Extreme changes to barrier islands along the central Gulf of Mexico coast during Hurricane Katrina

Sallenger, Asbury H.; Wright, Wayne; Lillycrop, Jeff; Howd, Peter A.; Stockdon, Hilary F.; Guy, Kristy K.; Morgan, Karen L.M.

doi:10.3133/cir13065c

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Less frequently, changes to the whole-island area are also considered [15,17,21,[24][25][26]. These studies often emphasize short-term changes induced by extreme storm events [14,15,23,[27][28][29] and most consider the sandy barrier-island (beach and dune) and back-barrier (marsh and tidal flat) environments separately. Recent studies, however, demonstrated the importance of whole-system connectivity to barrier morphology and evolution [30][31][32] and expanded the scope of historical analyses to consider the annual-to decadal-scale landscape evolution of barrier islands [33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite-Derived Barrier Response and Recovery Following Natural and Anthropogenic Perturbations, Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

2021

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The magnitude and frequency of storm events, relative sea-level rise (RSLR), sediment supply, and anthropogenic alterations drive the morphologic evolution of barrier island systems, although the relative importance of any one driver will vary with the spatial and temporal scales considered. To explore the relative contributions of storms and human alterations to sediment supply on decadal changes in barrier landscapes, we applied Otsu’s thresholding method to multiple satellite-derived spectral indices for coastal land-cover classification and analyzed Landsat satellite imagery to quantify changes to the northern Chandeleur Islands barrier system since 1984. This high temporal-resolution dataset shows decadal-scale land-cover oscillations related to storm–recovery cycles, suggesting that shorter and (or) less resolved time series are biased toward storm impacts and may significantly overpredict land-loss rates and the timing of barrier morphologic state changes. We demonstrate that, historically, vegetation extent and persistence were the dominant controls on alongshore-variable landscape response and recovery following storms, and are even more important than human-mediated sediment input. As a result of extensive vegetation losses over the past few decades, however, the northern Chandeleur Islands are transitioning to a new morphologic state in which the landscape is dominated by intertidal environments, indicating reduced resilience to future storms and possibly rapid transitions in morphologic state with increasing rates of RSLR.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite-Derived Barrier Response and Recovery Following Natural and Anthropogenic Perturbations, Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

2021

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“…The passage of large-magnitude tropical cyclones produces rapid morphological changes to barrier islands (Nummedal et al, 1980;Sallenger et al, 2007). The largest and least predictable of these changes occur at tidal inlets due to their complex bathymetry and resulting wave refraction patterns, as well as increased wave-generated and tidal current-induced sediment transport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hurricane-associated ebb-tidal delta sediment dynamics

Miner¹,

Kulp²,

FitzGerald³

et al. 2009

Geology

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Bathymetric surveys conducted before and after the 2005 hurricane season at Little Pass Timbalier in the Mississippi River delta plain, United States, demonstrate that 9.1 (±2.4) × 10 6 m 3 of sediment was eroded from a 47.9 km 2 area. Between the two surveys, Hurricanes Cindy, Katrina, and Rita passed within 300 km of the tidal inlet. Comparison of before and after bathymetric data sets shows that the distal portion of the ebb-tidal delta (ETD) was the site of 63% of the total erosion, locally resulting in 400 m of shoreface retreat. Shoaling (0.75-1.0 m) in the seawardmost portion of the ebb channel and erosion in the landward portion (~1.5 m) resulted in a 160 m landward shift of the inlet throat. Collectively, these processes forced the landward migration of the entire tidal inlet and ETD system. There has been considerable discussion about large volumes of mineral sediment deposited on the Mississippi River delta plain interior marsh surface as a result of hurricanes; however, the origin of this sediment is unknown. We identify the distal portion of an ETD as one possible sediment source and hypothesize that ETD and shoreface sediment is mobilized by hurricane waves and transported landward by surgeinduced currents. Our results emphasize the role of frequent and intense hurricanes in long-term coastal evolution and as a mechanism for regional sediment retention within the transgressive system beyond typical barrier overwash processes.

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“…Despite different sources and mechanisms, the effect of the destruction caused by a tsunami may have been analog to that of a storm surge, in particular along the coastline, where barrier islands are the first line of natural coastal protection. Studies of short-term shoreline changes of barrier islands at Banda Aceh coast of Sumatra Island, Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami [13], and those at the Dauphin Island, US after the Hurricane Katrina in 2005 [40] are two comparable studies which demonstrated similar variability of shoreline changes caused by extreme events.…”

Section: Barrier Islands and Spits Morphological Resiliencementioning

confidence: 95%

“…In contrast, the barrier islands at Kuala Gigieng experienced a landward migration, breaching, and the growth of barrier spit bending landwards (Figure 7b). Such morphological pattern is typical for barrier islands washed over by storm events or hurricanes, e.g., Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina [40]. Energy dissipation is then mostly achieved through the overwash bore running over the barrier, flattening the barrier crest profile, and depositing off-shore originating material over the back-barrier zone [32].…”

Section: Tsunami Overwashmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barrier Islands Resilience to Extreme Events: Do Earthquake and Tsunami Play a Role?

Meilianda

Lavigne

Pradhan

et al. 2021

Water

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Barrier islands are indicators of coastal resilience. Previous studies have proven that barrier islands are surprisingly resilient to extreme storm events. At present, little is known about barrier systems’ resilience to seismic events triggering tsunamis, co-seismic subsidence, and liquefaction. The objective of this study is, therefore, to investigate the morphological resilience of the barrier islands in responding to those secondary effects of seismic activity of the Sumatra–Andaman subduction zone and the Great Sumatran Fault system. Spatial analysis in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was utilized to detect shoreline changes from the multi-source datasets of centennial time scale, including old topographic maps and satellite images from 1898 until 2017. Additionally, the earthquake and tsunami records and established conceptual models of storm effects to barrier systems, are corroborated to support possible forcing factors analysis. Two selected coastal sections possess different geomorphic settings are investigated: (1) Lambadeuk, the coast overlying the Sumatran Fault system, (2) Kuala Gigieng, located in between two segments of the Sumatran Fault System. Seven consecutive pairs of comparable old topographic maps and satellite images reveal remarkable morphological changes in the form of breaching, landward migrating, sinking, and complete disappearing in different periods of observation. While semi-protected embayed Lambadeuk is not resilient to repeated co-seismic land subsidence, the wave-dominated Kuala Gigieng coast is not resilient to the combination of tsunami and liquefaction events. The mega-tsunami triggered by the 2004 earthquake led to irreversible changes in the barrier islands on both coasts.

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Extreme changes to barrier islands along the central Gulf of Mexico coast during Hurricane Katrina

Abstract: Provides a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the 2005 hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the important role of science in landscape restoration and community recovery"-Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Satellite-Derived Barrier Response and Recovery Following Natural and Anthropogenic Perturbations, Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

Satellite-Derived Barrier Response and Recovery Following Natural and Anthropogenic Perturbations, Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

Hurricane-associated ebb-tidal delta sediment dynamics

Barrier Islands Resilience to Extreme Events: Do Earthquake and Tsunami Play a Role?

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