This thesis utilises a range of methodologies to investigate the historical shoreline change and beach morphodynamics at Rapahoe Bay, West Coast, New Zealand. Rapahoe Bay is a small embayment located 15 km north of Greymouth, and contains a complex and dynamic environment under a dominant swell condition. The objectives of this thesis include the investigation the coastline history through aerial photographs and relevant literature, identify and quantify historical shoreline change and the processes that have induced change, examine the short term and seasonal changes in beach profile, identify and quantify wave and transport process and to test the applicability of the zeta shoreline curve on a composite beach. This combined approach investigates the dynamics and process drivers involved in coastline change. This thesis contributes to the research gap of understanding morphodynamic behaviour and controls of composite beach under a dominant swell. Composite beaches types are a variation from mixed sand and gravel beaches with distinct morphological differences. This thesis provides an insight in to the morphodynamic behaviour of composite beaches. The study area contains a small village based by the shoreline and the potential coastal hazard that threatens people, property and infrastructure. Therefore the results from this thesis have an important management implication towards mitigating coastal hazards. The historical coastline change was induced through a combination of wave processes and transport, composite beach morphodynamic behaviour, anthropogenic influence and planform shape. Results show that human infrastructure restricted the retreat of a small hapua landward of the gravel barrier. A combination of change in sediment supply, consistent sediment transport and a high wave energy environment resulted in rapid landward retreat through gravel rollover and coastal erosion. The gravel barrier morphodynamics include increase in crest elevation, steeper shore gradients as a response to high swells resulting in erosion or rollover. The wave environment includes a sediment transport hinge point due to a dominant wave refraction and changes in the shoreline orientation, which further induces coastal erosion. The valid applicability of the zeta planform shape concludes that the shoreline may further iii retreat due to geological controls, potential sediment transport and the transgressive nature of the composite beaches. The combination of methods and results provide both quantified historical change and also potential future scenarios of coastline reshaping. These methods and results are applicable not only to Rapahoe but along other West Coast composite beaches, and the validity of the combination of methods provides a greater understanding of the behaviour of morphodynamic composite beaches and provides quantified results of historical shoreline change and sediment transport at the field site.

ABSTRACT Most sandy beaches around the world have been under the threat of being eroded in the past six decades, resulting in shoreline retreat; thus, calling for various shoreline protection devices to be constructed to preserve the well-being of coastal habitants. To achieve this purpose, research on shoreline changes and development of numerical or mathematical models for predicting shoreline changes would help attain the goal of sustainable use of coastal land. This thesis reports preliminary engineering applications of GENESIS that have become a popular tool for modeling long-term shoreline changes. The aim of this study is to predict the potential shoreline change in the light of different layouts of shoreline protection devices. The topics addressed in this report include the discussion on the parameters in GENESIS; shoreline changes in the lee and/or on the back of single groin and single detached breakwater with normal or oblique wave incidence; comparison on the efficiency of beach accretion as a function of gap width between structures and the sequence of their construction, as well as assessment on the restraint from the two different boundary conditions used in GENESIS. The results of modeling using GENESIS are then verified using the result based on the empirical parabolic bay shape equation and a physical scale model, in order to test the feasibility of applying GENESIS for practical engineering uses. From the results of this study, it can be stated that GENESIS is valuable reference tool for engineering design, despite some shortcomings in setting up boundary conditions and the invariant nature of and values which do not respond to the process of changing shoreline curvature. However, the GENESIS system would have a positive contribution to the modeling of shoreline changes upon the construction of protective devices on a coast.

This thesis utilises a range of methodologies to investigate the historical shoreline change and beach morphodynamics at Rapahoe Bay, West Coast, New Zealand. Rapahoe Bay is a small embayment located 15 km north of Greymouth, and contains a complex and dynamic environment under a dominant swell condition. The objectives of this thesis include the investigation the coastline history through aerial photographs and relevant literature, identify and quantify historical shoreline change and the processes that have induced change, examine the short term and seasonal changes in beach profile, identify and quantify wave and transport process and to test the applicability of the zeta shoreline curve on a composite beach. This combined approach investigates the dynamics and process drivers involved in coastline change. This thesis contributes to the research gap of understanding morphodynamic behaviour and controls of composite beach under a dominant swell. Composite beaches types are a variation from mixed sand and gravel beaches with distinct morphological differences. This thesis provides an insight in to the morphodynamic behaviour of composite beaches. The study area contains a small village based by the shoreline and the potential coastal hazard that threatens people, property and infrastructure. Therefore the results from this thesis have an important management implication towards mitigating coastal hazards. The historical coastline change was induced through a combination of wave processes and transport, composite beach morphodynamic behaviour, anthropogenic influence and planform shape. Results show that human infrastructure restricted the retreat of a small hapua landward of the gravel barrier. A combination of change in sediment supply, consistent sediment transport and a high wave energy environment resulted in rapid landward retreat through gravel rollover and coastal erosion. The gravel barrier morphodynamics include increase in crest elevation, steeper shore gradients as a response to high swells resulting in erosion or rollover. The wave environment includes a sediment transport hinge point due to a dominant wave refraction and changes in the shoreline orientation, which further induces coastal erosion. The valid applicability of the zeta planform shape concludes that the shoreline may further iii retreat due to geological controls, potential sediment transport and the transgressive nature of the composite beaches. The combination of methods and results provide both quantified historical change and also potential future scenarios of coastline reshaping. These methods and results are applicable not only to Rapahoe but along other West Coast composite beaches, and the validity of the combination of methods provides a greater understanding of the behaviour of morphodynamic composite beaches and provides quantified results of historical shoreline change and sediment transport at the field site.

In this thesis, a numerical simulation model is applied to investigate the long-term shoreline changes behind detached breakwaters. The model includes three components, namely a wave model, a current model, and a shoreline change model. In the numerical simulations, various combinations of wave conditions and the placement of detached breakwater are chosen to explore the effect of detached breakwaters on the shoreline change. The results of calculation show that with incident wave angles within 0~45, wave height in the range of 0.5~1.5m, or the offshore distance to the detached breakwaters being 60~120m, the larger in any one of these three parameters is, the bigger the erosion distance onshore from the original shoreline and the extent of salient offshore are behind detached breakwaters. When incident angle of the wave increases, shoreline plan form becomes skewed, and the time required to arrive at equilibrium also increases, in addition to the position of the top of salient moves downcoast. Within the wave periods of 7~10 seconds tested, waves with large period are found to show slight decrease of the erosion distance onshore and the extent of salient offshore behind detached breakwaters. The plan form of the salient is not affected by wave period. However, the larger the wave period is, the sooner the long-tern shoreline will result. Moreover, for a detached breakwater constructed in the range of offshore distances within 1.0¡ÕS/B¡Õ2.0, variable offshore distances do not produce much difference in the erosion distance onshore and the extent of salient offshore behind detached breakwaters, and salient only will form. In the case of the S/B =< 0.8, a tombolo will result. Finally, the results of shoreline plan form from the numerical modeling are verified by the empirical parabolic bay shape equation of Hsu and Evans (1989), a small-scale hydraulic model, and two numerical models based on GENESIS and LITPACK. Overall, the result are in good agreement with these four different approaches, and therefore, the present model is suitable for practical engineering applications.

In Alabama, the term "coastal shoreline" applies to the Gulf shoreline and the shorelines of estuaries, bays, and sounds connected to the Gulf of Mexico and subject to its tides. However, Alabama shoreline studies have yet to include Little Lagoon, which has been connected to the Gulf of Mexico for most of the last 200 years, according to historical charts. This study used historical nautical charts, aerial photographs, and LIDAR derived shorelines from 1917 to 2004 to analyze shoreline change on Little Lagoon and its adjacent Gulf shoreline. The high water line was used as the common reference feature, and all shorelines were georeferenced, projected, and digitized in a Geographic In-formation System. Between 1917 and 2001, the Gulf shoreline eroded an average of 40 m over 12.7 km, with some transects eroding almost 120 m while others accreted almost 60 m. The greatest changes to the Gulf shoreline were found near natural inlets, downdrift of jetties, and coincident with nourishment projects. Between 1955 and 1997, Little Lagoon shrank 0.5%, or 51.4 km², from 10,285.9 km² to 10,234.5 km². The greatest changes to Little Lagoon were found on its southern shoreline and near inlets, human development, and hurricane overwash fans. A correlation analysis conducted on the Gulf shoreline and Little Lagoon' s southern shoreline indicated that although weak overall correlation values exist when the entire 12.7 km study area is compared, strong correlation values are obtained in some areas when compared over one kilometer sections. The strongest correlations were found in the same locations as the greatest changes. / Master of Science

<p>My doctoral work stems from an original motivation to understand more closely why some areas of sandy coastlines erode and others accrete<—>an intriguing fundamental question and one of societal relevance wherever human coastal infrastructure exists. What are the physical processes driving shoreline change, and over what spatial and temporal scales are they manifest? If forces driving the littoral system change, how does the shoreline respond? Can we attribute observed patterns of shoreline change to a particular process?</p><p>Recent novel numerical shoreline-evolution modeling demonstrated that wave-driven gradients in alongshore sediment transport could produce self-organized, emergent features on spatial scales from sand waves to large-scale capes [<italic>Ashton et al.</italic>, 2001], introducing a new theoretical perspective to the cross-shore-oriented considerations of the coastal scientific community. The unexpected model results inspired fresh hypotheses about shoreline pattern formation and the forcing mechanisms behind them.</p><p>One overarching hypothesis was that under regimes of high- and low-angle deep-water incident waves, alongshore shoreline perturbations grow or diffuse away, respectively. To test the hypothesis we looked for a correlation between shoreline curvature (showing perturbations to a nearly straight coastline) and shoreline change in observed measurements. High-resolution topographic lidar surveys of the North Carolina Outer Banks from 1996<–>2006 allowed robust, quantitative comparisons between shoreline surveys spanning tens of kms. In Chapter 1 [<italic>Lazarus and Murray</italic>, 2007] we report that over the last decade, at multi-km scales along the barrier islands, convex-seaward promontories tended to erode and concave-seaward embayments accrete<—>a pattern of diffusion consistent with the smoothing effects of alongshore-transport gradients driven by a low-angle wave climate. Why then, after a decade or more of smoothing, do plan-view bumps in the shoreline still persist? In Chapter 2 [<italic>Lazarus et al.</italic>, in review] we compile evidence suggesting that (a) a framework of paleochannels may control the areas of persistent multi-km-scale shoreline convexity that (b) in turn drive decadal-term transient changes in shoreline morphology by (c) affecting gradients in wave-driven alongshore sediment transport.</p><p>In Chapter 3, a third investigation of large-scale coastal behavior, we explore an existing premise that shoreline change on a sandy coast is a self-affine signal wherein patterns of changes are scale-invariant, perhaps suggesting that a single process operates across the scales. Applying wavelet analysis<—>a mathematical technique involving scaled filter transforms<—>we confirm that a power law fits the average variance of shoreline change at alongshore scales spanning approximately three orders of magnitude (5<–>5000 m). The power law itself does not necessarily indicate a single dominant driver; beach changes across those scales likely result from a variety of cross-shore and alongshore hydrodynamic processes. A paired modeling experiment supports the conclusion that the power relationship is not an obvious function of wave-driven alongshore sediment transport alone.</p><p>Our tests of theory against field observations are middle steps in pattern-to-process attribution; they fit into a larger body of coastal morphodynamic research that in time may enable shoreline-change prediction. Present hydrodynamic models are still too limited in spatial and temporal scope to accommodate the extended scales at which large morphological changes occur, but more integrated quantitative models linking bathymetry, wave fields, and geologic substrate are underway and will set the next course of questions for the discipline.</p> / Dissertation

Coastal erosion is, more than ever, a global problem. By adopting a high-efficient, cost effective and reliable numerical model, it would help predict and manage erosion, as well as alleviate many coastal problems. This thesis reports the results of a though out investigation on the popular one dimension long-term shoreline change model--- GENESIS, analyze its suitability, sensitivity and technical difficulties likely to encounter while using the model, with the aim to predict the effect of coastal structure on shoreline changes. Prior to perform a modeling task, this report provides constructive recommendation on the setting of the length of shoreline to be covered in the modeling, boundary conditions, grid space, transport parameters K1 and K2 and revision of wave angle, followed by verification using results of several physical scale models, in order to enhance the reliability of the modeling and the parameters employed. Finally, reasonable ranges of K values are proposed. For modeling shoreline changes induced by a detached breakwater with normal incident waves, an empirical equation is proposed to determine the K ratio(K2/K1), which offer a useful guide in achieving the results with in a tolerance limits of 12%~-7%. When consider oblique wave incident to single detached breakwater, K1=0.6 is used and the ratio of K2/K1 ≈ 0.25~0.5. For modeling the effect of a single groin, the present study suggests K1=0.6 and K2/K1 ≈ 1~2. On the basis of these principles for setting the K values, the results are then applied to model the shoreline changes due to the installation of detached breakwater and groin. From the results of this study, for normal wave incident to single detached breakwater, it shows that for a small ratio of the offshore distance to the length of the breakwater S/B or a larger wave height, the salient dimension will increase and wave period has almost no effect on the results produced; for small S/B ratio, the maximum downcoast retreat increase, and its quantity is almost not affected by the wave conditions imposed. For oblique wave incident to single detached breakwater, it shows that for a larger wave angle, a small S/B or a larger wave height, the salient dimension will increase and wave period has almost no effect on the results produced; for larger wave angle or small S/B ratio, the maximum downcoast retreat increase, and its quantity is almost not affected by the wave height and wave period. For modeling the effect of a single groin, it shows that for larger wave angle or length of groin, the maximum downcoast retreat increase, and its quantity is almost not affected by the wave height and wave period.

This dissertation combines three separate studies that measure coastal change using airborne laser data. The initial study develops a method for measuring subaerial and subaqueous volume change incrementally alongshore, and compares those measurements to shoreline change in order to quantify their relationship in Palm Beach County, Florida. A poor correlation (R2 = 0.39) was found between shoreline and volume change before the hurricane season in the northern section of Palm Beach County because of beach nourishment and inlet dynamics. However, a relatively high R2 value of 0.78 in the southern section of Palm Beach County was found due to little disturbance from tidal inlets and coastal engineering projects. The shoreline and volume change caused by the 2004 hurricane season was poorly correlated with R2 values of 0.02 and 0.42 for the north and south sections, respectively. The second study uses airborne laser data to investigate if there is a significant relationship between shoreline migration before and after Hurricane Ivan near Panama City, Florida. In addition, the relationship between shoreline change and subaerial volume was quantified and a new method for quantifying subaqueous sediment change was developed. No significant spatial relationship was found between shoreline migration before and after the hurricane. Utilization of a single coefficient to represent all relationships between shoreline and subaerial volume change was found to be problematic due to the spatial variability in the linear relationship. Differences in bathymetric data show only a small portion of sediment was transported beyond the active zone and most sediment remained within the active zone despite the occurrence of a hurricane. The third study uses airborne laser bathymetry to measure the offshore limit of change, and compares that location with calculated depth of closures and subaqueous geomorphology. There appears to be strong geologic control of the depth of closure in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. North of Hillsboro Inlet, hydrodynamics control the geomorphology which in turn indicates the location of the depth of closure.

Coastal erosion can be described as the landward or seaward propagation of coastlines. Coastal processes occur over various space and time scales, limiting in-situ approaches of monitoring change. As such it is imperative to take advantage of multisensory, multi-scale and multi-temporal modern spatial technologies for multi-dimensional coastline change monitoring. The research presented here intends to showcase the synergy amongst remote sensing techniques by showcasing the use of coastal indicators towards shoreline assessment over the Kommetjie and Milnerton areas along the Cape Town coastline. There has been little progress in coastal studies in the Western Cape that encompass the diverse and dynamic aspects of coastal environments and in particular, sediment movement. Cape Town, in particular; is socioeconomically diverse and spatially segregated, with heavy dependence on its 240km of coastline. It faces sea level rise intensified by real-estate development close to the high-water mark and on reclaimed land. Spectral indices and classification techniques are explored to accommodate the complex bio-optical properties of coastal zones. This allows for the segmentation of land and ocean components to extract shorelines from multispectral Landsat imagery for a long term (1991-2021) shoreline assessment. The DSAS tool used these extracted shorelines to quantify shoreline change and was able to determine an overall averaged erosional rate of 2.56m/yr. for Kommetjie and 2.35m/yr. for Milnerton. Beach elevation modelling was also included to evaluate short term (2016-2021) sediment volumetric changes by applying Differential Interferometry to Sentinel-1 SLC data and the Waterline method through a combination of Sentinel -1 GRD and tide gauge data. The accuracy, validation and correction of these elevation models was conducted at the pixel level by comparison to an in-field RTK GPS survey used to capture the current state of the beaches. The results depict a sediment deficit in Kommetjie whilst accretion is prevalent along the Milnerton coastline. Shoreline propagation and coastal erosion quantification leads to a better understanding of geomorphology, hydrodynamic and land use influences on coastlines. This further informs climate adaptation strategies, urban planning and can support further development of interactive coastal information systems.

The inner continental shelf off the western half of the barrier island Fire Island, NY, is characterized by a series of obliquely oriented shoreface-connected ridges. The long-term historic shoreline record shows persistent undulations in shoreline shape at an alongshore scale similar to the alongshore scale of the ridges. This suggests that the ridges affect the wave transformation, alongshore sediment transport and corresponding shoreline change. These processes are investigated by utilizing the SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) model, forced with realistic wave parameters, on a simplified, synthetic bathymetry replicating the scales of the shoreface-connected ridges. Results indicate that the relative magnitude of alongshore variations of modeled waves, alongshore transport, and the corresponding shoreline change are highly correlated with the relative orientation of the incoming waves to the ridges. Alongshore variations in both wave height and direction along the breaker line are much stronger when the predominant wave direction is along the main axis of the ridges rather than perpendicular to the ridge crests. This pattern of wave height variation is further explained by evaluating the directional energy spectrum and using a reverse ray-tracing technique. The gradients of the alongshore sediment transport, which lead to shoreline change, also appear to be stronger for waves with an angle of incidence similar to the ridge orientation. These results help explain the relationship between the oblique shoreface-connected ridges and the corresponding shoreline changes and shed light on the connection between the inner-shelf ridges and persistent shoreline undulations for the Western portion of Fire Island.