Nearshore Currents in Lake Michigan at 63rd Street Beach (2015)

These data were collected as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) project template 678-1 entitled 'Evaluate immediate and long-term BMP effectiveness of GLRI restoration efforts at urban beaches on Southern and Western Lake Michigan'. This project is evaluating the effectiveness of projects that are closely associated with restoration of local habitat and contact recreational activities at two GLRI funded sites in Southern Lake Michigan and one non-GLRI site in Western Lake Michigan.  Evaluation of GLRI projects will assess whether goals of recipients are on track and identify any developing unforeseen consequences. Including a third, non-GLRI project site in the evaluation allows comparison between restoration efforts in GLRI and non-GLRI funded projects. Projections and potential complications associated with climate change impacts on restoration resiliency are also being assessed.  Two of the three sites to receive evaluation represent some of the most highly contaminated beaches in the United States and include restoration BMPs which could benefit urban beaches and nearshore areas throughout the Great Lakes.  The urban beaches chosen for evaluation are at various stages of the restoration process and located in Indiana (Jeorse Park Beach), Illinois (63rd Street Beach), and Wisconsin (North Beach). Evaluation of effectiveness of restoration efforts and resiliency to climate change at urban beaches will provide vital information on the success of restoration efforts and identify potential pitfalls that will help maximize success of future GLRI beach and nearshore restoration projects. Data used for evaluation include continuous monitoring and synoptic mapping of nearshore currents, bathymetry, and water quality to examine nearshore transport under a variety of conditions.  In addition, biological evaluations rely upon daily indicator bacteria monitoring, microbial community and shorebird surveys, recreational usage, and other ancillary water quality data. The pre- and post-restoration datasets comprised of these physical, chemical, biological, geological, and social data will allow restoration success to be evaluated using a science-based approach with quantifiable measures of progress.  These data will also allow the evaluation of the resiliency of these restoration efforts under various climate change scenarios using existing climate change predictions and models. 
This data release is comprised of continuous measurements of nearshore currents in Lake Michigan at 63rd Street Beach at Jackson Park at Hyde Park, Illinois (USGS 04092440). Currents were measured and averaged over 10-minute intervals using a Teledyne RDI 600 kHz ChannelMaster acoustic Doppler velocity meter (ADVM) mounted to the north end of the breakwater wall and oriented 60 degrees from true North. The ADVM was configured with a 6-meter blanking distance, ten 8 meter measurement cells, and a total profiling distance of 86 meters from the face of the instrument.  The average depth of the transducers below the water surface was approximately 2.5 meters and the physical coordinates of the instrument in the Universal Transverse Mercator Zone 16N WGS84 projection are 452834.7 meters East, 4626018.5 meters North. The instrument was deployed on July 14, 2015 and recovered on November 23, 2015.

Tags: 63rd-street-beach, alongshore-currents, cook-county, great-lakes, hyde-park, illinois, jackson-park, lake-michigan, nearshore-currents, united-states, usgs-5949891fe4b062508e359b82, water-velocity
Organization: Department of the Interior