Multi-dimensional approach for interpreting the structure of barrier island morphology

Abstract

Barrier islands are complex polygenetic landscapes, but contemporary models used to extract and visualize morphometric patterns tend to characterize them as two-dimensional landforms, leading to an idealized morphology in which the dune crest, dune toe, and dune heel are viewed as alongshore continuous features. A new exploratory approach to the extraction of topographic features explicitly recognizes the complex nature of barrier island morphology using surface normal vectors of the continuous surface. Complex alongshore and cross-shore ridge and swale features not visible in traditional elevation models are extracted using the directional components of the vectors. This transferable approach accounts for cross-shore and alongshore features and does not depend on a requirement of an alongshore continuous landform and provides a more objective approach to the extraction of beach and dune morphology by recognizing the polygenetic history of barrier islands.