25 Nearshore and Estuarine Research: Dynamics and Future Resiliency in the Coastal Zone II

This session focuses on drivers of change in coastal environments as well as planning for future resiliency in tidal marshes, mudflats, estuaries, and barrier systems, including human activity impacts, sea level rise, & changing sediment supply.

Monday, 23 March 2026
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
CCC, Room 22/23

Balancing the Scales: Appropriate Temporal and Spatial Resolutions Along the Shoreline and Shoreface with Regards to Form, Function, and Management Implications

Paper number: 25-1
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:35 PM – 1:55 PM

Authors

Abstract

The open ocean beach along Cape Cod, Massachusetts, perhaps the longest, unaltered littoral cell in the lower 48 states, provides a unique opportunity for scientists to study coastal processes. Several recent and ongoing studies examine the relationship between the form and function of onshore and offshore geomorphological features. Studies documenting: the change of direction in inlet migration of Nauset Inlet, an active erosional hotspot at Nauset Light Beach; and the utility of a new method to quantify sediment budgets, have increased our understanding of these systems and have management implications. However, results for both science and management-related issues are almost wholly dependent on understanding the relevant temporal and spatial scales of data collected, analyzed and the driving physical processes of interest.

Within this context we discuss time series data from terrestrial and marine environments from the 1890s through to the present. We document centennial-scale to daily changes from topographic and vessel-based, lead-line surveys of the 19th century to Unoccupied Aerial Systems to vessel-based, acoustic surveys from 2025. Although highly episodic, long-term erosion rates on the outer beach average approximately 1 m/yr. Near the erosional hotspot over the last 20 years along 8 transects, spaced 300 m apart, coastal bluffs have eroded approximately 30 m, but have ranged from effectively 0 to 4.28 m/yr. Offshore of those transects, in 10 m water depth, vertical changes in bed elevation range from 3-5 m. This kind of dynamic variability along and across shore can mix the signal and the noise, but linking the offshore morphology to the onshore evolution helps place this type of change in context and provides managers with a better understanding of potential future coastal configurations.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 2

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026NE-411457

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