RAPID: Collaborative Research: Assessing Archaeological Storm Damage from Hurricane Ian

Accelerating environmental change and attendant extreme weather events such as hurricanes threaten archaeological sites, especially in coastal regions which contain some of the most vulnerable forms of cultural heritage. As such, coastal archaeological sites provide exemplary locations for (1) the rapid study of storm impacts to archaeological site stability, preservation, and resilience planning, and (2) understanding how site managers balance disaster response with post-storm public education and outreach. In response to Hurricane Ian’s landfall in southwest Florida in September 2022, this Rapid Response Research (RAPID) enhances the understanding of how hurricanes impact the management and preservation of publicly accessible coastal and island cultural heritage sites, parks, and education centers. The investigators are working directly with local site managers and stakeholders to characterize the extent of damage; document proximate causes of damage including wind, storm surge, and erosion; and assess possible further damage from restoration efforts. The project also generates site vulnerability models to inform site stabilization efforts, resilience management plans, and public education and outreach content about hurricane impacts to archaeological cultural heritage sites and local communities. The researchers are conducting a survey of storm damage inflicted by Hurricane Ian at four well-preserved and publicly accessible coastal and island Calusa archaeological cultural heritage sites in the Pine Island Sound and Estero Bay region of southwest Florida. By the sixteenth century, this region was home to the Calusa — one of the largest, most politically complex, non-agrarian societies in North America. The project area is the epicenter of Calusa archaeological research, student archaeological training, and public Indigenous cultural heritage education and preservation. Working with local site managers, cultural heritage community stakeholders, and graduate students, the investigators are documenting initial site damage using written descriptions, video, and digital imaging, conduct minimally invasive subsurface sampling of damaged archaeological contexts likely to be further disturbed by site restoration efforts, and produce site damage and vulnerability modeling to inform managerial decision making in post-storm site stabilization and preservation. Throughout this RAPID project, the investigators and local site managers will work together to create educational content about hurricane damage and archaeological cultural heritage site preservation within the context of climate change impacts and extreme weather events, including publicly accessible, mini-documentary style educational videos. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.