Integrating GIS With Marsh Restoration in Southern Maine
by Joel Soloway
As a drone hums above ӰƵ’s coastal Biddeford Campus, the salty sea breeze mingles with the faint aroma of freshly cut grass. One might wonder how this high-flying marvel works to protect the serene salt marsh below.
Katie DeWater, a senior studying Marine Sciences, has the answer.
Left photo of Johanna Birchem (Environmental Science, ’26) with Will Kotchtitzky (left) flying a drone on the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. Right photo of Katie DeWater surrounded by her GIS research.
DeWater works closely with ӰƵ’s Will Kochtitzky, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School of Marine and Environmental Programs, whose research delves into the complexities of marsh restoration and dune preservation. In Kochtitzky’s lab, DeWater uses drones, remote sensing, and GIS, a computer-based tool for storing, analyzing, interpreting, and visualizing geographic data, to map and plot a dozen coastal wetlands, called salt marshes, across southern Maine.
Partnering with researchers at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), DeWater and Kochtitzky work to provide aerial perspectives of these salt marshes to better understand their current state and measure, in real time, as progress is made toward their restoration.
We have been going out to fly the drone about once a week during the low tides to fly over the marshes and collect elevation models and imagery to complement our time series data set,” DeWater said.
The dataset, which goes back to 2009, helps DeWater assess how rising sea levels affect marsh pools. She explained that drone images taken along a transect line are stitched together with software to create a detailed image of the marsh.
As the sea level rises, salt marshes have difficulty adapting, said Kochtitzky. In Maine and the Northeast, “mega-pools” — which are large areas of too much water — kill the plants that grow there. Salt marshes and their ecosystems capture and store carbon, which helps combat climate change, and without healthy vegetation, the marshes can’t do their jobs as effectively, he explained.
“We need to stay alert because the rate of change we’re experiencing is unprecedented in geologic history,” said Kochtitzky.
Humble GIS Mapping Beginnings
As the leader of ӰƵ’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program, Kochtitzky was thrilled when DeWater took an interest in his class as a first-year student.
“Katie DeWater is incredibly impressive,” he said. “She is extremely competent and dedicated to her studies and research.”
At the start of Dewater’s guided study, she explored ways to incorporate GIS mapping into an ongoing research project and planned to map the Biddeford Pool marsh adjacent to the Biddeford Campus, owned by individuals and organizations, including ӰƵ.
Kochtitzky quickly realized that the scope of this project alone was insufficient for DeWater’s thirst for knowledge, so the pair set to mapping all the extensive salt marshes along southern Maine’s coast.
“(GIS) is such a powerful tool and skill because you can look at a global scale of changing systems, zoom in, and look over a temporal scale way back to the 1950s,” she said, adding that comparing and analyzing data between regions spatially is vital to any mapping research.
Stemming from student enthusiasm and commitment to GIS research, like DeWater’s, Kochtitzky’s Coastal Research Lab came to fruition. The lab has secured nearly $1 million in total grant funding to ӰƵ and partners from the Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program and the Maine Space Grant Consortium to use GIS mapping for marsh restoration efforts.
Susan C. Adamowicz, Ph.D., a land management research and demonstration biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said engaging with the University to restore salt marshes has brought fresh perspectives and enthusiasm to the project.
“It is important to engage with the next generation, whether or not they become scientists, so that at least they will be more informed citizens,” said Adamowicz, whose office manages Rachel Carson NWR.
The lab is now home to five under