Watson, P.J., 2019. An assessment of the utility of satellite altimetry and tide gauge data (ALT-TG) as a proxy for estimating vertical land motion. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1131–1144. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Policy, planning, and adaptation responses to sea-level rise are being developed at increasingly localised scales, placing greater emphasis on sea-level studies to more accurately account for all vertical land motions (VLM) at tide gauge sites using technologies such as global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). Although the spatial coverage and length of GNSS data records continues to increase in proximity to tide gauges, large tracts of the world's coastlines contain limited or no GNSS data. Various studies have investigated proxy methods of estimating VLM by trends from differenced altimetry–tide gauge techniques (ALT-TG). This study has concentrated on investigating the utility of ALT-TG techniques using so-called ‘off the shelf’ gridded satellite altimetry products (U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory [NASA JPL] and Copernicus Climate Change Service [C3S]) for use in regional and local scale sea-level studies to estimate VLM. Twenty locations across the globe were analysed; these locations met specific data constraints designed to ensure the longest overlapping coverage of GNSS, altimetry, and tide gauge data, with the proximity of the GNSS record limited to within 1 km of the tide gauge. The utility of ALT-TG estimates was significantly improved by using gridded altimetry products no closer than 30 km from the open coast. When compared directly with measured GNSS solutions from NASA JPL, Systeme d'Observation du Niveau des Eaux Littorales (SONEL), and Nevada Geodetic Laboratory (NGL), both ALT-TG VLM estimates agree with the NGL GNSS solution for 19 of the 20 locations (95% confidence interval). This is significant given that the NGL estimates are derived over the longest timeframe available from all three key GNSS data repositories considered. If one considers the limitations of altimetry sea surface height measurements in the coastal zone, the results using gridded sea surface height anomaly products for ALT-TG derived estimates of VLM are extremely encouraging for sea-level research.

Peterson, C.D.; Kingen, K.E.P.; Erlandson, J.M.; Kaijankoski, P.; Meyer, J., and Ryan, C., 2019. Widespread evidence of terminated marine transgressive sand supply and failing longshore sand transport to eroding coastal eolian sand ramps during the latest Holocene time in Oregon and California (Pacific Coast, USA). Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1145–1163. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Holocene perched dunes and wave-truncated sand ramps were used to project paleoramp geometries and to estimate sand ramp erosion during the late Holocene in the U.S. Pacific Coast study area (1500 km in length). Both recently accreted sand ramp slopes (n = 24) and wave-truncated sand ramps (n = 59) in 11 sand ramp complexes (0.3–11.4 km in alongshore length) were profiled from areas of previously abundant dune sand supply. Modern sand ramp slopes (shore normal) ranged from 2 to 26°, with slope steepening resulting from upslope eolian deflation (10–20°) and downslope mass wasting by landslide (>20°). Paleoramp surface slopes at 10, 15, and 20° were projected seaward from truncated sand ramp tops (11–97 m in elevation) to intersect with projected basal ramp horizons (4-m elevation). Differences between the 10° slope paleoramps and the corresponding modern sea cliffs yield eroded ramp cross-sectional areas (78–16,770 m²). The eroded cross-sectional areas were multiplied by corresponding alongshore lengths to estimate truncated ramp complex erosion (1.29 × 10⁵–6.41 × 10⁷ m³, mean 12.62 × 10⁶ m³). Modern beach sand volumes in shorelines fronting the 11 truncated ramp complexes are estimated to range from 1.05 × 10⁵ to 1.47 × 10⁶ m³. The average modern beach sand volume of 4.25 × 10⁵ m³ represents only 3.4% of the average eroded ramp complex volume, as estimated from differencing the 10° projected slopes and the modern sea cliff profiles. Near-surface ¹⁴C ages of buried archaeological materials in the 11 truncated ramp complexes (932 ± 672 cal BP 1σ, n = 20) demonstrate terminal ramp accretion and associated ramp truncation by beach retreat during the latest Holocene time. The widespread sand ramp erosion, following 3.0 m of sea-level rise during the last 3.0 ka, serves as a warning for the U.S. Pacific Coast and other high–wave energy cliff-backed shorelines for potential beach response to near-future sea-level rise (1–3 m) predicted to occur from ongoing global warming.

Ruiz-Merchán, J.; Otero, L.; Conde, M.; Restrepo, J.C., and Ortiz, J.C., 2019. Field observations of wave and current characteristics on a microtidal reflective beach. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1164–1184. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

At Costa Verde beach, Colombia, an intermediate reflective beach, the contributions of gravity (G) and infragravity (IG) waves to the evolution of the free surface and the cross-shore and alongshore velocities during two climatic periods were determined by applying the continuous wavelet transformation to sensor data recorded in field campaigns. In the dry season, the highest values of IG energy were found in the vicinity of the coastline, due to reflection processes in the area near the foreshore. Additionally, the cross-wavelet and coherence spectra between the free surface and the cross-shore and alongshore velocities allowed the identification of cross-shore and alongshore standing “leaky” waves and standing “edge” waves. In the rainy (wet) season, cross-shore and alongshore progressive leaky waves predominated in the area farthest from the shoreline. Close to the shore, mostly cross-shore standing leaky waves predominated because of reflection dynamics. On Costa Verde beach, the wave breaking is usually of the plunging type, which is characteristic of an intermediate reflective beach. The dimensionless fall velocity parameter (Ω) indicated that Costa Verde assumes the form of an intermediate ridge-runnel beach in the rainy (wet) season (low swell energy) and an intermediate transverse bar and rip beach in the dry season (high swell energy). This means that the Costa Verde beach tends to have small rip currents and pronounced “cusps.” Despite the lack of conclusive evidence to suggest that the appearance of cusps and rip currents is due to the presence of standing edge waves during the dry season, the data show that during the period of high energy swell, IG waves exist simultaneously with the cusps as small rhythmic systems of rip currents.

Cheng, J. and Wang, P., 2019. Unusual beach changes induced by Hurricane Irma with a negative storm surge and poststorm recovery. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1185–1199. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The coast of west-central Florida, facing the Gulf of Mexico, experienced Hurricane Irma with a negative surge of 1.1 m and a highly oblique northerly approaching wave in September 2017. This unusual hydrodynamic condition provides an opportunity to investigate the effect of surge and incident wave direction on morphology changes. Beach profiles, spaced at 300 m apart, along a 15-km stretch of beach were surveyed 2 weeks prior to the passage of Hurricane Irma and 1 week after and continued for up to 5 months after the passage to obtain Irma-induced erosion as well as post-Irma recovery. Owing to the occurrence of negative surge, the profile volume of the dune field remained mostly stable. The majority of beach erosion occurred below mean sea level, with a considerable amount of sediment transported seaward of the depth of closure. This is opposite to the conservation of beach profile volume above depth of closure under several earlier storms with a positive surge. The alongshore variation of overall beach profile volume erosion demonstrates a southward decreasing trend, due to a southward decreasing wave height as controlled by the northerly incident wave. After the passage of Irma, minor beach volume recovery occurred during the calm period of the fall season. Opposite to the typical erosive beach in winter, the most substantial beach accretion and onshore bar movement were observed during the following peak winter season as beach/bar evolved toward equilibrium. The profile volume in the dry beach region experienced a complete recovery in the first 5 months after Hurricane Irma. Shoreline change is a valid proxy for beach volume change during both the erosive and the recovery phase of Irma. The systematically measured beach profiles provide a solid dataset to calibrate process-based models to study beach morphodynamics.

Sainz-López, N.; Boski, T., and Sampath, D.M.R., 2019. Fleur de sel composition and production: Analysis and numerical simulation in an artisanal saltern. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1200–1214. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

This study is a first approach to modelling of fleur de sel production, aimed at increasing its efficiency and contributing to the scarce literature on the topic. Quantitative forecasting of daily production of fleur de sel was applied to an artisanal solar pond unit in the environmentally protected area of Castro Marim, SE Portugal. The numerical model was based on simulations of the evaporation process, taking into account the effect of reduced vapour pressure of the brine solution. The controlling variables chosen as input parameters to the forecast model were brine temperature, brine concentration, harvesting efficiency, albedo, incoming solar radiation, precipitation, air relative humidity, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, day of the year, wind direction, and wind speed. Production predicted by the model was tested against actual production in two crystallisers in the years 2015 and 2017. The statistically evaluated match between the estimated and actual production was highly significant with a mean R² of 0.8 and overall error of estimation was 14.5%. The chemical composition of nine samples of fleur de sel was analysed, showing the temporal evolution of several components during the harvesting period. A decrease of NaCl content from 96% to 87% and an increase by one order of magnitude of Mg, S, K, Br, and As were observed. The range of Ca, Si, Al, and Sr contents was 0.12–0.65%, 0.1–0.85%, 0.08–0.3%, and 0.009–0.013%, respectively. Ba, Fe, Mn, Mo, Pb, and Sn contents had the following ranges: 0.051–0.145, 1.2–5.5, 0.44–1.66, 0.03–0.05, <0.05–0.55, and <0.05–0.1 mg/kg, respectively. The following elements were below the detection limit and below the limits of the Codex Alimentarius: Cd, Th, U, Cu, Cr, Co, Ni, V, Bi, Zn, Rb, and Hg.

Suzuki, T. and Cox, D.T., 2019. Statistical analysis of longshore currents on a barred beach. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1215–1224. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Longshore currents were observed using a horizontally mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler in the nearshore on a dissipative barred beach. The data were taken for 20 days from 13 May to 2 June 2016. Wave, current, water level, and wind data were continuously observed. From a statistical point of view, the exceedance probability/occurrence ratio of higher currents is important. Therefore, in this research, the hourly data were used to investigate the spatial and wave-energetic distributions of exceedance probability of the longshore currents. Moreover, the effect of tidal range on this exceedance probability is discussed. From the analysis, the exceedance probabilities of longshore currents were well predicted by the Weibull distribution, with parameters estimated using the normalized wave energy flux, relative surf-zone location, and normalized water depth. The exceedance probability of the longshore current was largely affected by water level (tidal elevation): during high tide it was the same or lower than that of the full data set. However, the exceedance probability was approximately two times larger during low tide than that using the full data set.

Oghenekaro, E.U. and Chigbu, P., 2019. Population dynamics and life history of marine Cladocera in the Maryland coastal bays, U.S.A. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1225–1236. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

There is a paucity of information on the biology of Cladocera in coastal lagoons of the NE United States. The influence of abiotic and biotic factors on the abundance, distribution, and reproductive aspects of Cladocera were studied in Maryland coastal lagoons, a shallow, largely polyhaline, lagoonal system, with samples collected at 13 sites from February to December 2012. Pseudevadne tergestina (0–498 individuals [ind.] m^–3), Evadne nordmanni (0–246 ind. m^–3) and Pleopis polyphemoides (0–138 ind. m^–3) were the most abundant species; Evadne spinifera and Podon intermedius were rare. Cladocera were first observed in June at a mean abundance of 37.9 ± 20.7 ind. m^–3, which by July increased to 57.9 ± 57.8 ind. m^–3. Total Cladocera densities ranged from 0 to 752 ind. m^–3, which were lower than densities previously reported in river-dominated estuaries of the United States. Pseudevadne tergestina occurred mainly near the northern inlet; P. polyphemoides and E. nordmanni had more widespread distribution. Brood sizes ranged from 1 to 17 (E. nordmanni) and 1 to 19 (P. tergestina). The decline in Cladocera abundance in late summer when bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli) abundance was high suggests a high predation effect by the fish species, although temperature and salinity were also identified as important factors that influenced Cladocera abundance and distribution in the bays.

Xu, Y.; Cheng, L.; Zheng, J.; Zhu, Y.; Wu, Y.; Shi, J., and Zhang, W., 2019. Intensive anthropogenic influence on the morphological evolution of estuarine tidal channels. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1237–1249. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Long-term and large-scale morphological consequences of human activities are important to consider during human settlement construction around estuarine environments. Thus the rapid human-induced changes in the geomorphology of estuarine areas commands a growing socio-economic and scientific interest. Lingding Bay, a part of the Pearl River estuary, is one of the areas that draws much attention in this respect. By using admiralty charts and topographic maps since the 1960s, decadal timescale morphological changes are investigated to understand the effects of human activities on estuarine tidal channels. The results show that the estuarine channels have undergone overall net erosion over this 50 year period, with a sequence of alternating erosion and deposition phases. On basis of the variations of aspect ratios and thalweg movements, five types of stable channels are identified. The upstream part of the east channel is the most unstable region defined as type 5, where the significant topographical change is principally associated with the unplanned sand mining activities. The whole west tidal channel is approaching relative stability because it was deepened as the main navigational channel, with the thalwegs being straighter. Based on empirical orthogonal function analysis, the anthropogenic effects, including the dredging, sand excavation, and land reclamation, are found to be of relatively major importance in the morphological evolution process of the estuarine channels.

Girjatowicz, J.P., 2019. Characterization of grounded ice hummocks found in coastal lagoons of the southern Baltic Sea. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1250–1259. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

This paper presents the topography, structure, and morphology of grounded ice hummocks found in Szczecin Lagoon and Vistula Lagoon on the basis of ice drilling data collected in the field between 1995 and 2017. Twenty-two ice-hummock cross-sections are presented, and seven morphometric parameters are discussed. Mean values for these parameters are: height, 3 m; width, 15 m; slope lengths, 11 m for the windward and 6 m for the leeward slopes, with 20° and 30° angles, respectively. The windward slope of the hummock is concave, and becomes steeper closer to the summit, which often bears a vertical sheet of ice. The leeward slope is usually characterized by a uniform inclination dependent on the angle of natural slip for brash ice. Statistical relationships between ice-hummock parameters are mostly statistically significant, with high correlation coefficients, usually exceeding 0.50.

Windham, R.; Nunnally, A.P., and Quigg, A., 2019. Investigating Rangia cuneata clams as ecological response bioindicators to three decades of variable freshwater inflows. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1260–1270. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Freshwater inflow management (quality and quantity) is critical for both environmental and human demands. Inflows needed to maintain ecosystem functionality can be assessed by observing how organisms sensitive to environmental change (bioindicators) respond to varying flow conditions. In Galveston Bay (Texas, U.S.A.), Rangia cuneata clams were proposed as bioindicators of ecological response to freshwater inflows. Rangia cuneata abundance has decreased and their distribution has retracted proximal to freshwater sources from 1983 to 2010. From 2010 to 2014, the highest mean shell lengths (Trinity River delta, 48.0 ± 0.4 mm) and meat indexes (Clear Lake, 13.3% ± 0.3%) of R. cuneata were observed in areas most influenced by freshwater inputs. In the Trinity River delta, clam biomass and density averaged 3.4 (± 0.3) kg m^–3 and 25.6 (± 3.5) clams m^–2, respectively. A general decreasing trend was observed in biomass and density between like seasons after the drought of 2011, which persisted throughout most of 2014. Sex ratios (62.8% ± 2.4% male) and juvenile abundance (highest in winters and summers after spawning) were consistent with life-history observations. Life-cycle observations were not available before 2010 and are important to consider in future studies. Without them, long-term decadal declines in R. cuneata clams are difficult to explain when limited to terms of natural and anthropogenic stressors. Rangia cuneata's utility as bioindicators of the ecological functionality of an estuary affected by changing freshwater inflows requires further investigation for resource management.

Jeng, D.-S.; Chen, L.; Liao, C., and Tong, D., 2019. A numerical approach to determine wave (current)-induced residual responses in a layered seabed. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1271–1284. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Wave-induced pore pressure in marine sediments has attracted great attention from geotechnical and coastal engineers over previous decades; however, the evaluation of wave (current)-induced residual soil liquefaction in a porous seabed with multiple sublayers has not been attempted theoretically. Because of the rapid accumulation of sediment and the complex hydrodynamic environment, the deposits in the Yellow River Delta always have large-scale and long-term instability. This study proposes a simple but workable elastoplastic approach for obtaining solutions for the residual pore pressure and liquefaction potential in a noncohesive-layered seabed subjected to water waves and current in the Yellow River Delta. Based on a numerical model that was validated with previous laboratory experiments, the influences of soil characteristics on pore pressure are examined. Special attention is given to the effect of replacing an existing layer with a coarser material as a top layer for protecting the underlying sediment from liquefaction. Numerical results show that the development and distribution of the residual pore pressure and liquefaction are obviously affected by the multilayer distribution of the seabed that is ubiquitous in the actual seabed. Moreover, the influence of the ocean current on the residual pore pressure and liquefaction depth, which is mainly concentrated on the upper sublayer of the multilayered seabed, is also significant. Furthermore, coarse materials with sufficient thickness can be used as the replacement layer to restrain the residual liquefaction efficiently and to improve stability of underlying fine layers.

Li, X.; Ning, D.; Xiao, Q., and Mayon, R., 2019. Disintegration of nonlinear long waves over even and uneven bathymetry. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1285–1293. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Nonlinear long waves may disintegrate into several small waves after traveling some distance, which can be observed both in tsunami and tidal waves. This disintegration can lead to a significant amplification of the wave height, causing serious disasters in coastal regions. In the present study, the disintegration of nonlinear long waves over even and uneven bathymetry is investigated numerically. For this purpose, a two-dimensional fully nonlinear numerical wave flume is developed based on a time-domain higher-order boundary element method. Fully nonlinear kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions are satisfied on the instantaneous free surface. With this developed model, it is found that the sinusoidal wave generated by the wavemaker can induce higher-order harmonic waves during propagation that are spatially modulated. The recurrence distance of higher-order components increases linearly with wavelength, as well as the higher-order amplitudes, which lead to the amplification of free-surface elevation. The investigation of long waves propagating on a step through a slope indicates that the topography contributes to the disintegration process.

Chen, Y.-H.; Chu, T., and Wang, K.-H., 2019. Analytical and experimental investigation of waves propagating through thin, porous walls for coastal protection applications. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1294–1306. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

This paper presents a combined analytical and experimental investigation of the interaction between either a linear monochromatic or a nonlinear solitary wave and a thin, porous wall as a breakwater for coastal protection. This study will determine with validation a unique porous-wall property defined as a material constant in Darcy's law based on theoretical formulation of the porous flow condition using the laboratory data and will evaluate the effectiveness of the porous walls on the transmitted waves through the analytical solutions derived for both the monochromatic and solitary wave conditions. A series of wave tank experiments were performed to record wave elevations in front of and behind the porous walls. Monochromatic waves with various incident wave conditions were first generated to test eight thin, porous walls with varying pore sizes and porosities. The porous-wall properties determined and validated with monochromatic wave data are found to be dependent on the porosity and pore size. The transmitted wave height is reduced as the porosities of the walls decrease. When comparing two porous walls with the same porosity, less incident wave energy gets transmitted through the wall with a smaller pore diameter. Additionally, those porous walls were applied in laboratory tests with inputs of incident solitary waves of varying wave heights. The derived analytical solutions with the determined porous-wall material constants for the cases of solitary waves are verified with the results, similar to the monochromatic wave cases, showing good matches between the predicted and measured wave profiles. Overall, this study provides an important analytical approach with confirmed experimental verifications to be used for coastal engineering application analyzing waves interacting with a thin, porous wall.

Liritzis, I.; Westra, A., and Miao, C., 2019. Disaster geoarchaeology and natural cataclysms in world cultural evolution: An overview. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1307–1330. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Human records of short-term, catastrophic, geological processes, mainly in coastal or fluvial environments, and related phenomena in historic and prehistoric times have to be considered as functions of event intensities and impacts (and damages) caused on ancient human settlements and lives. Catastrophic events, such as, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and the collapse of ancient cultures, in particular, those allied to the birth of myths and legends, are the subject of long-lasting, vivid debate. Longer-term, more-or-less consecutive, geological processes and climatic fluctuations have a more pronounced effect on human history. Historical accounts provide many descriptions about cultural evolution in a recurrent manner. The geoarchives (geology, sedimentology, and geomorphology) and the human record (archaeology and history) are considered documentary evidence of these past events. Astronomical causes have introduced severe phenomena (warming, heavy precipitation, monsoons, droughts) imposed on ancient societies, including catastrophic meteor impact. Terrestrial upheavals and astronomical impacts have introduced a nonlinear character of a quasiperiodic nature in transforming human cultural evolution and reshaping the earth's surface. The transient nature of geological, geophysical, and proxy climatic indices, as well as, astronomical phenomena within the solar system, exhibit a wide spectrum of quasiperiodic frequencies as variable and effective environmental factors, which, in addition to anthropogenic factors, reshape the human context. Several conspicuous examples have been reported on mythological deluges and their relation to natural catastrophes. The Anthropocene sea level rise and climatic episodes have had a decisive and prominent role on coastlines and human settlements. Alluvial sediments, sedimentary deposits, and land modifications have drastic effects on settlements. These effects were memorized as floods, deluges, and fallen sky. World examples of disasters derived from the coastal Mediterranean, the Great Flood of Gun-Yu in China, and those from South America, Mesopotamia, and the Middle East and others, were critically assessed with scientific methods.

Pringle, J. and Stretch, D.D., 2019. A new approach for the stochastic simulation of regional wave climates conditioned on synoptic scale meteorology. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1331–1342. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Statistical modelling of wave climates is an important tool in coastal and ocean engineering design and vulnerability assessments. Modern techniques of multivariate modelling that exploit copulas are now being developed and used for risk assessment applications in diverse fields ranging from finance to hydrology and coastal engineering. Many such statistical models do not directly exploit the physical links between events of interest, such as floods or extreme storm waves, and their fundamental drivers. On the other hand, process-based models that attempt to include those links are subject to modelling errors because of limited understanding of the processes or limitations, or both, in the available computational resources to adequately resolve those processes. This study introduces a new mixed approach to the stochastic simulation of wave climates that is conditioned on synoptic-scale meteorological circulation patterns (CPs) as the key drivers of waves. Copulas are used for the multivariate dependence structure in the model, and the CP occurrences are treated as a Markov chain. Simulated wave time series are shown to reproduce observed wave statistics from a case study site, including extremum statistics. The new techniques presented here should improve statistical modelling while retaining their simplicity and parsimony relative to full process-based models.

Ma, W.; Wang, Y.; Wang, S.; Zhang, H.; Zhang, H., and Gong, Q., 2019. Absolute current estimation and sea-trial application of glider-mounted AD2CP. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1343–1350. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

With their respective advantages, the combination of autonomous underwater glider and acoustic Doppler current profile (ADCP) can sufficiently enhance the capability of ocean observation, especially for currents. In this paper, the glider-mounted acoustic Doppler dual current profile (AD2CP) is used for measuring water velocities in the South China Sea. The AD2CP can measure the water velocities relative to the glider. The inverse method is drawn from the processing of lowered ADCP to estimate absolute-velocity profiles. Quality control procedures are performed to screen high-quality measurement data before estimating water velocities. Combined with the nearest cell collected data from AD2CP, the glider flight parameters are calibrated. To constrain the solution, the inverse method is expanded by adding the complementary information (depth-averaged current, surface current, and modeled velocity). The average horizontal water velocities (at a profile time interval) and glider velocities are estimated by this means. The errors of glider velocities estimated from inverse solution are O (0.04 m/s), and the statistical analysis shows that errors in the eastward and northward average water velocities are less than 0.06 m/s. Glider-mounted AD2CP is applied in the observation of internal solitary waves around Dongsha Atoll and provides detailed information of horizontal current induced by the passage of internal solitary wave.

Pan, Y.; Yin, S.; Chen, Y.; Yang, Y.; Xu, Z., and Xu, C., 2019. A practical method to scale the sedimentary parameters in a lightweight coastal mobile bed model. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1351–1357. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The coastal mobile bed model (CMBM) is an important approach to understand coastal sedimentary processes. The scaling of sedimentary parameters in a reduced-scale CMBM is one of the key procedures ensuring the reliability of the model, and the scaling relationships should be derived according to the similarity of dominant sedimentary process, with some less important similarity relationships relaxed. For a CMBM of which the processes of mobilization and fall of sediment are in transitional conditions, the scaling of sedimentary parameters is especially difficult because no mechanism dominates and the relationships between parameters are complicated. This paper proposes a local curve-fitting (LCF) method to avoid complicated relationships in deriving scaling relationships by fitting the complicated expressions with a simple relationship in the study range so that the scaling relationships can satisfy corresponding similarity criterion. The LCF method is introduced via the scaling of a reduced-scale profile model of the evolution of a submerged berm under the effects of small waves. The scaling relationships are derived according to the similarities of sediment mobilization, similarities of the fall of sediment, and Froude criterion. A mobile bed model was created based on the calculated of the LCF method, and the model results show the same evolution trend with field data, which proves the reasonability and validity of the LCF method. The LCF method provides a practical method to facilitate the deriving of scaling relationships of a CMBM of which the processes of mobilization and fall of sediment are in transitional conditions. It also provides a reference for other reduced-scale laboratory tests with complicated relationships between parameters but with limited study ranges.

Coburn, A.S. and Whitehead, J.C., 2019. An analysis of federal expenditures related to the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) of 1982. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(6), 1358–1361. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) of 1982 established the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS), a congressionally defined set of coastal barrier units located along the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico coasts. Coastal areas in the CBRS total approximately 3.5 million acres (14,164 km²) of islands, beaches, wetlands, and associated aquatic habitat and are delineated on a set of maps enacted into law by Congress and maintained by the Department of the Interior through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Congress enacted the CBRA to minimize the loss of human life and damage to natural resources along the coasts, and to prohibit unwise federal expenditures that encourage and subsidize unwise coastal development. The CBRA approach to conservation does not prevent development and imposes no restrictions on development conducted with nonfederal funds. CBRS units may be developed, but federal taxpayers largely do not underwrite the investments. Although the CBRA has been in existence for over 35 years, the last known federal effort to quantify the benefits of the CBRA was undertaken by the USFWS in 2002, when it estimated that the CBRA would save American taxpayers approximately $1.3 billion by 2010 by restricting federal spending for roads, wastewater systems, potable water supply, and disaster relief. In this study, recent federal agency expenditure and development data were used to enumerate the historical fiscal benefits of the CBRA to U.S. taxpayers, as well as estimate potential future savings. Results indicate that the CBRA has reduced federal coastal disaster expenditures by $9.5 billion (in 2016 dollars) between 1989 and 2013. Future CBRA savings are forecast to range between $11 billion and $108 billion by 2068 (in 2016 dollars).