The Swampscott Conservancy, in collaboration with the Town of Swampscott, has installed a Chronolog station at Chaisson Park adjacent to Fisherman’s Beach.
According to Dr. Colleen Hitchcock, a conservancy member and Brandeis professor, a Chronolog is an easy-to-use participatory-science monitoring tool that creates timelapse imagery from photos submitted by the public.
“To use it, passersby simply place their phones or digital cameras in the pre-installed bracket, take a photo, and then email it to the address posted on the station. There is no need to download an app or create an account to participate,” Hitchcock said.
Once shared with the chronolog.io website via email, software stitches the images into a timelapse photo series that illustrates the changing environment. The imagery captured by the Chronolog at Chaisson Park will show changes over time to Fisherman’s Beach, the town pier, and the Swampscott Fish House, a registered national landmark.
“As more and more photos are added, we’ll be able to view how the shoreline at Fisherman’s Beach is impacted both by the strong storm surges we’ve been experiencing and those exceptionally high tides known as king tides,” says Hitchcock.
During king tides, high tides can be 2 to 4 feet higher than normal. When these higher tides occur, the town pier can be submerged and flooding can extend past the traffic light at the intersection of Puritan Road and Humphrey Street.
“These high tides provide us with a window into how sea-level rise will soon start affecting our daily lives,” Hitchcock added. “As Swampscott plans for the impacts of climate change, the photos submitted by the public via the Chronolog will help the town formulate resiliency measures.”
The conservancy encourages the public to go down to Chaisson Park and start taking photos. More information on Chronologs can be found at www.chronolog.io
