BEACH PLANFORM EQUILIBRIUM, APPLICATION AND METHODOLOGIES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCY CONSIDERATION

Abstract

Climate change and sea level rise (SLR) present a challenge and added uncertainty for managing coastal areas. Many coastal cities and developed coastal areas are assessing future vulnerabilities to SLR and developing adaptation plans for improved resiliency. Equilibrium conditions for beach planform can be critical to the long-term stability of beaches and dunes fronting coastal cities. In many cases, resiliency and adaptation programs for beachfront areas are based on assumptions of evaluating scenarios of higher water elevations and hydrodynamic forcing under present time topographic and bathymetric conditions. These evaluation parameters suggest that the coastline and existing morphological features are near equilibrium condition and are expected to remain near similar equilibrium over the SLR scenarios under consideration. Such assumptions may be limited to open coast conditions where the beach and the developed coastal planform follows theoretical open coast conditions or constant equilibrium planform. This paper discusses factors influencing beach planform along the Florida Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines and proposes conceptual methodologies in various applications.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/gWsbmi6VIo0