Project Summary: This project will has two research themes focused on disaster resiliency and coastal hazards: 1) post-hurricane natural beach and dune recovery and real-time forecasts of coastal water levels, inundation, and waves.
Year 1 – The overall goal of Year 1 is to establish and formalize a Living Laboratory on Jekyll Island with a focus on semi-continuous beach and dune surveys. Hurricanes Ian and Nicole caused substantial beach and dune erosion across Jekyll Island. Initial GPS-RTK surveys on Jekyll Island indicate > 2 ft vertical erosion on the beach face and severe dune erosion and scarping.
The establishment of a Living Laboratory (dedicated field survey site) allows for long-term monitoring of the natural recovery of the beach and dune system and supports both research and education. The outcome of this project is new knowledge of temporal and spatial recovery and beach evolution, which drastically impacts flood risk for the beach- and dune-front properties.
Year 2 – The overall goal of Year 2 is to set up a real-time forecasting system of coastal inundation for coastal Georgia. Coastal Georgia is vulnerable to coastal inundation from high tides, winter storms (cold front passage), and tropical cyclones. A daily five-day forecast of water levels, waves, and inland inundation would provide emergency managers and local officials with potential impact areas. A focus will be on critical infrastructure and surface transportation infrastructure.
