Enhanced understanding can strengthen resource management along East Coast.
A new report that synthesizes decades of data on the hydrodynamic and meteorological forces at work at the Sebastian Inlet has linked seasonal and inter-annual sea level changes to changes in the sand volume contained in the adjacent beaches and nearshore littoral system. This finding could help enhance shoreline stabilization efforts and guide future development along Florida’s East Coast with an eye toward improved coastal resiliency.
Gary Zarillo, a professor in Florida Tech’s Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences who has been conducting research at the Inlet under a services contract with the Sebastian Inlet District, said that long-term collections of Inlet-related data, some of which go back to the 1950s, fueled the new findings.
Those findings include indications that periods of seasonal sea level rise correlate to cumulative sand volume losses, and seasonal falling sea level can be directly linked to sand volume gains. This is due largely to the flow and location of the Gulf Stream along the coast, which can produce a 3-foot or more rise and fall annually and upwards of a 20,000-cubic-yard variation in sand volume.
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