Characteristics of the shoreline change along florida sandy beaches with an example for Palm Beach County

摘要

This paper introduces the recently developed resource "Characteristics of the Shoreline Change along the Sandy Beaches of the State of Florida: An Atlas" (available on the web). The shoreline positions on which the Atlas is based encompass 25 coastal counties extending over 1162 km of shoreline and averages over almost 140 years. The data were analyzed over three different periods (early, recent, and total) to distinguish mainly beach nourishment and sand bypassing projects, primarily in the recent period. The east and west coastlines of Florida have advanced significantly in the recent period relative to the early period, with the recent and early period average shoreline change rates being +23 cm/y and +18 cm/y on the east coast and +27 cm/y and -7 cm/y on the west coast, respectively. This improvement is attributable to, in part, the large quantities of sand placed during nourishment and sand bypass projects. Shoreline changes in the vicinity of the 58 inlets were examined, and it was found that shoreline fluctuations decreased significantly with increasing distance from the inlets, and that sand bypass and nourishment projects reduced the shoreline variability during the recent period.