LUPANDINA, MARIYA


ABOUT

LANDSCAPE MONITORING

EMLAB, The McHarg Center - University of Pennsylvania
2023 - present
Coastlines are retreating upland faster than at any time in recorded history. As dunes erode and coastal marshes vanish, the urgency for adaptive strategies along the littoral edge grows. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has placed increasing emphasis on experimental sediment placement techniques to restore and stabilize these vulnerable wetlands. The success of these interventions depends on careful monitoring and analysis.

To support this effort, the EMLab is partnering with The Wetlands Institute and USACE to monitor an active sediment placement site on Sturgeon Island, located in New Jersey’s Great Sound Bay. As an experimental marsh nourishment project, Sturgeon Island serves as a testing ground for understanding the long-term impacts of sediment addition. Our team is using a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect high-resolution multispectral imagery and LiDAR data. We process this data using a custom land cover classification system, developed in collaboration with The Wetlands Institute, and analyze it to calculate landscape metrics that reveal how the island’s ecology and form are shifting over time and in response to the sediment placement.

with Keith VanderSys & Sean Burkholder

CONTACT

LUPANDINA.MARIYA@GMAIL.COM

COPYRIGHT – MARIYA LUPANDINA, 2025