BACKGROUND:
Accurate and repetitive documentation of beach and
nearshore morphology remains an essential link in addressing
numerous coastal research and management concerns.
However, many compartments along the North Carolina
coast suffer from a lack of quantitative data to accurately
assess these concerns. Although beachface and nearshore
morphology and the analysis of change are four-dimensional
phenomena (X,Y,Z and time), they have typically been
inferred from one-dimensional data or grossly interpolated
between two-dimensional cross-sections where no data
exists. Advances in coastal surveying and geographic
information systems technology now permit the acquisition
and processing of three-dimensional topographic data
that can be seamlessly merged in the surfzone with
high-resolution bathymetry.
Bogue Banks, a 40km long barrier island, is located
in the northern portion of Onslow Bay along the low
energy flank of the Cape Lookout foreland. Storm induced
erosion from landfall hurricanes and tropical systems,
as well as events generating wind and waves from the
south, have caused significant erosion along Bogue
Banks over the last decade. The result for local communities
has been loss of recreational beach and extensive property
damage, as well as lost nesting habitat for sea turtles
and birds.
The County and communities that comprise Bogue Banks
are currently undertaking a comprehensive shore protection
plan that includes four individual sand nourishment
projects that are to be constructed during the 2001-04
environmental windows at a combined cost of approximately
$52 million dollars. In addition, the federal government,
State of North Carolina and Carteret County are currently
appropriating $3.2 million for a feasibility study
to determine the cost-to-benefit ratio of a federally
funded 50-year renourishment project that would begin
in the fiscal year of 2008 to 2010.
