Scarborough residents interested in helping the town document the impacts of sea level rise will soon have a way to do so.

The town is hosting a Coastal Meetup and Community Science Event at the Eastern Trail parking lot, 140 State Route 9 in Scarborough at 2 p.m. on Aug. 22.

The event is part of the Coastal Flooding Community Science Project by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

“The Coastal Meetup will essentially train residents and the public how to collect data and submit it to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute,” said Scarborough Sustainability Coordinator Jami Fitch.

“It’s to try and encourage local communities to learn about sea level rise and then get outside in their community and document what’s going on,” said Emerson Goodrich, the town’s sustainability fellow. “It teaches people how to collect the data, how to upload it to the site, and the general data they’re collecting is available to the public.”

The institute has nine data collection sites in Scarborough as part of its project: the Eastern Trail, Higgins Beach, Scarborough Beach, Ferry Beach, Pine Point Road, Winnocks Neck Road, Payne Road and Route 1 where it crosses the Scarborough Marsh.

No expertise is needed to participate in the event on Aug. 22, which is scheduled to align with an estimated high tide of over 10 feet.

“The point of it is to be super accessible,” Goodrich said. “You really only need a camera, a smartphone is great. Just be there, be present and interested.”

The goal is to document photos of Scarborough and how it changes over time in the face of sea level rise, Fitch said.

“That will also help us as we’re working through our vulnerability assessment process,” she said.

Scarborough’s vulnerability assessment, which began this spring, is helping the town identify locations and infrastructure that are susceptible to sea level rise. It will help develop a priority list of places in need of improvements to heighten their resistance.

“We can see what our infrastructure looks like before and as those improvements are implemented,” Fitch said. “It’s all tied together with rising sea level impacts to local areas and how we can work to become more resilient.”

The Coastal Meetup is a great way for residents to contribute to the effort, Goodrich said.

“If you’re interested and want to participate and maybe meet some other people who are interested and see some crazy high tides at the Eastern Trail, I encourage people to come out,” she said.

For more information on the event and a link to register, go to the town’s website, scarboroughmaine.org, and navigate to the event’s page under the Town News section. Before the event, participants must create an account for GMRI’s Coastal Flooding Community Science project at investigate.gmri.org/project/coastal_flooding.