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 bathymetric soundings in Lake Michigan at 63rd Street Beach at Jackson Park at Hyde Park, Illinois. Water column depths were measured using a Teledyne RDI 600 kHz Rio Grande acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) mounted to a U.S. Geological Survey hydrographic survey vessel. The water column depths from the four diverging beams of the ADCP have been corrected for instrument heading, pitch, and roll and georectified using The Velocity Mapping Toolbox (https://hydroacoustics.usgs.gov/movingboat/VMT/VMT.shtml). Geolocation of the beam soundings was possible using a Hemisphere Crescent A100 Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver mounted directly above the ADCP. This GPS receiver has sub-meter horizontal accuracy when operated in differential mode. The edited water column depths were transformed to lake bed elevations using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Calumet Harbor Water Level Gage (9087044) which records at 6-minute intervals. This gage is located approximately 4.6 miles south of the survey site. Bed elevations have been rounded to the nearest tenth of a foot.
