Helping shape safer coastal communities

the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center have also been studying dune evolution for the past three years, along with scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory. “USACE coastal researchers take a three-pronged approach to research in dune evolution,” said Jeff Lillycrop, USACE Technical Director for Civil Works Research and Development. “Field data collection, physical modeling, and numerical modeling are all important.”

Higher dunes can help protect communities from damaging waves and surge; they can also impede natural coastal processes. Scientists need better to understand how dunes’ effectiveness in protecting developed areas will be affected by long-term coastal change, or by extreme events such as hurricanes. The projects are intended to fill in some of those knowledge gaps. “The academic research studies address aspects of coastal dune modeling and decision-support analysis,” Haines said. “These projects will help to understand and assess the many roles dunes play in coastal environments.”

Each academic institution is collaborating with a local government agency or a non-governmental organization involved in coastal management. Each project will be presented at the ASBPA’s October 2017 Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

The 2016 research awards are the outcome of a workshop hosted by ASBPA in October of 2015, also in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where nearly 100 coastal managers and researchers met to bridge the gap between the scientists’ and engineers’ research and the managers’ needs.

Projects at a glance

• Oregon State University’s research will expand a numerical modeling system for coastal dunes on managed coasts to include options such as vegetation planting, beach nourishment, and beach scraping.
• Researchers at the University of North Carolina will combine OSU’s study results with observations of dune topography, vegetation cover, and wind data for a 15-mile (25-kilometer) stretch of the North Carolina coast. The work will support a numerical model of dune growth and change, and provide a database that can be used for future work on the effects of wind and vegetation.
• University of Pennsylvania scientists will build a wind tunnel to test the sand-capturing capability of five types of dune vegetation and develop methods to predict how vegetation affects dune stabilization. 
• Research at North Carolina State University will work on dune construction guidance for projects where a constructed beach berm affects how waves can alter or overtop the dune.
• A group at Texas A&M University will evaluate local stakeholder perceptions and management of coastal dunes.
• The University of Alabama will investigate the vulnerability of dunes to multiple storms and then test and refine ways to predict dune responses to these events.