Assessments include depiction of trends (the past points to the future), updated observations (topography/bathymetry), and predicted sensitivity of barrier island evolution to possible climatologies and restoration plans.

Applied Research
The applications of our research can be generalized to production of a variety of assessments that include explanations of what happened in the past, status updates of the current environment, updated vulnerability assessments, and predicted scenarios for the future. These assessments can include depiction of trends (the past points to the future), updated observations (topography/bathymetry), and predicted sensitivity of barrier island evolution to possible climatologies and restoration plans.
Objectives
- Provide support information to coastal resource managers, including FWS, NPS, ACOE, NASA, AF, State, and local authorities.
- Test the relevance of decision-support information.
- Share and integrate data collected by different agencies.
- Update decision-support information so that it is timely and accurate.
Methodology
Chandeleur Island
- Chandeleur Island is both a research focus area and a coastal management focus. Data collection will support management by generating updates of topo bathy and establishing evolution trends.
- Modeling to generate evolution scenarios reflecting the residual berm and data updates will be used to present future scenarios that depict future morphologic configurations.
- Data will be disseminated via data series reports and assessment updates on the web.
Mississippi-Alabama-Florida barriers
- These locations are the sites of restoration efforts and ongoing response to residual buried Deep Water Horizon oil. Management needs include understanding the integrated response to the medium-term change processes considered in the BIER project and applying this understanding to adaptive management.
- Updated topo-bathy data and modeling are supported by other agencies. We can integrate this information with historical data and update medium-term predictions. The data updates can be used to evaluate assessments and identify gaps in understanding.
Barrier Island Evolution
Storm-Related Barrier Island Morphological Evolution
Modeling Barrier Island Evolution, Shoreface Morphology, and Overwash
Barrier Island Evolution - Geologic Analysis
Barrier Island Evolution - Geomorphic Analysis and Data Collection
Barrier Island Evolution - Numerical Modeling and Oceanography
Chandeleur Islands to Breton Island bathymetric and topographic datasets and operational sediment budget development: Methodology and analysis report
Satellite-derived barrier response and recovery following natural and anthropogenic perturbations, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
Developing bare-earth digital elevation models from structure-from-motion data on barrier islands
Coastal bathymetry data collected in 2011 from the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
EAARL Coastal Topography-Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, 2010: Bare Earth
- Overview
Assessments include depiction of trends (the past points to the future), updated observations (topography/bathymetry), and predicted sensitivity of barrier island evolution to possible climatologies and restoration plans.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.Berm length over time, showing the degradation of the Chandeleur Island's northern sand berm (Plant and Guy, 2013). (Public domain.) Applied Research
The applications of our research can be generalized to production of a variety of assessments that include explanations of what happened in the past, status updates of the current environment, updated vulnerability assessments, and predicted scenarios for the future. These assessments can include depiction of trends (the past points to the future), updated observations (topography/bathymetry), and predicted sensitivity of barrier island evolution to possible climatologies and restoration plans.
Objectives
- Provide support information to coastal resource managers, including FWS, NPS, ACOE, NASA, AF, State, and local authorities.
- Test the relevance of decision-support information.
- Share and integrate data collected by different agencies.
- Update decision-support information so that it is timely and accurate.
Methodology
Chandeleur Island
- Chandeleur Island is both a research focus area and a coastal management focus. Data collection will support management by generating updates of topo bathy and establishing evolution trends.
- Modeling to generate evolution scenarios reflecting the residual berm and data updates will be used to present future scenarios that depict future morphologic configurations.
- Data will be disseminated via data series reports and assessment updates on the web.
Mississippi-Alabama-Florida barriers
- These locations are the sites of restoration efforts and ongoing response to residual buried Deep Water Horizon oil. Management needs include understanding the integrated response to the medium-term change processes considered in the BIER project and applying this understanding to adaptive management.
- Updated topo-bathy data and modeling are supported by other agencies. We can integrate this information with historical data and update medium-term predictions. The data updates can be used to evaluate assessments and identify gaps in understanding.
- Science
Barrier Island Evolution
The Barrier Island Evolution Project addresses a research gap between the short time scale of individual storms (hours to days) and the longer time scales associated with the historic and geologic evolution of the coastal system (decades to millennia).Storm-Related Barrier Island Morphological Evolution
Storms quickly and dramatically alter barrier island environments by changing adjacent seafloor morphology, eroding beaches, scarping or leveling dunes, and sometimes creating new inlets. Measuring the magnitude of barrier island sediment movement during and after storms allows us to track rates of beach recovery, dune growth, and inlet-related alterations to barrier island sediment supply.Modeling Barrier Island Evolution, Shoreface Morphology, and Overwash
Barrier island field observations provide information about past and current environmental conditions and changes over time; however, they can’t tell us about the future. Models can predict possible future behaviors but are only as good as their input data. By integrating both observations and models, we can extend observations and arrive at more realistic predictions of barrier island behavior...Barrier Island Evolution - Geologic Analysis
Quantifying changes in morphology and sediment distribution over short time scales will demonstrate how geologic variability influences medium-term barrier island response and near-term barrier island trajectories and help to refine sedimentological boundary conditions for morphologic evolution models.Barrier Island Evolution - Geomorphic Analysis and Data Collection
Medium-term coastal evolution involves the interaction of submerged and subaerial geomorphology, oceanography, sediment supply and other geologic constraints, and biological interactions associated with marshes and dune grasses which may capture or release sediments. The resulting sediment budgets determine the balance of topographic and bathymetric elevations and dictate how barrier island...Barrier Island Evolution - Numerical Modeling and Oceanography
Numerical models compliment the collection of geophysical data by hindcasting and forecasting sediment transport pathways, natural island trajectories, and berm/island interactions over larger and higher resolution domains and time periods. - Publications
Chandeleur Islands to Breton Island bathymetric and topographic datasets and operational sediment budget development: Methodology and analysis report
This study is part of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) Louisiana Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring (BICM) program. The goal of the BICM program is to provide long-term data on the barrier islands of Louisiana for monitoring change and assisting in coastal management. The BICM program uses historical data and acquires new data to map and monitor shoreline position, sediSatellite-derived barrier response and recovery following natural and anthropogenic perturbations, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
The magnitude and frequency of storm events, relative sea-level rise (RSLR), sediment supply, and anthropogenic alterations drive the morphologic evolution of barrier island systems, although the relative importance of any one driver will vary with the spatial and temporal scales considered. To explore the relative contributions of storms and human alterations to sediment supply on de-cadal changeDeveloping bare-earth digital elevation models from structure-from-motion data on barrier islands
Unoccupied aerial systems can collect aerial imagery that can be used to develop structure-from-motion products with a temporal resolution well-suited to monitoring dynamic barrier island environments. However, topographic data created using photogrammetric techniques such as structure-from-motion represent the surface elevation including the vegetation canopy. Additional processing is required foCoastal bathymetry data collected in 2011 from the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
As part of the Barrier Island Evolution Research project, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted nearshore geophysical surveys off the northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in June of 2011. The overall objectives of the study are to better understand barrier-island geomorphic evolution, particularly storm-related depositional and eroEAARL Coastal Topography-Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, 2010: Bare Earth
These remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements of lidar-derived bare-earth (BE) and submerged topography datasets were produced collaboratively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, FL, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Wallops Flight Facility, VA. This project provides highly