Development of an operational repository of coastal hydraulics and inlet dynamics

Abstract

The primary goal of this coordinated research and development between Marine Information Resources Corporation and NC State University is to build and disseminate a comprehensive integrated database and decision support system on the location, extent, characteristics, and trends of shallow water processes occurring along North Carolina's barrier island coast. This project will leverage existing investments and ongoing research by NC State University. Numerous multidisciplinary and integrated efforts have been initiated to quantify and model a range of coastal processes that represent critical issues currently being debated by governing state and federal agencies. The lack of a single and comprehensive repository for shallow-water data has hindered quantitative understanding of the temporally and spatially variable processes impacting the Outer Banks. As a result, biologists, planners, and public officials must work with less than adequate information on critical economic, cultural, and environmental issues that affect North Carolina's barrier island coastal zone. Efforts are currently underway to design an information and metadata repository for compilation, analysis, and management of existing and future Outer Banks' data. This resource site would provide a single source of contact to users and would integrate long term hydrometeorological, geological, and oceanographic information for studying a barrier island coast. The repository would benefit coastal zone managers by objectively characterizing the barrier island system and identifying processes ranging from shoreline retreat rates to volumetric changes of inlet-associated tidal deltas.