Land use and mitigation effects on barrier beach erosion in storms: Case study in Rhode Island

• Main Authors: Al Naser, Naser, Grilli, Annette R., Grilli, Stephan T., Baxter, Christopher, Bradshaw, Aaron, Maggi, Brian
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@URI 2018
• Subjects: Dune; Erosion; Geotextile sand-filled containers; Vegetation; XBeach; Barrier Islands; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cve_facpubs/109

Sea Level Rise (SLR) and storm intensification lead to re-evaluating inundation assessments along the North Atlantic US shoreline. A particular effort is devoted to assessing coastal community risk to “100-year storm†events in Rhode Island, US, using a chain of state-of-the-art storm surge, wave propagation, and coastal erosion 2D models. Damage risks imposed on infrastructures and services incited US federal and state agencies to come up with innovative engineering solutions to improve coastal resiliency while preserving natural coastal and marine environments. This study critically evaluates available design tools used to assess the performance of two types of Natural and Natural Based Features (NNBFs) for coastal protection: natural vegetated barrier islands and dunes reinforced with Geotextile Sand-filled Containers (GSCs), on urbanized barrier islands. Comparative analyses with field data identifies the capabilities and limitations of phase averaging and phase resolving hydro-morphodynamic models used for simulating bed level changes in dissipative beaches, during 3 Sallenger storm regimes. Recommendations are provided on modeling approaches for simulating effects of vegetation and using GSCs to limit coastal erosion.