The Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative recently partnered with Kim Cressman of the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve to host the virtual workshop: “SETs & Stuff: Improving the Understanding and Visualization of SET Data Using R.”
Sediment Elevation Tables (SETs) are used in coastal regions around the country to track changes in wetland surface elevation. This information is vital to understanding how environmental changes, especially sea-level rise, are changing wetlands. While this information is critically important, it can sometimes be difficult to translate the data into formats that are easily communicated to a variety of audiences.
The main goal of the June 30 workshop was to train researchers who monitor SET elevations to use prewritten code to easily check for anomalies in their SET data, create technical and outreach reports, generate figures and produce interactive maps (Figure 1).
The code is written in R, an open-source statistical analysis software. Cressman created multiple R scripts (i.e., codes) for SET practitioners to upload their data to R, run the code and generate the listed outputs. The workshop team utilized Zoom to host the interactive, virtual training and leveraged R studio cloud, a shared, online workspace. Participants watched demonstrations and practiced skills while facilitators helped with challenges.
Fifteen people from the federal government, state government, academia and non-profit organizations attended the workshop. In a post-workshop evaluation, all respondents indicated that the workshop was a good use of their time and increased their knowledge on how to use R to analyze SET data. They also indicated that they plan to use something they learned in their future work. They felt that the use of the virtual meeting software was an effective, appropriate and engaging way to learn this material.
Moving forward, these participants will be better able to analyze and communicate their data in meaningful ways, enhancing the application of these data in education and coastal decision-making.
Special thanks to workshop trainer Kim Cressman (Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve(NERR)/Mississippi Department of Marine Resources), breakout room facilitators Megan Tyrrell (Waquoit Bay NERR) and Kari St. Laurent (Delaware Bay NERR) and technology lead Renee Collini (Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative/Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium/Mississippi State University).