HR: 17:15h
AN: G34A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: High-Resolution Measurement of Beach Morphological Response to Hurricane-Induced Wave Dynamics
AU: Starek, M
EM: mstarek@ufl.edu
AF: University of Florida, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, Gainesville, FL 32611 United States
AU: * Slatton, K C
EM: slatton@ece.ufl.edu
AF: University of Florida, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, Gainesville, FL 32611 United States
AU: * Slatton, K C
EM: slatton@ece.ufl.edu
AF: University of Florida, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gainesville, FL 32611 United States
AU: Adams, P
EM: adamsp@coast.ucsd.edu
AF: Scripps Institute of Oceanography, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 United States
AB: During the Atlantic hurricane season of 2004, the Florida Pan Handle, Gulf Coast region, was impacted directly by three major hurricanes within approximately a one-month time period. The short temporal span between impacts coupled with the sudden increase in wave energy delivered to the coast resulted in drastic changes to the coastal morphology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the direct effects of deep-water wave climate and energy setups induced by the hurricanes and relate those processes to the observed change in shoreline morphology. The availability of research-grade Airborne Laser Swath Mapping (ALSM) altimetry data, often referred to as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data, enabled sub-meter spatial sampling of the coastal topography. The ALSM data were acquired by the University of Florida's Geosensing Engineering and Mapping (GEM) Center. Offshore wave measurements were obtained from the NOAA NDBC buoy network for the Gulf Coast region. The ALSM data acquired shortly before and after the three major hurricane landfalls near the Phillips Inlet barrier island region of Bay County, Florida, were used to calculate changes in the shoreline position and identify regions of erosion and deposition. Time series data of offshore wave height, period, and direction were transformed, through shoaling and refraction calculations, to nearshore wave conditions which were correlated to observed changes in beach morphology. Hurricane wave conditions drove severe shoreline retreat on the west-side of the inlet (~15+ meters) but affected the east-side shoreline minimally. The eastern backside of the inlet, however, witnessed a significant volume of washover sediment.
DE: 1223 Ocean/Earth/atmosphere/hydrosphere/cryosphere interactions (0762, 1218, 3319, 4550)
DE: 4217 Coastal processes
DE: 4546 Nearshore processes
DE: 4558 Sediment transport (1862)
SC: Geodesy [G]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005