Annualmeeting:2017 CSDMS meeting-036
Browse abstracts
Coupling coastal processes and human interactions within a littoral cell
[[Image:|300px|right|link=File:]]Coastal landscapes are dynamic, subject to drowning by sea level rise, erosion driven by alongshore transport, and inundation by large storm events. Coastlines are also highly developed. Along the U.S. coasts, communities continuously develop and implement beach management strategies to protect coastal infrastructure and maintain recreational value. From sediment source to sink, littoral cells often span many coastal communities. Even as physical processes grade along these littoral cells, separate communities along this coast possibly enact different management strategies. By expanding upon an existing alongshore-coupled dynamic model of coastal profile and barrier evolution, we analyze the feedbacks between alongshore and cross-shore processes as well as human response to local shoreline change across multiple communities within the same littoral cell. Incorporating the possibility of intercommunity cooperation allows us to valuate variable coastal resilience strategies for communities within a littoral cell, particularly the benefit of coordinated versus uncoordinated activities. Both sediment transport processes and a cost-benefit analysis for each community determine optimal beach management strategies. Model results provide insights useful for understanding coastal processes and planning, allowing for more robust coastal management decisions, which depend upon future rates of sea-level rise.
