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Geography and Sustainability Students and Faculty Model Effects of Sea-Level Rise on Local Conservation

Salem State's Geography and Sustainability department has a working relationship with many conservation organizations on the North Shore of Massachusetts, including several active projects with Greenbelt, a land trust in Essex County.

Land trusts manage properties for a variety of uses, from conservation of species to providing people with access to the outdoors. As part of the department's most recent cooperative project, graduate students and faculty helped Greenbelt model how sea-level rise will inundate the Cox Reservation, where Greenbelt has its headquarters and is an important coastal reservation under their management.

Using drones to collect data, and then, using GIS software, they modeled how sea-level rise will flood parts of the reservation in the future. Through this project, students have gained real-world experience in using geo-spatial tools to help Massachusetts plan for its future.

Hear geography and sustainability professor Stephen Young discuss the department's latest project and learn more about the conservation in Greenbelt's latest video Exploring Sea Level Rise and Coastal Resilience.

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