Abstract
Hurricane Charley made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida on 13 August 2004 as a category 4 hurricane, devastating North Captiva Island. The hurricane caused a breach to occur to the southern end of the island, which naturally healed itself over the course of three years. By 2008, the cut was completely repaired geomorphologically. LiDAR data analysis shows the northern half of the island has been subjected to persistent erosion from 1998–2018, while the southern half experienced accretion since 2004, including the complete closure of the “Charley cut”. The maximum volume of sediment erosion in the northern sector of the island (R71–R73) from 2004–2018 was −85,710.1 m3, which was the source of southern accretion. The breached area of the island (R78b–R79a) obtained 500,163.9 m3 of sediments from 2004–2018 to heal the cut made by Hurricane Charley. Along with LiDAR data analysis, Google Earth Pro historical imageries and SANDS volumetric analysis confirmed the longshore transport of sediments from the northern to the southern end of the island. Winter storms are mainly responsible for this southerly longshore transport and are hypothesized to be the main factor driving the coastal dynamics that restored the breach and helps in widening the southern end of North Captiva Island.
Highlights
North Captiva is a low-lying barrier island located along the Gulf coast of Florida and is highly susceptible to morphological changes
This study sought to further examine the shoreline evolution, beach erosion characteristics and winter-storm induced longshore sediment transport that could have led to North Captiva Island’s rapid and natural recovery, including the healing of the “Charley cut”; the breach that occurred from the landfall of Hurricane Charley
In order to do this, an Arc GIS-based modeling approach was used to quantify the morphological changes of the island from the landfall of Hurricane Charley and subsequent years until 2018, when the latest LiDAR survey was conducted for the region
Summary
North Captiva is a low-lying barrier island located along the Gulf coast of Florida and is highly susceptible to morphological changes. Since 1998, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) along with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have conducted a series of LiDAR mapping surveys for the study area, along with the rest of the coastal United States [4] These data sets are available in the public domain and have been proven to be an effective tool in monitoring long-term evolution of barrier islands and frontal beaches. This study sought to further examine the shoreline evolution, beach erosion characteristics and winter-storm induced longshore sediment transport that could have led to North Captiva Island’s rapid and natural recovery, including the healing of the “Charley cut”; the breach that occurred from the landfall of Hurricane Charley. In order to do this, an Arc GIS-based modeling approach was used to quantify the morphological changes of the island from the landfall of Hurricane Charley and subsequent years until 2018, when the latest LiDAR survey was conducted for the region
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