Presenter: Donya Frank-Gilchrist (USGS Coastal and Marine Science Center St Petersburg)

Description:
Barrier islands are dynamic morphological features which may evolve over a range of time scales. They may respond to intense storms in the short-term or to larger-scale processes over decadal time scales. We are coupling several hydrodynamic and morphological models to better understand barrier island evolution in response to storms of various intensity and frequency given a range of predicted sea level scenarios. The model domain includes Dauphin Island and Petit Bois islands along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts in the Gulf of Mexico. The coupled modeling system is comprised of Delft3D to simulate hydrodynamics and sediment transport during quiescent periods, XBeach to simulate nearshore processes and morphological changes in response to storm conditions, and the Empirical Dune Growth Model which will be used to predict dune growth over the quiescent periods. The numerical models will also be used to assess the effectiveness of various mitigation measures proposed by coastal managers under the range of simulated hydrodynamics and morphodynamics. This presentation will focus on the first phase of the project which was comprised of validating each model independently before integrating them into a coupled modeling system.