State of the shoreline since Hurricane Sandy: Summary of changes at New Jersey Beach Profile Network (NJBPN) sites

Abstract

Following the devastating impacts from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, Congress passed Public Law 113-2 in January 2013 which provided the funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to restore authorized federal coastal storm risk management projects in New Jersey to their original design templates. Between 2013 and 2016, approximately 28.3 million cubic yards of sand were used to rebuild the beaches and dunes along 92.7 miles of the 127-mile Atlantic Ocean shoreline (an average of 283,290 cubic yards per mile). Between 2017 and 2019, initial federal beachfill had been completed at the northern Ocean County beaches (an additional 11 million cubic yards). A review of the changes to the New Jersey Beach Profile Network (NJBPN) locations indicates that this influx of sand benefitted nearly all shorelines as well as former erosion hot spots. Examples are provided from each of the four counties (Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May) to show trends in profile volume and shoreline position. State support of beach nourishment continues through the efforts of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and its Office of Coastal Engineering.