Impacts of Hurricane Ike on the beaches of the Bolivar Peninsula, TX, USA

Abstract Hurricane Ike caused substantial beach erosion along the coast of the Bolivar Peninsula, TX. Much of the erosion was caused by the offshore (ebb) flow of the ca. 5 m storm surge that formed spatially discrete scour features. Using aerial photography and repeat LiDAR data, we identify five types of scour features and describe the alongshore distribution in four flow environments. Type 1 scours are relatively small and compact features associated mainly with flow off a wide, vegetated (grasses, shrubs, trees) surface across a wide beach. Type 2 scours are large and branching forms associated mainly with flow that was channeled by streets or gaps between structures. Type 3 scours are large and blocky features associated with flow off a marsh surface, across a highway, which removed almost all beach sands from the surface. Type 4 scours are elongated, shore perpendicular channels associated with the same flow characteristics as Type 3 scours. Type 5 scours are elongated, shore-perpendicular features, sometimes branching, associated with flow through gaps in a destroyed shore protection structure. Repeat imagery indicates that many of the features persisted for at least seven months. Recent aerial photography indicates that aspects of some features remained evident more than three years after Ike's landfall.

[1]  Qiusheng Wu,et al.  An object-based conceptual framework and computational method for representing and analyzing coastal morphological changes , 2010, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[2]  Julian D. Orford,et al.  Mechanisms to account for the longshore spacing of overwash throats on a coarse clastic barrier in southeast Ireland , 1984 .

[3]  Andrew B. Kennedy,et al.  Observations of Landfalling Wave Spectra during Hurricane Ike , 2011 .

[4]  R. Morton.  Historical Changes in the Mississippi-Alabama Barrier-Island Chain and the Roles of Extreme Storms, Sea Level, and Human Activities , 2008 .

[5]  D. Roelvink,et al.  Modelling storm impacts on beaches, dunes and barrier islands , 2009 .

[6]  Jr. Asbury H. Sallenger.  Storm Impact Scale for Barrier Islands , 2000 .

[7]  K. K. Guy,et al.  Hurricane Gustav: Observations and Analysis of Coastal Change , 2009 .

[8]  Ping Wang,et al.  The importance of extratropical and tropical cyclones on the short-term evolution of barrier islands along the northern Gulf of Mexico, USA , 2004 .

[9]  N. Kraus,et al.  Barrier Breaching Processes and Barrier Spit Breach, Stone Lagoon, California , 2002 .

[10]  A. Kennedy,et al.  Building Destruction from Waves and Surge on the Bolivar Peninsula during Hurricane Ike , 2011 .

[11]  John B. Anderson,et al.  Morphodynamics of Barrier Systems: A Synthesis , 2013 .

[12]  E. G. Otvos.  Development and Migration of Barrier Islands, Northern Gulf of Mexico , 1970 .

[13]  Stephen P. Leatherman,et al.  BARRIER ISLAND DYNAMICS: OVERWASH PROCESSES AND SOLIAN TRANSPORT , 1976 .

[14]  Hongxing Liu,et al.  Automated Extraction of Shorelines from Airborne Light Detection and Ranging Data and Accuracy Assessment Based on Monte Carlo Simulation , 2007 .

[15]  Threshold Conditions for Episodic Beach Erosion along the Southeast Texas Coast , 2002 .

[16]  R. Holman,et al.  Estimation of Overwash Bore Velocities Using Video Techniques , 1991 .

[17]  R. J. Leblanc,et al.  Origin and Development of the Texas Shoreline , 1959 .

[18]  Ping Wang,et al.  Erosional and depositional characteristics of regional overwash deposits caused by multiple hurricanes , 2007 .

[19]  S. Heron,et al.  Relict Inlets: Preservation and Occurrence in the Holocene Stratigraphy of Southern Core Banks, North Carolina , 1978 .

[20]  John R. Andrews,et al.  Geotubes for temporary erosion control and storm surge protection along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline of Texas , 2003 .

[21]  C. Houser,et al.  Sensitivity of post‐hurricane beach and dune recovery to event frequency , 2009 .

[22]  H. W. Hill,et al.  Regional morphological responses to the March 1962 Ash Wednesday storm , 2003 .

[23]  B. Hayden,et al.  Storms and shoreline configuration , 1981 .

[24]  The evolution of large scale crescentic bars on the northern Gulf of Mexico coast , 2011 .

[25]  T. H. Andel,et al.  Recent Sediments, Northwest Gulf of Mexico , 1960 .

[26]  D. Nummedal,et al.  A Process-Response Model for Hurricane Washovers , 1982 .

[27]  J. Bales,et al.  Sand Transport in Texas Tidal Inlet , 1989 .

[28]  C. Blain,et al.  The generation and preservation of multiple hurricane beds in the northern Gulf of Mexico , 2004 .

[29]  S. Penland,et al.  Transgressive Depositional Systems of the Mississippi Delta Plain: A Model for Barrier Shoreline and Shelf Sand Development , 1988 .

[30]  D. Stauble,et al.  Impact of Hurricane Belle on Assateague Island washover , 1977 .

[31]  J. Barras.  Land Area Change and Overview of Major Hurricane Impacts in Coastal Louisiana, 2004-08 , 2009 .

[32]  B. Horton,et al.  Sedimentary record of storm deposits from Hurricane Ike, Galveston and San Luis Islands, Texas , 2012 .

[33]  H. Williams.  Magnitude of Hurricane Ike storm surge sedimentation: implications for coastal marsh aggradation , 2012 .

[34]  C. Houser,et al.  Alongshore variation in foredune height in response to transport potential and sediment supply: South Padre Island, Texas , 2011 .

[35]  E. G. Otvos.  Hurricane signatures and landforms—toward improved interpretations and global storm climate chronology , 2011 .

[36]  Robert R. Mason,et al.  Monitoring Inland Storm Surge and Flooding from Hurricane Rita , 2006 .

[37]  Robert R. Bottin,et al.  Case histories of Corps breakwater and jetty structures. by Francis E. Sargent, Robert R. Bottin, Jr., Coastal Engineering Research Center ; prepared for Department of the Army, US Army Corps of Engineers. , 1988 .

[38]  Hermann M. Fritz,et al.  Hurricane katrina storm surge distribution and field observations on the Mississippi Barrier Islands , 2007 .

[39]  S. Cutter,et al.  Fleeing from the Hurricane's Wrath: Evacuation and the two Americas , 2009 .

[40]  R. Feagin,et al.  Sediment Spatial Patterns in a Hurricane Katrina Overwash Fan on Dauphin Island, Alabama, U.S.A. , 2008 .

[41]  Jeffery W. East,et al.  Monitoring Inland Storm Surge and Flooding from Hurricane Ike in Texas and Louisiana, September 2008 , 2008 .

[42]  C. Houser,et al.  Controls on coastal dune morphology, shoreline erosion and barrier island response to extreme storms , 2008 .

[43]  J. Goff,et al.  Offshore transport of sediment during cyclonic storms: Hurricane Ike (2008), Texas Gulf Coast, USA , 2010 .

[44]  Geologic effects of hurricanes , 1994 .

[45]  D. FitzGerald,et al.  Delta lobe degradation and hurricane impacts governing large-scale coastal behavior, South-central Louisiana, USA , 2009 .

[46]  Young Hyun Park,et al.  An Empirical Model to Estimate Overwash , 2010 .

[47]  M. Hayes.  Hurricanes as geological agents: case studies of Hurricanes Carla, 1961, and Cindy, 1963. , 1967 .

[48]  Chunyan Li,et al.  Storm surge propagation in Galveston Bay during Hurricane Ike , 2010 .

[49]  Richard A. Davis,et al.  Hurricane Opal Induced Changes on Natural and Nourished Beaches, West-Central Florida , 1997 .

[50]  F. C. Perry,et al.  OVERWASH PROCESSES ON ASSATEAGUE ISLAND , 1974 .

[51]  Magnus Larson,et al.  State of Knowledge on Measurement and Modeling of Coastal Overwash , 2006 .

[52]  Mark Hansen,et al.  Hurricanes 2004: An overview of their characteristics and coastal change , 2006 .

[53]  A. Kennedy,et al.  HURRICANE IKE (2008) NEARSHORE WAVES: SIMULATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS , 2011 .

[54]  E. Schanda,et al.  Remote sensing of the environment , 1978, Naturwissenschaften.

[55]  J. M. Coleman,et al.  EFFECTS OF HURRICANE CAMILLE ON THE LANDSCAPE OF THE BRETON-CHANDELEUR ISLAND CHAIN AND THE EASTERN PORTION OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI DELTA , 1970 .

[56]  Robert A. Morton,et al.  Morphological impacts of extreme storms on sandy beaches and barriers , 2003 .

[57]  R. Holman,et al.  Evaluation of Airborne Topographic Lidar* for Quantifying Beach Changes , 2003 .