Sensitivity of post‐hurricane beach and dune recovery to event frequency

Abstract

The recovery of Santa Rosa Island in northwest Florida is characterized following Hurricane Katrina (September 2005), which was preceded by Hurricanes Ivan (2004) and Dennis (2005). Beach and dune recovery were quantified to the east and west of Pensacola Beach through a comparison of LiDAR data collected immediately following Hurricane Katrina and in July 2006 after almost a year of recovery. East of Pensacola Beach (the Santa Rosa Unit), the shoreline retreated by an average of 64 m during the 2004-2005 hurricane season and recovered by an average of 19 m. To the west of Pensacola Beach (the Fort Pickens Unit), the shoreline retreated by an average of 30 m, and while no significant shoreface recovery was observed, the presence of vegetation on low-profile dunes promoted backshore accretion. It is found that beachface recovery in the Santa Rosa Unit and backshore accretion in the Fort Pickens Unit occurred at the widest sections of the island where the pre-storm profile volume had been relatively large and overwash penetration was at a minimum. The narrow sections of the island (between cuspate headlands) had a smaller profile volume before the storms, leading to greater overwash penetration and in some cases island breaching in both sections, which limited the volume of sediment available for shoreface recovery. The alongshore variation in recovery is not only related to the island width, but also the offshore bathymetry, height of the pre-storm dunes and the overwash penetration. If sufficient time is allowed for the return of vegetation and the recovery of the dunes, the variations in storm impact observed during Hurricane Ivan will be reinforced during subsequent storms. In this respect, the level of impact during subsequent storms and the ability of the island to recover will depend on the frequency of storm events.

Integrating lidar, GIS and hedonic price modeling to measure amenity values in urban beach residential property markets

“…This combined with the potential for creating high-resolution horizontal grids of each location minimizes errors in the viewshed analysis that are caused by small changes in the elevation or location of structures and vegetation. All lidar data utilized in this study and resultant elevation model are referenced horizontally to UTM zone 16 N utilizing NAD 1983, andvertically to NAVD 1988. The data were processed according to procedures developed by Houser, Hapke, and Hamilton (2008) and Houser and Hamilton (2009) in their analysis of costal impacts of storms that included Pensacola Beach. The lidar mass-point files were converted to continuous grid data using ArcGIS.…”

Characterizing storm response and recovery using the beach change envelope: Fire Island, New York

“…shoreline position (Morton et al, 1995;Thieler and Young, 1991;Farris and List, 2007;Houser et al, 2008;Hapke et al, 2010Hapke et al, , 2016Bramato et al, 2012;Phillips et al, 2017) or dune height (Houser et al, 2008(Houser et al, , 2015Stockdon et al, 2009;Wernette et al, 2016)); whereas the other simplifies spatial information along a cross-shore profile to an averaged value (e.g. beach volume and slope) (Morton et al, 1994;Stone et al, 2004;Stockdon et al, 2007;Houser and Hamilton, 2009;Mathew et al, 2010;Scott et al, 2016). Changes in these metrics can be used to better resolve timescales (e.g.…”

“…Anthony et al, 2006;Houser, 2009), which themselves require different instrumentation and understanding to measure and track. Coupled with the spatially (and temporally) varying levels of recovery that occur from the shoreline to the dunes (Phillips et al, 2017;Castelle et al, 2017), the measurement, evaluation, or characterization of recovery is challenging, particularly in a way that is meaningful across sites or locations (Morton et al, 1994;Hesp, 2002;Houser and Hamilton, 2009;Mathew et al, 2010;Houser et al, 2015;Scott et al, 2016).…”

The influence of hurricane risk on tourist destination choice in the Caribbean

“…Most tourists visit Anguilla outside of the hurricane season, which is certainly a significant advantage for the island. Anguilla's tourist demographic is also mainly interested in beaches, which have the potential to recover from extreme events naturally or with artificial beach nourishment (Browder 2002;Hayasaka et al 2009;Houser and Hamilton 2009). Compared to tourism destinations fundamentally reliant on climate-sensitive ecosystems, such as the reef-based tourism island of Bonaire (Uyarra et al 2005), Anguilla's tourism industry is perhaps relatively more resilient.…”