Linking Backbarrier Wetlands and Storm Driven Coastal Morphodynamics
Abstract
Coastal barrier islands and mainland barriers serve as the first line of defense against oceanic waves and storm surge generated flooding. These systems are composed of different physical and ecological components, e.g. the shoreface, backshore, dunes, and are often backed by wetlands and estuaries. Within low-lying coastal zones, that are subject to frequent energetic storm conditions, overwash and coastal inundation processes may establish a morphodynamic connection between the shoreface and backbarrier environment whereby washover sediment is transported landward. The Caminada Headlands, Louisiana, USA, has historically exhibited rapid coastal morphodynamics (shoreline erosion rates ~ 20 m/yr) due to frequent tropical storm impacts and sediment deprivation. Using the Caminada Headlands as a study site, this connection is investigated using a LIDAR survey time series and an event-scale sediment transport model.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMEP063..02J
- Keywords:
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- 1625 Geomorphology and weathering;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 3020 Littoral processes;
- MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS;
- 4315 Monitoring;
- forecasting;
- prediction;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4217 Coastal processes;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL