drink Fish's management of the hub, and Niagara Coastal will continue operations as we move into 2022.

2022 Volunteer Sign-Up

Nature-based Restoration

This year, with the help of Niagara College and the NPCA, the NCCC piloted a new initiative with the goal of reducing erosion and the loss of sand across Lake Erie's north shore, creating habitat for wildlife, and increasing shoreline resiliency through nature-based solutions.

Volunteers joined us in planting sustainably harvested local genetic stock of Great Lakes Champlain Beach Grass across 7 shoreline properties, removing invasive species (Phragmites) as needed, and installing over 100m of snow fencing as sand traps.

These beach grass plantings serve as a "seed project", raising awareness within the community and setting the stage for larger, bio-engineered restoration projects, set to commence this spring along Lake Erie's north shore.

Stay tuned and sign up below for more restoration volunteer opportunities coming soon!

2022 Volunteer Sign-Up

Stay Tuned...

Educational Blog Series Coming Soon!

2021 Media Highlights

Testing the waters of Lake Erie: collaborative initiative checks E. coli levels

As Tessa Anderson and David Meeker stepped into the waters of Lake Erie at Fort Erie's 'Small Beach' Tuesday, they noted their surroundings. That included at least 100 Canada Geese on the beach and in the water, common terns diving for small fish, swallows flying along the shoreline, algae onshore and even a dead fish.

Citizens to monitor impacts of climate change on Lake Erie through new program

Climate change is causing significant and far-reaching impacts on the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes region, says Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) as it, Niagara Coastal Community Collaborative and Niagara College launched a community-based monitoring program. "The coastal areas of the Great Lakes are exposed to many stressors and are highly susceptible to environmental degradation," said NPCA in a release.

Volunteers Protect Lake Erie's Shoreline

One of the experts lending a hand to the project is Niagara College's Albert Garofalo, involved in beach grass plantings at Cedar Bay and Pleasant Beach in Port Colborne.

"Albert and some of our staff went out to a few sites across Niagara, and with permission from the landowners sustainably harvested existing beach grass so they would be a local genetic match across the shoreline," said Ford.